Turmeric for Going Healthy And Disease Free

Oxidative Stress – an overview

Every living moment, your body undergoes a variety of chemical reactions which cause oxidation in your body and produce these potentially harmful chemicals known as free radicals. An excessive presence of free radicals in your body can damage your cellular structure. That, combined with a poor diet and lifestyle, and various environmental toxins can together speed up the ageing process, bring down your immunity level and thus, your ability to fight disease and some common, everyday infections.

The Big Role of Antioxidants

Antioxidants, as the name suggests, are the biological compounds that inhibit the process of oxidation in your body. They help reduce the oxidative stress, also known as oxidant overload, going on inside your body. Chronic oxidative stress can also lead to serious health conditions such as type II diabetes, hypertension, CKD, and even cancer.

Quest for the Best Source

While your body produces antioxidants on its own, these often remain insufficient compared to the amount of free radicals. Hence comes the need to obtain antioxidants from natural sources. It is found in variety of foods, the consumption of which can increase your blood antioxidant levels and allow you to lead a healthier and a disease free life. But how do you find out which sources contain adequate amount of these anti-oxidants?

Measuring Antioxidants levels with ORAC

Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) is popular means of measuring the amount of antioxidants present in a substance. The ORAC virtually helps us find out which food items contain more antioxidants, owing to the fact that antioxidants are extremely important for our overall health. Anything that is high on antioxidants is going to have a higher ORAC value. There are various foods which contain powerful amounts of natural antioxidants, especially those rich in vitamin C. Besides, a variety of other foods such as berries, beans, beetroot, broccoli, plums, pomegranate, spinach, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, cocoa or dark chocolate, etc. Consuming a variety of these foods could not only prevent you from being exposed to chronic health conditions, but also provide benefits of their own.

Natural Herbs = Powerful Antioxidants

Needless to say, fruits and vegetables, some of which that have been mentioned earlier, are excellent sources of dietary antioxidants. Apart from these, however, there are also a number of herbs that are loaded with incredible amounts of antioxidants. The likes of cinnamon, cloves, peppermint, sage, cumin, basil, ginger, rosemary, oregano etc are known for their especially powerful antioxidant activity. All of these rank quite high on the ORAC scale, and also exhibit a variety of other health benefits unique to them.

Turmeric – the Ultimate Antioxidant

However, one of herb that stands apart and sits on top of the antioxidant rich foods is turmeric. Also known as curcuma longa or more fondly, the golden spice, ground turmeric is a superfood of sorts which contains an ORAC value of a whopping 1, 27, 068 micromoles per litre. This rather common culinary herb found on almost all kitchen shelves is, perhaps, one of the most beneficial and versatile natural substances known to mankind since ages altogether. Various traditional means of medication, including and especially Ayurveda, swear by the exhaustive range of health benefits turmeric has to offer. It goes a long way in helping us fight so many of those common as well as chronic health conditions.

The role of Curcumin

However, what makes turmeric all that popular is the presence of this bioactive compound called Curcumin. Apart from being a potent antioxidant itself, curcumin also makes turmeric an effective anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal and anti-bacterial agent. Other healing properties that make turmeric all the more sought after include

And Finally..

Whether you are battling one of those chronic health conditions or are in a rather good state of being, including this particular antioxidant rich herb to your everyday diet can do wonders for your health, both in short as well as in the long run. You can use a dash of ground turmeric spice in everyday dishes, or add it to a glass of warm milk and have it before you hit the bed each night. It will not only give you a gift of good health but also prevent and delay the damaging influence of free radicals on your body, and make it better equipped at fighting any potential health problems.

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