Eat More curry for a brain boost?
Eat More curry for a brain boost, yum and yes please!
Looking to spice up your cooking with a serious brain booster? While many spices and herbs that flavor foods offer brain health benefits, few hold the promise of the active ingredient most curries – turmeric, the source of a special polyphenol called curcumin.
Used for thousands of years in traditional South Asian cooking and traditional medicine, turmeric is a basic ingredient in curries. Also known as Indian Saffron, the spice gives these dishes their amber coloring and rich, earthy aroma…and provides you with a brain-boosting dose of curcumin.
Not only is it healthy for the brain but these delicious seasonings are exquisite on the taste buds. Not many dishes can compare to a tandoori butter chicken, tikka massala, or the warm fluffy naan bread for dipping it in!
While used in India and China for centuries in various traditional remedies, it’s been garnering attention in the scientific and medical communities for its impact on mental health, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. In fact, over 4000 scientific publications have focused on curcumin in the last decade. One study of 1,010 participants found that even small amounts of dietary turmeric are clearly linked to lower rates of dementia.