Turmeric is an ancient superfood that’s been used for thousands of years as both a herb and cooking ingredient. The bright yellow turmeric root extract has an active ingredient called curcumin, which can help promote healthy digestion.
Here at Holland & Barrett we supply turmeric tablets, turmeric with black pepper, turmeric oral spray and even turmeric with CBD!
Check out our article on the top uses for turmeric - some may surprise you. We also have another article that looks into the benefits of turmeric. And another that looks at using turmeric in facemasks.
What is turmeric?
Easily distinguished by its vibrant yellow colour, turmeric comes from the Zingiberaceae family – just like ginger – and its benefits lie in its roots. You will usually find it in curries and drinks like ‘golden milk’ and turmeric lattes, but you can also take it in various supplement forms if you don’t like the taste, or struggle to incorporate enough into your diet.
Is Turmeric Good for You?
Turmeric is rich in vitamins such as vitamins A,B and K, it is also high in iron and zinc.
You can find out more here about the benefits of turmeric.
How to take Turmeric
At Holland & Barrett we stock a wide range of turmeric products from our turmeric powder to our turmeric capsules. Many of our turmeric products are suitable for vegetarians and vegans and are of the highest quality.
Turmeric in the forms of capsules, tablets and supplements are usually the most effective way to add a nutritious boost of turmeric into your diet. Some turmeric tablets contain black pepper, which helps your body absorb and utilise turmeric.
Not a fan of tablets? Don’t worry, you can get your daily dose of turmeric with a simple spray instead! Turmeric spray ensures superior absorption compared to capsules and tablets – designed to bypass the digestive system and enter your bloodstream directly for rapid absorption.
Famously giving curries their yellow colour, turmeric is a spice that has long been used in Asian cookery.
Part of the Zingiberaceae family, which also includes ginger, turmeric is extracted from the root of the turmeric plant.
Also known as Curcuma longa, the flowering turmeric plant is native to the Indian subcontinent.
Curcumin is the main active ingredient in turmeric and the source of the spice’s vibrant colour.
Somewhere between 2% and 6% of turmeric is made up of curcuminoids, active plant compounds, some of which are curcumin.
Curcumin is prized for its antioxidant properties, helping to protect the body from the damage that can be caused by free radicals.
Turmeric has been used in Ayurvedic medicine for many hundreds of years. Ayurvedic practitioners often refer to turmeric as haldi, the Hindi word for turmeric.
It is now increasingly the subject of scientific studies.
In some of those studies supplementing with turmeric has appeared to support joint and bone health and it is also known to aid digestion.
Because curcumin is the active compound that gives turmeric many of its potential benefits, it is often thought that a specific curcumin supplement is superior to turmeric. However, this is not necessarily the case.
However, since turmeric contains a variety of additional compounds, each with their own benefits, a turmeric supplement offers a wider variety of uses and can often be more effective in certain uses.
While adding turmeric to your curry is the obvious answer, turmeric powder is an increasingly popular addition to smoothies and lattes.
This powder can be added to your diet in a number of other ways too, from mixing it into scrambled eggs to popping it into homemade energy balls.
If you are not a fan of the flavour of turmeric or would rather a daily measured dose, turmeric tablets may be your preferred choice.
Curcumin is not easily absorbed by the body, meaning that in order to maximise its benefits we need to improve its bioavailability.
Scientists have discovered that piperin, a natural substance found in black pepper, can improve the body’s absorption of curcumin by up to 2000%.
This means that combining black pepper with your turmeric curcumin supplement helps you to get the very most from it.
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