Turmeric Tea or Smoothie for Health
Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food…
Stephanie Kelley
- Digestive Aid
- Blood Purifier
- Anti-inflammatory
- Wound Healer
- Skin Tonic
- Analgesic
- Anti-viral
- Anti-bacterial
- Ant-Fungal
- Antiseptic
- Anti-carcinogenic
- Fat Metabolizer
- Cholesterol Reducer
- Gas Reducer
- Expectorant
Powdered turmeric has been used for centuries to treat a host of illnesses. It inhibits inflammatory reactions, has anti-diabetic effects, reduces cholesterol among other powerful health effects. A recent study led by a research team in Munich showed that it can also inhibit formation of metastases.
Powdered turmeric has been used for centuries to treat a host of illnesses. It inhibits inflammatory reactions, has anti-diabetic effects, reduces cholesterol among other powerful health effects. A recent study led by a research team in Munich showed that it can also inhibit formation of metastases.
Curcumin, the natural pigment that gives the spice turmeric its yellow color, has increasingly come under the scientific spotlight in recent years, with studies investigating its potential health benefits. Turmeric is a member of the ginger family, and like ginger, is a root. In fact, turmeric and ginger roots look very much alike from the outside, until you cut into turmeric to reveal the beautiful deep orange interior.
You can add turmeric to your diet by simply eating more delicious ethnic cuisines that include the spice, such as curries. If you really want to give your metabolism a full burst of turmeric’s healing properties you might want to try turmeric tea or a cold smoothie to start your day.
Turmeric does have a slightly bitter taste. By blending it with sweet fruit, or honey you won’t even notice it in your tea or smoothie. It is also worth looking for organic turmeric.
Turmeric Smoothie Recipe
- 1 cup hemp or coconut milk
- 1/2 cup frozen pineapple or mango chunks
- 1 fresh banana
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric (can be increased to 1 tsp)
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ginger
- 1 teaspoon chia seeds
This recipe is best consumed in the morning on an empty stomach. Not only will it increase your energy for the first half of the day, but it will clear your mind and infuse your body with some of the most powerful antioxidants in the world.
Turmeric tea can be simple to make, or you can jazz it up with perhaps a little almond or coconut milk.
Basic Turmeric Tea
- 1 tsp ground turmeric or 1/4 cup grated fresh turmeric
- 2 tbsp fresh grated ginger
- 4 cups water
- Lemon
- Honey or natural sweetener to taste
Add the turmeric and ginger to the water, bring to a boil then simmer for 15-20 minutes. Strain into a cup and add sweetener and lemon. Turmeric is fat soluble, so adding the coconut milk will help your body to assimilate it.
If all that boiling and straining sounds like work, you can take the easy route, like me, and simply prepare a paste of and turmeric and raw honey (Must be raw! You can get local raw honey from local apiaries at our local grocers. Commercial honey has been pasteurized, killed, and adulterated with additives. Buying local raw honey is a win/win situation…it supports both your health and local bee keepers!)
Really Easy Turmeric Tea
- 1/3 cup / 80 ml good, raw honey
- 2 1/2 teaspoons dried turmeric,
- Lemon .
- Lots of freshly ground black pepper
Work the turmeric into the honey until it forms a paste. You can keep this on hand, in a jar, for whenever you’d like a cup. For each cup of tea, place a heaping teaspoon of the turmeric paste in the bottom of a mug. Pour hot (but not boiling water) into the mug, and stir well to dissolve the turmeric paste. Using hot rather than boiling water will help to preserve the healing qualities of the raw honey. Add a big squeeze of juice from a lemon, and a good amount of black pepper. Enjoy!
Stir now and then as you drink so all the good stuff doesn’t settle to the bottom, or top off with more hot water as you drink it.
A note on coconut milk. Several different brands are now readily available in our local markets, and there’s both cheap coconut milk and more expensive brands on the shelves. A quick read of the label will educate you as to why one brand is less than half the price of the more expensive stuff:: It is loaded with chemicals, emulsifiers, thickening agents and sulfites.
I personally feel that our bodies are assaulted enough with the additives, hormones, GMOs, pesticides, herbicides and other horrors that the industrial food machine gleefully pumps into our food supplies in the name of making profit and making us sick (to make yet more profit for the pharmaceutical companies) so I always opt to buy the better, cleaner, and less adulterated product. You can taste the difference, too!
Drinking a little turmeric tea every day can help relive the aches and pains of arthritis and old injuries, for instance, and so help reduce any need to take anti-inflammatory drugs.
