Why Golden Milk Is Better Than Coffee

Golden milk gets its rich, yellow-orange hue and pleasant flavor from turmeric. Blended with additional spices, golden milk provides a pleasant beverage not only guaranteed to tantalize your taste buds, but provide amazing health benefits as well.

Turmeric belongs to the ginger family and is cultivated widely in India and other parts of Southeast Asia and other tropical lands. More recently, turmeric is being cultivated in Hawaii. This perennial plant grows to a height of 5 or 6 feet and produces a dull-yellow, trumpet-shaped flower. The roots of turmeric produce a long rhizome, which is dried and ground to a powder.[1]

Turmeric is a primary ingredient in curry, from which this preparation gets its bright yellow color and delicious flavor. Turmeric is also widely used as a natural food dye in processed foods such as mustard, soups, butter and cheese.

The powerful antioxidant, curcumin, is the compound in turmeric that gives it and golden milk their healing properties. In fact, because of the presence of curcumin in turmeric, we could rightly call turmeric the most healing of all spices.

Dr. James A. Duke, PhD, spent his 30-year career as a top botanist with the US Department of Agriculture. His roles included: Chief of the Medicinal Plant Resources Laboratory and Director of the Cancer Screening Program. Take a gander at the list of therapeutic uses he catalogues for turmeric:[2]

• Alzheimer’s disease
• Arthritis
• Asthma
• Athlete’s foot
• Boils
• Bunions
• Bursitis
• Cancer (breast & colon)
• Cataracts
• Colic
• Dermatitis
• Diarrhea
• Eczema
• Fibrosis
• Gallbladder problems
• Hardening of the arteries
• Heart disease
• Hepatitis
• High cholesterol
• High triglycerides
• Indigestion
• Infections
• Inflammation
• Intestinal pain
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Jaundice
• Lack of appetite
• Lack of menstruation
• Lymph gland problems
• Menstrual pain
• Pain
• Psoriasis
• Scabies
• Ulcers
• Wounds
• Yeast infections

In addition to the above, turmeric also appears to aid the body in using insulin more efficiently, a key issue in type 2 diabetes.[3]^, [4] Turmeric is also touted as a powerful antimicrobial that inhibits the growth of bacteria, viruses and fungi.[5] As such, golden milk provides a great immune-system booster during the cold and flu season.

Turmeric has also been found to help reduce symptoms of depression.[6] Dr. Duke gives turmeric a safety rating of 3, meaning that he deems turmeric “safer than coffee.”[7]

Wow! Is it any wonder that this spice is garnering so much attention!

There are a variety of ways to take turmeric internally including:

• Eating more delicious curry
• Adding this aromatic spice to your other favorite dishes
• Steeping it as a tea
• Taking it as a capsule
• Drinking it in water
• Enjoying it as golden milk

Turmeric can also be applied externally for the uses described above either as a paste, a tincture, or an oil. When mixing as a paste for external use, you may wish to combine turmeric with salt, which seems to enhance its properties. You can also make a gargle using turmeric and salt.[8]

Golden Milk Recipe

You can create golden milk with many different variations of the recipe, but the foundation of golden milk is turmeric paste usually blended with cow’s, almond, or coconut milk. Also, you can enhance the body’s ability to use the curcumin in turmeric by adding black pepper. The piperine in pepper improves our take-up of curcumin by as much as 20-fold![9],[10],[11]

To make turmeric paste:

Ingredients

• ¼ cup ground turmeric
• ½ cup water

Directions

• In a saucepan, combine turmeric and water
• Simmer until mixture becomes thick
• Allow to cool and store in the refrigerator

To make golden milk:

• 1 cup of milk (coconut, rice, almond, hemp, or other milk)
• Mix in ¼ to ½ teaspoon of turmeric paste (or just add turmeric powder)
• Add a few shakes of black pepper
• Stir in honey or maple syrup to taste

Other variations include drinking golden milk hot or cold with the following ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon of coconut oil
• Vanilla to taste
• ½ teaspoon dried ginger
• Sprinkle of cinnamon

Why not mix up a cup of golden milk today and begin enjoying the taste and benefits of this amazing spice, turmeric. Try some different variations of the recipe and experiment with your own added ingredients. Then let us know your favorite recipe!

 

 

 

Sources:
[1] https://kitchenbyte.com/turmeric/
[2] James A. Duke, PhD, The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook, (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2002), pgs. 300-301.
[3] James A. Duke, PhD, The Green Pharmacy, (Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press, 1997), p. 165.
[4] University of Maryland Medical Center.
[5] Annie Hall, “Turmeric Health Benefits: The Golden Goddess,” Herbal Academy of New England, December 16, 2013, http://herbalacademyofne.com/2013/12/turmeric-the-golden-goddess/.
[6] Amanda Rose, “Turmeric Benefits, Uses: The Weird and the Wild and the Really Orange…,” Fresh Bites Daily, nd, http://www.freshbitesdaily.com/turmeric/.
[7] The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook, pgs. 18 and 302.
[8] Annie Hall.
[9] The Green Pharmacy Herbal Handbook, pg. 302.
[10] Annie Hall.
[11] Annie Hall.