In the food supplement section, it is sometimes difficult to find your way: all the brands offer their “miracle capsule” and the promises are each more tempting than the other – regain energy, overcome fatigue, reduce chronic pain, fight against depression, restore flexibility and balance, improve sleep…
Fortunately, to guide us, doctors and researchers are there. Precisely: in an interview given to our colleagues at Insider, Dr. Bill Gurley (who is a researcher at the National Center for Natural Products Research at the University of Mississippi, United States) recommends taking turmeric every day, a good habit he himself adopted. “Turmeric is a powerful anti-inflammatory” he justifies.
Is turmeric really an anti-inflammatory?
The active ingredient in turmeric, curcumin, has proven effectiveness against digestive disorders: this indication is validated by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
Concerning the anti-inflammatory effect of turmeric, it is a little more complicated. Indeed, in 2016, a meta-analysis identified “encouraging signs concerning the effect of one gram of curcumin per day in cases of osteoarthritis“However, two years later (in 2018), European health authorities considered that curcumin dietary supplements “cannot claim to contribute to the normal functioning of the joints“: this allegation is now prohibited.
In short, to benefit from the health benefits of turmeric, it is perhaps not necessary to take daily food supplements whose effectiveness is not 100% proven: we can already start to adopt this spice in cooking – for example. for example, to enhance the flavor of a sauce, prepare a delicious vegetable curry, or add an original flavor to a baked chicken fillet…
