Herbal Medicine for Preppers: Turmeric

Hey y'all, welcome to this week's show. Today we're going to talk about a very interesting herb. It's also a popular culinary ingredient, and this is one that's been popular in recent years, so you may be familiar with it, but you probably don't know all that it does. And, you know, maybe you never thought about growing it, but it's actually an herb you can grow. You know, you could save a little money doing it and ensure quality, make sure no weird chemicals have been put on it. Definitely worth considering. It is turmeric. Turmeric is a cousin of ginger. And of course it's very popular in Indian food and, and well, you know, really different cuisines. You'll find in curries a lot, but it's actually been a very popular herb. Golly, for centuries in Europe. I mean, going back to Asian and Indian food, um, turmeric was recorded in use by at least 2600 BC consider how long ago that was 2600 BC but it was really not recognized I guess by Europeans until and started coming through the trade routes really I guess probably the Greek Empire maybe the Romans And they kind of considered it a variety of ginger. And actually, it was not as popular as ginger because ginger has a much stronger peppery type flavor. And there's another cousin to them called zeduary, I believe, or sand ginger. There's another name for it. I'll probably think of it here in a minute. That was actually probably the most popular of the three, ginger ginger. It was often preserved in candy, you know, like you get candy ginger from an Asian grocery store. So the Romans loved it. But the sand ginger, or I think zeta-ary, there's galangal, galangal. That's the other name for it. That was the one they really went crazy over. And it's interesting because now you go into most any grocery store in America, you are not going to find galangal. Maybe in an ethnic food section. It, uh, is, you know, still popular in Indian and Asian cuisine. For some reason that actually fell out of use, even though it seems like that was probably the one that was easier to grow and, you know, cold climates in Germany and such. I don't know why. And, uh, really turmeric was very little used in, um, in Europe, uh, really until the British colonization of, um, of India and, you know, Indonesia and, and different places. When they started bringing back those foods, those flavors, you know, I mean, they probably eat more curry in England than just about anywhere in the world. The Brits went nuts over curry, which is understandable. I love a good curry and the varieties of curries are just great. I mean, it's almost like, I always think of like American chili as our version of curry. And I think, Not every culture has that, really. Not every culture has that heavily spiced bowl of something. But, boy, I mean, British food is known to be fairly bland. I like good English food. I really do. Good roast beef and gravy, Yorkshire puddings, your pot roast and your mashed potatoes, and those wonderful sausages. They do great pork sausages and pork pies and pasties and mince pies. But it's not. Known to be a very strongly flavored cuisine. You know, it's good, hearty, comforting food for the most part. Until you get to Christmas time and they start putting spices and everything. Well, and everything, basically. I mean, mince pie, mincemeat is so good. We used to have, when I was a kid, you know, we had a grocery store and we had a barrel. And this was actually made in-house from an old British recipe that had been passed down for a few hundred years. And it was a mix of, you know, chopped apples and raisins and beef suet and spices. And the real stuff is just fantastic. And the smell of it is incredible. And, you know, in our time, we may think, how weird is that to put like, you know, beef fat? And sometimes, you know, some mince pies call for a portion of meat as well. And usually that meat would be mixed in with your mince base when you're ready to cook. And it might be ground pork usually. And that's very good. But the meats were actually originally the fruit. You know, it's just an old English term. And some people put a few nuts in there. It really dates back to really ancient styles of cooking that come from the ancient Greek and Roman traditions as they moved into, especially the Romans, of course, not so much the Greek Empire, but the Roman Empire moved into England. and the British Isles and beyond. And there's also some influence from the Norse, but essentially the Romans would make fruitcakes to use as like stored food. And I really, I mean, even Alexander the Great was doing that. So, I mean, that was not a Roman invention. That probably goes back a very long ways, but dried fruit, nuts, fat, honey, and spices essentially were like their protein bars of the day. Well, in England, that really only kind of stuck around for the holidays. I don't know why, but they love their fruitcakes, and they absolutely make fantastic fruitcakes. A British fruitcake is, oh, peerless, peerless, absolutely. I mean, if If the English have like one food they should be like super proud of. I mean, yes, I love a full English breakfast. They make wonderful bacon and sausage and all that. But if there's like one standard English food that they should be like super proud of, it is their fruitcake. And it's nothing like American fruitcake. We're not talking those weird neon colored fruits and that nasty stuff. We usually get around Christmas and nobody wants to eat. And how that ever became popular, I will never know. But you were talking, you know, a nice, rich, buttery batter, real cake batter with dried fruit and nuts. So raisins and currants, maybe dried apricots, dried cherries, very common. And English walnuts, an English walnut cake. I mean, you know, the Italian fruit cakes or the panettone. It's very good. It's very good. But it cannot compare to an English walnut cake. Walnut and date with honey. I mean, that is just like hands down. And I'm not a sweets guy. But anyway, so the English really did not use a lot of spices except during the holidays and mainly Christmas. And I mean, that was, you know, that was their tradition. And boy, when they started colonizing the Indies and Asia, India, you know, Pakistan, before it was Pakistan, I guess. I mean, they brought back the curry recipes that have really been, I would say, the dominant influence on English cuisine for the past three, four hundred years now, I guess. I mean, wow. Yeah, I mean, even you think your classic English sauce recipe, Worcestershire sauce or Worcestershire, however you want to pronounce it. Worcestershire sauce. It was invented to celebrate the British Empire at the time. So what they did is they took one ingredient from every British colony or territory. And so they had all these different spices along with anchovies and wine and What's the fruit I'm trying to think of? Tamarind. Tamarind is in there. And, I mean, just something to represent every single colony. And they said, well, mix it together into a sauce and see what happens. And it was horrible. But they didn't throw it away. They kept it in barrels and it fermented. And our Worcestershire sauce is that product. And that's now any... just about any savory food that is English in origin hasn't included. That was not included before just a couple hundred years ago. Lea & Perrins is still, I mean, it's just amazing how quickly they adopted those flavors. It's like, you know, we think of like the English for tea, right? I was talking with a guy the other day that was, he was from North Africa, but raised in France, so he had a really odd accent that almost sounded a little British and ask him about it. And he says, well, I'm not English. I don't drink tea. Je suis la Francaise. You know, I mean, he really, really odd accent. But yeah, you think of the English as tea drinkers, right? Tea doesn't come from England. Tea came from China. There was no tea in England until the British started occupying and trading with the Chinese. But boy, do they adopt. and make their own just about anything. I mean, we think about the English having bad teeth because they eat so much sugary food, high tea and all that. They didn't have a lot of sugar for business. Thousands of years, really, the only sugar in England was honey or pressed fruit, you know, sugar that comes from like apples and such. That was their sugar, so they didn't have a lot of it. Man, when they colonized the Caribbean and started putting in sugar plantations, they went nuts over sugar. I mean, now what do we think of as far as English food? We think of a lot of sweet pastries and a lot of candies and everything with a little sugar in it, puddings. English, classic English puddings, which also come from the fruit cake tradition, which comes from the Romans. I mean, it's kind of hard when you think, you know, what is the indigenous British cuisine? It's probably roast beef, you know, roast beef and gravy. And they do it absolutely fantastically because they weren't growing a lot of wheat. Wheat didn't come until later. They were not making a lot of bread. The breads came in probably around 1550. okay, I'm probably going to get this wrong, but I'm thinking somewhere around 500 AD, you start seeing the British, uh, baking tradition, uh, take off as they started using more, uh, wheat flour. Um, of course, you know, they were using grains. They were making some kind of, you know, hearth bread before then, but I'm talking like loaf bread and, um, the, um, pie crusts they're known for, you know, this may be a little geeky for you. Maybe you don't geek out on food history the way I do, but I really do. And I enjoy it quite a bit. And it's, um, It's just kind of amazing to look at England that is such a proud nation. Now, I have a lot of problems with England. Irish heritage over here. I don't celebrate Britain the way a lot of the PBS crowd does. But you have to admit that the English have a very, we'll call it a proud nature about their history and heritage. But when you look at their cuisine, 99% of it, 90% of it at least is foreign import. I mean, yeah. It's coming from the Norse. It's coming from the Romans. It's coming from India. It's coming from the West Indies. It's, you know, and I mean, they embrace the potato. The potato comes from Peru. I'm going down the list of just, you know, just about everything. in English cuisine comes from somewhere else. That's not the case with Greek or Italian or French. I mean, yes, you see a huge Roman influence in French cooking, without a doubt. But the sauces especially, which the French are known for. But yeah, the French were making their own sausage and great soups and stews. They had quite a tradition long before Rome. Germany would be the same. I mean, the Germans had quite a food tradition. The Poles, Poland was actually recognized as the Christendom spread and the Roman, Holy Roman Empire at this point went to Christianize Central Europe. When they got to Poland, they were blown away by the food. I mean, they thought it was like better than Italian food. So I mean, the Pope actually established a summer residence in, Poland because it's so hot in Rome and there was of course no air conditioning for a thousand years to come so he would spend summers the whole church would essentially move to Poland for a while and it was like the second Vatican which they also sort of had a second Vatican in France so I mean you know the church was seasonal in different areas and but fell so in love with the Polish sausages he wrote extensively about it just how perfect Polish food was. To his taste, I mean, literally, you know, rivaled that of Rome. And I don't disagree at all. I could eat Polish food every day of the year and be very, very happy. Yeah, I'd have to have some Chinese once a week and some Mexican and my good old, you know, southern cooking. But I love Polish food. When Napoleon discovered Polish food, he was just head over heels for it. When the Russians discovered Polish food, they just went nuts over it. Literally. But anyway, that's, yeah, the history of world food is very interesting to me. I mean, just the other day I was doing a little research and found out that McDonald's Chicken McNuggets were actually based on a recipe. I believe it was a French chef in St. Petersburg when France and Russia were aligned before the Bolshevik Revolutions. um, actually figured out how to mince chicken and form it into proto, um, chicken McNuggets and bread them and fry them up. And they were croquettes and it was just the, all the rage and all the, you know, grand houses and parties for, um, you know, 20, 30, 40 years, everybody was eating these little croquettes and made of different meats. The recipe actually goes back to the old force meats from, um, uh, Apicius, ancient Roman cookbook, first recorded cookbook. He was doing the same thing. And then we think of, you know, chicken McNuggets being a modern invention, which is, you know, kind of crazy. But, uh, like I said, I geek out on this stuff. Let's talk about turmeric. So, um, let's see, uh, a lot of times actually before, uh, turmeric was used, uh, medicinally and in food, it was used as a dye plant. If you think about, um, Some of the Hindu and Buddhist monks, they have these bright yellow robes. They were dyed with turmeric. Let's see. Chinese medicine, they seem to have kind of discovered it first. It's used for chest pains, pain in the ribs, abdomen, or liver area, nosebleed, vomiting with bleeding, and heat stroke. The rhizome is used to treat certain types of tumors and in liver disease. Chinese research has proven positive. Zetowary. Zetowary is turmeric's Latin name. Galangal was the other one I was trying to think of. Galangal is not Zetowary. I think I misspoke on that. But anyway, it's proven Zetowary is used in reducing cervical cancer and increasing the cancer-killing effects of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. In Ayurvedic medicine, that's Indian medicine, turmeric is used for inflammation, wounds, and skin ulcers, itching, stomach complaints, flatulence, conjunctivitis, constipation, ringworm, and colic. It is also used in India for loss of appetite, tuberculosis, wounds, leukodermia, fever, bronchitis, asthma, but it's mainly used for stomach and digestive issues and as a general body tonic. Let me get a sip of water here. I'm getting choked up. So it had some very limited use in Greek medicine. Can't find really anything except footnotes on that. Dioscorides was not, you know, writing about it. Hippocrates was not writing about it. But by 1100 AD, turmeric was, at least by then, established in Western herbalism. St. Hildegard von Bingen wrote of turmeric seven times in her classic work, Physica, around 1100 AD. And that's likely how turmeric came to be included in the Swedish bitters, because that's It may have been her formula or it may have been based on her teaching. It seems to have come from her. And she really liked using it in herbal spiced wines, but also in cookies. Yeah, she would make these cookies with turmeric and cloves and ginger and such and use them to calm excitable children and help them concentrate and study. Her cookies were almost like an ancient remedy for ADD and HDH, whatever. So by the 1930s, England, Miss Grieve wrote about it. And of course, she describes the plant and you know what turmeric is. Now, you may not know you can grow this in pots. If you're in a hot, dry climate like India, you can grow it right in your garden. I have to grow it in pots. And it's a pretty plant. You do it from cuttings from the root or rhizome. It's actually a rhizome. Make sure it's good, healthy and fresh. And just put it in a pot, put some sandy soil in there. Give it some water and it'll grow up into a nice kind of big, pretty green plant with yellowish flowers. And yeah, I mean, piece of cake. And it'll start putting out new rhizomes. After about a year or so, you can start harvesting it. So definitely one you can grow yourself. She says in her medicinal actions and uses, turmeric is a mild aromatic stimulant used in medicine and as a coloring. It was once a cure for jaundice, used as a cure for jaundice. Its chief use is in the manufacture of curry powders, obviously, and also included in mustard. That's actually what gives French's mustard another, like, bright yellow mustard. It's color. It's not mustard seed. It's turmeric. She says, yeah, she said it wasn't much used in herbal medicine by the 1930s, but it's had quite a comeback in recent years. So these days, turmeric is widely used as an anti-inflammatory. It is particularly good against chronic inflammation. The deal is the liver has difficulty processing turmeric. It's best absorbed and processed by the liver. Combining it with black pepper and natural fat, essentially it just kind of hitchhikes along with the pepper and fat. So, uh, especially good as cod liver oil, which is also a strong anti-inflammatory, um, a good quality fish oil, but cod liver oil really is my choice. So, um, but you know, any natural fat, it can be butter. It can be olive oil. You know, it really doesn't matter. Um, sesame seed oil is particularly good for the liver. Um, so, you know, a little bit of natural fat, heck, it can be lard. It can be beef fat. It doesn't matter. Have some with your bacon. I don't care. Just get some natural fat and some black pepper. Um, Turmeric is strongly antioxidant, and those dual anti-inflammatory antioxidant properties make it particularly good for cancer, heart disease, and arthritis. It helps wounds heal and lowers cholesterol. It's good for liver health and stimulates digestive secretions and blood supply to the digestive system. A couple years ago, a book called The Lost Book of Herbal Remedies came out, and I've mentioned it before. I hate the title because none of this information is lost. I got it. It's just, I don't know. People don't read books anymore. Anyway, so I didn't want to buy it. I finally did break down and buy a copy because people were raving over it. It turned out it's a darn good book, actually. They listed turmeric as improves brain function and lowers the risk of brain disease, including Alzheimer's and depression. Curcumin, that's the basically essential oil of turmeric, can increase the levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor BDNF, which is a growth hormone for the brain. And many brain diseases, including Alzheimer's and depression, are linked with decreasing levels of BDNF hormone. Increasing BDNF levels with curcumin can effectively delay or possibly reverse many age-related brain function diseases. By increasing BD and F, curcumin may also improve memory and cognitive performance. By increasing the growth of new neurons and fighting the degenerative processes in the brain, Alzheimer's disease is characterized by a buildup of amyloid plaques in the brain. Curcumin crosses the blood-brain barrier and helps clear these plaques. Long-term use is required. Although standardized extract or turmeric curcumin may be more useful than other forms taken in capsule form, The best way to use it is regularly in food and beverage. Absolutely. I absolutely love curries. But I'll throw it in, you know, chicken pot pie. Chicken pot pie with a little turmeric in there is fine. Throw it in with my homemade kimchi. It's really good. But I've given you my warming spice tea before. This is what I take before going out fishing or hunting on a cold morning, checking the trap line or anything I might be doing. Just take about a half teaspoon each. Yeah, about for a cup or two. Turmeric, black pepper, ginger, and cinnamon, and a couple of cloves. Hot water over it, and it just warms you from the inside, and it will keep you warm. It actually does actually increase the body temperature. Put on some wool socks and, you know, your long johns and bundle up, you know, good hat, and it will keep you warm out there amazingly for months. couple of hours. I mean, it's just, it's incredible really. And it's very, very good for you. Um, and, uh, yeah, um, I'm a hot dog fanatic. So, you know, I always associate the turmeric with the mustard because yeah, uh, it's really good. Now, a lot of people make what's called golden milk, which is essentially a tea made of turmeric and milk, um, just stirring powdered turmeric into milk. And they say it helps them, uh, sleep. Um, You know, stir in maybe a teaspoonful of blackstrap molasses with that, and it will also regulate insulin levels and won't spike it if you don't have a problem with that honey. And, yeah, they say, I mean, it's good, and it's going to be very anti-inflammatory. It goes great in, like, liver pate and such. Anyway, turmeric's good. So however you consume it, enjoy it. It's flavorful. It's really good for you. Just remember, it does need to be combined with some kind of fat and some black pepper for use. So I guess that's going to wrap it up, y'all. Have a great week, and I will talk to you next time. The information in this podcast is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or condition. Nothing I say or write has been evaluated or approved by the FDA. I'm not a doctor. The U.S. Government does not recognize the practice of herbal medicine, and there is no governing body regulating herbalists. Therefore, I'm really just a guy who studies herbs. I'm not offering any advice. I won't even claim that anything I write or say is accurate or true. I can tell you what herbs have been traditionally used for. I can tell you my own experience and if I believe in herbs help me. I cannot nor would I tell you to do the same. If you use an herb anyone recommends, you are treating yourself. You take full responsibility for your health. Humans are individuals and no two are identical. What works for me may not work for you. You may have an allergy, a sensitivity, an underlying condition that no one else even shares and you don't even know about. Be careful with your health. By continuing to listen to my podcast or read my blog, you agree to be responsible for yourself, do your own research, make your own choices, and not to Blame me for anything ever.