The curry series of delicacies has a unique taste and attractive color! The yellow color of curry comes from turmeric. It is deeply loved by healthy people.
Is turmeric ginger?
Turmeric is different from ginger. Although both are ginger plants, they are not in the same genus. The difference is that ginger belongs to the genus Zingiberaceae, while turmeric belongs to the genus Curcuma of the Zingiberaceae.
- Different appearance
The outer skin of ginger is light yellow, and the cross section is also light yellow after cutting; while turmeric is generally dark yellow, with a rough surface, wrinkled texture and obvious links, and circular branch marks and root marks. After cutting, the cross section is yellow or golden yellow, with a waxy luster, and obvious inner cortex rings.
- There are differences in flavor
Ginger has a distinct spicy taste, and the spicy component is mainly gingerol; turmeric has a bitter taste, and the slightly bitter component is related to curcumin.
In fact, the reason why turmeric is so popular among health-conscious people is because of the presence of "curcumin", a fat-soluble polyphenol compound that can reach 3% to 6% in turmeric. It is a very rare pigment with a diketone structure in the plant kingdom, which gives turmeric a rich orange-yellow color.
1. Prevent and treat type 2 diabetes and complications
A study supplemented 100 patients with type 2 diabetes with curcumin and found that it could significantly reduce fasting blood sugar, glycosylated hemoglobin and insulin resistance index in patients with type 2 diabetes. Other studies have found that oral curcumin can effectively improve cardiovascular disease, diabetic nephropathy and peripheral neuropathy in patients with type 2 diabetes.
2. Improve rheumatoid arthritis
Curcumin can promote the expression of anti-inflammatory cytokines and play an anti-inflammatory role. A meta-analysis included 29 randomized controlled trials involving 2,396 subjects from 11 countries including Iran, India, Australia, and Belgium, and 5 types of arthritis (ankylosing spondylitis (AS), rheumatoid arthritis (RA), osteoarthritis (OA), juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA), and gout/hyperuricemia). Curcumin was given at least 120 mg and up to 1,500 mg per day for 4 to 36 weeks. The results showed that curcumin improved the severity of inflammation and pain levels in these arthritis patients and was relatively safe.
3. Relieve other inflammations
Studies have found that curcumin can significantly relieve clinical symptoms in patients with osteoarthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and ulcerative colitis.
4. Improve blood lipids
Intervention studies have found that curcumin can reduce serum triglyceride concentrations and significantly increase high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (good cholesterol) levels, which is beneficial to blood lipid health.
5. Improve non-alcoholic fatty liver disease
Studies have found that curcumin improves the severity of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, improves the regression of liver steatosis, reduces serum liver enzymes, and also reduces total cholesterol and BMI. Researchers believe that it may be reasonable to promote curcumin as an adjuvant treatment for patients with NAFLD.
6. Improve memory
A small sample study published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry analyzed the effects of curcumin on memory, brain amyloid protein and Tau protein in non-demented adults. A total of 40 subjects aged 51 to 84 were involved. They were randomly assigned to the test group and the placebo group. The test group used 180 mg of curcumin per day for intervention for a total of 18 months.
The results showed that people who took curcumin had significantly improved memory and attention. Brain PET scans showed that the accumulation of amyloid and tau proteins in the amygdala and hypothalamus (the main areas that control memory and emotional functions) of the test group was significantly less than that of the control group.