Golden Delicious

I’m in the hot tub at the local swimming pool, soaking up to my neck in a gurgle of hot water between swimming lengths in a chilly pool. It’s making me feel great: stretching my muscles and giving me a sense of doing something right for my body.

Just like bus stops, hot tubs are great places for random conversations. A man who is soaking tells the rest of us about a shoulder injury he’d had several years ago, and how drinking turmeric in milk – often called, I later learned, Golden Milk – enhanced his full healing.

“Warm the milk, add a teaspoon of turmeric powder, a pinch of black pepper, and honey if you want it sweetened, then whisk it all together,” he explained, saying he drank it every evening and his doctor was amazed at the accelerated recovery of his injury.

With various strains, stresses, and recent surgeries in our household, I was inspired to try it straight away. It is delicious and an especially comforting drink at bedtime, but I just didn’t get into the rhythm of mixing it up every evening. Fast forward to early this year when I was in Canada: my sister had mixed up a turmeric paste, adding in some lovely chai-like spices and making Golden Milk an almost instant drink.

Turmeric’s active ingredient is curcumin, an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. Inflammation is part of most, if not all, chronic diseases (think heart disease, cancer, dementia, etc). Because of its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory qualities, turmeric may also be beneficial for healthy digestion – in fact, traditionally it has been used for this in ayurvedic medicine – and for ailments such as the common cold.

The key things about the hot tub man’s instructions were that the turmeric was mixed with black pepper and also a fat (in his case, milk). Both are essential to the body’s absorption of the healing properties, unless you want the turmeric to act on inflammation in your digestive tract. If that is the case, don’t use the pepper so the nutrients won’t be absorbed from your stomach into your bloodstream.

Although the concentration of curcumin in a golden cuppa won’t be as high as in capsule form, there are all the other benefits that come with consuming food rather than a supplement. Turmeric also contains manganese, iron, vitamin B6, fibre and potassium, all helpful in strengthening health, plus you get to add in all the nutrients of coconut oil, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg.

With this year’s heavy doses of flu, coughs and colds that seem to stick around for ages, and my own extra stresses, I have not had so much as a sniffle this winter, and our household has only had a couple of mild colds (also in my regime are mega doses of vitamin C, apple cider vinegar, lots of water, gargling with salt water at the hint of a sore throat, tea tree mouth rinse, and another homemade Lemsip/NeoCitran that we swear by – and I may feature in another post).

Turmeric Paste:

• 1 ½ cups (6 oz) boiling water
• ½ cup turmeric powder (if you don’t have North American measuring cups, fill liquid measure to 4 oz line)
• 1 piece of fresh ginger, about 1-2 cm, finely grated
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons ground black pepper
• ½ teaspoon nutmeg
• 3 teaspoons coconut oil

For 1 serving:

• 1 mug milk of your choice
• 1 heaped teaspoon turmeric paste
• optional: honey or other sweetener 

  Pour the water into a small pot; return to a boil. Add the turmeric, grated ginger root, cinnamon, black pepper, nutmeg and coconut oil to the pot.

  Stir continuously on a medium-low heat for about 3-4 minutes. If the paste is too thick, add a bit more water and stir in.

  Store the paste in a clean jar and let cool. It will keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks. This can also be added to soups and stews.

  To make the drink, gently heat one mug of milk (not to boiling). Whisk in 1 heaped teaspoon of the turmeric paste and honey if you choose. Drink immediately. I stir as I drink to keep all the spices swirling around in the mix.

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