Fuel Your Body

Spices

By Joanna Gertler | February 16, 2010

Photo by Sunil Photos via Flickr (cc)

In Ayurvedic teachings, spices play a huge role in maintaining one’s balance and learning how to utilise them in order to correct imbalances. It’s claimed that Chinese wisdom and practices evolved from Ayurvedic principles, so there’s a long history to draw on when deciding to incorporate some of these learnings in our everyday health and cooking.

In fact, in a recently published book, Healing Spices: How to Use 50 Everyday and Exotic Spices to Boost Health and Beat Disease, author Dr. Bharat Aggarwal explains how the western, medical world is now sitting up and noticing the medicinal benefits of a variety of spices.

Many (if not all) of these can be found in traditional, Indian recipes, yet it’s not uncommon for their use in North American recipes and the ability to purchase them in local grocery stores.

In a previous article on ginger, its properties were detailed with regard to assisting treating inflammation – it’s also used to treat nausea and other stomach aches. Many of the spices Dr. Aggarwal uses on a daily basis are the same ones used in ayurvedic teachings and will work towards reducing inflammation in the body.

These include turmeric, cumin, coriander - yet it’s now becoming evident that these spices can do more than just “balance” one’s health. Turmeric may be used to prevent some cancers, cumin may aid stopping bone loss from osteoporosis and coriander may help with a variety of digestive ailments.

Researchers in other countries are also incorporating the study of spices into their work: in Japan, mint extract can prevent the release of histamine – which causes allergic symptoms, while in Denmark, oil of clove has been identified as a more effective blood thinner than aspirin.

Not only can these spices be incorporated into one’s diet for health purposes, but they can add a much needed lift in winter to make our food more appealing.

Try a few simple recipes, such as the following – you may find yourself using these spices more regularly once you realize what they do for your tastebuds!