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The Health Benefits of Lemongrass

Posted on by creativespark
30
Sep

Lemongrass plants grow well in tropical countries and can be found growing wild throughout Southeast Asia. The plant, which is part of the grass family, is also cultivated in home gardens because of its medicinal and culinary value. It is often added to stews, curries and teas for its citrusy flavour and fragrance.

Lemongrass’s flavour and aroma are great when paired with ingredients like chillies, shallots, garlic and coriander, so it’s no wonder it made a home for itself in Peranakan cooking, where it is blended with other ingredients into a paste. It gives notes of citrus without any of the acidity.

MEDICINAL PROPERTIES OF LEMONGRASS

Lemongrass has a long history as an ingredient in traditional medicine.

  1. Good for Digestion
    In Traditional Chinese Medicine, lemongrass is used as a remedy for bloating, constipation and indigestion. It contains a component called citral that helps to soothe the stomach and digest food.
  2. Rich in Antioxidants
    It helps remove toxins from the body by relieving fluid retention.
  3. Helps to Regulate High Blood Pressure
    There are two ways that lemongrass helps your heart. It is known to limit cholesterol absorption from the intestines, which promotes overall heart health. It is also rich in potassium. This increases the production of urine in the body, which stimulates blood circulation and lowers blood pressure. Better blood circulation also promotes liver health.
  4. It May Help to Boost Metabolism and Burn Fat
    Clinical research still hasn’t caught up with this, so the jury is still out. What we do know from research is that polyphenols, found in natural plant compounds, increase the use of energy and enhance the oxidation of fatty acids in the body. This boost in metabolism makes digestion quicker and helps in burning more calories.
  5. Great for Skin and Hair
    Improved blood circulation helps clear up your skin. Lemongrass is also a very good source of Vitamin A and Vitamin C, essential nutrients for skin and hair.
  6. Fights Colds and Flu
    Vitamin C strengthens your immunity, but lemongrass helps in another way too. It’s antibacterial and anti-fungal. A tea made with lemongrass, tulsi leaves and cardamon is a common Ayurvedic prescription for colds.
  7. Women’s Health
    In Traditional Chinese Medicine, lemongrass is considered cooling and provides relief from hot flashes and helps in reducing menstrual pain.

IS IT JUST A TREND?

It’s hard to know what nutritional information to trust, and trends come and go. One year we’re told that ginger powder cures all ills, and the next we’re drinking Tahitian Noni juice. It really does pay to do your research and not expect any nutritional medicine to be a cure for an unhealthy lifestyle.

Lemongrass has centuries of history as a plant prized for its health benefits. Unlike synthetic supplements, this tropical plant is quite safe. Toxicity is never going to be a cause for concern.

It lends a wonderful flavour to an authentic Nyonya rempah, and it’s probably good for you too.

You can experience lemongrass in our Curry Paste.

News

The Health Benefits of Turmeric

Posted on by creativespark
12
Mar

The benefits of turmeric, or more specifically curcumin which turmeric is rich in, have been known for thousands of years. But, like many things in nutritional medicine (and natural medicine in general), it’s really only now that science is examining the chemistry and components to find out why it works.

Turmeric is part of the ginger family. It’s a common spice in Middle Eastern and Asian cuisines, with a warm and slightly bitter taste that combines well with meat, rice and vegetable dishes. Chopped, sliced, grated or ground, it’s so common in Indian cooking that it is known there as “the golden root of India”, and nearly every curry you have ever eaten has probably had turmeric in it.

It grows naturally throughout Southeast Asia, and it’s a common spice in Nyonya cooking. It’s in Rempahs’ Assam Pedas and Curry pastes.

MEDICINAL PROPERTIES OF TURMERIC

Turmeric is most famous for its benefits for oxidative and inflammatory conditions such as arthritis. It has long been recognised as having powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.

Osteoarthritis was once considered a degenerative and non-inflammatory condition, but it is now recognised as having inflammatory aspects, often connected to systemic inflammation.

The same antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects are also prized by weightlifters, yoga practitioners and runners. It’s well known in fitness circles that turmeric can help with the management of exercise-induced inflammation and muscle soreness, enhancing recovery and performance in active people.

Curcumin: A Review of Its’ Effects on Human Health, a research paper from Susan J Hewlings, from Central Michigan University, and Douglas S Kalman, from Nova Southeastern University in Florida, looked at the science of the curcumin in turmeric and found a range of other benefits.

Curcuma longahas been traditionally used in Asian countries as a medical herb due to its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimutagenic, antimicrobial, and anti-cancer properties.

Curcumin, a polyphenol, has been shown to target multiple signaling molecules while also demonstrating activity at the cellular level, which has helped to support its multiple health benefits. It has been shown to benefit inflammatory conditions, metabolic syndrome, pain, and to help in the management of inflammatory and degenerative eye conditions. In addition, it has been shown to benefit the kidneys. While there appear to be countless therapeutic benefits to curcumin supplementation, most of these benefits are due to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.

They also found that turmeric’s anti-inflammatory effects extend beyond joint and muscle pain and can have a range of other important benefits.

The idea that curcumin can attenuate systemic inflammation has implications beyond arthritis, as systemic inflammation has been associated with many conditions affecting many systems. One such condition is Metabolic syndrome (MetS), which includes insulin resistance, hyperglycemia, hypertension, low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), elevated low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), elevated triglyceride levels, and obesity, especially visceral obesity. Curcumin has been shown to attenuate several aspects of MetS by improving insulin sensitivity, suppressing adipogenesis, and reducing elevated blood pressure, inflammation, and oxidative stress. In addition, there is evidence that curcuminoids modulate the expression of genes and the activity of enzymes involved in lipoprotein metabolism that lead to a reduction in plasma triglycerides and cholesterol and elevate HDL-C concentrations. Both overweight and obesity are linked to chronic low-grade inflammation; although the exact mechanisms are not clear, it is known that pro-inflammatory cytokines are released. These cytokines are thought to be at the core of the complications associated with diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Therefore, addressing inflammation is important.

They conclude that turmeric has multiple health benefits, even for people who do not have diagnosed health conditions, and that it takes only a low dose for the effects.

IS IT JUST A TREND?

It’s hard to know what nutritional information to trust, and trends come and go. One year we’re told that ginger powder cures all ills, and the next we’re drinking Tahitian Noni juice. It really does pay to do your research and not expect any nutritional medicine to be a cure for an unhealthy lifestyle.

Our knowledge about the benefits of turmeric goes back a long way though, so it’s very likely that it has a solid basis. It’s been recognised by Chinese, Indian and Middle Eastern natural medicine for thousands of years. As Western medicine plays catch-up with our understanding of nutritional medicine, we may be better able to explain the benefits of the food we eat, and perhaps discover even more.