In In the Kitchen April 17, 2020

The Low-Down on “Immunity” Products

At the outset, if you know me, you know I love nuun. As I am typing this, there are a dozen tubes of nuun products in my cabinet, with as many promotional squeeze bottles sporting nuun art. I even like the “Immunity” products (which are basically a hydration product with vitamins and an unfortunate name selected for marketing purposes). For the purpose of this article, I probably could have picked any of the countless products that landed in my inbox to “boost” my immunity–this is just one example. I was slightly annoyed when I got a bunch of email ads for nuun’s “Immunity” products, wrapped in the guise of “how to stay healthy while flying.” That might have been fine, had it not been at the exact same time we started to get the earliest news about the novel coronavirus COVID-19. (I tweeted to nuun and told them it was in poor taste–my friends who are current and former nuun ambassadors agreed.)

As the virus itself began to spread in the United States, nuun joined the throng of companies regularly invading my inbox and my social media feeds to sell me something to “boost” my immunity, or worse as “protection” against the virus. (Word to the wise: there is currently NO product approved by the FDA, or any health or medical authority, to prevent COVID-19, as there is currently no evidence that any product can do so.) Aside from my general disgust with the entire lie that is “boosting” immunity, as if your immune system is an engine you can hit turbo-charge on without setting it on fire (a “boosted” immune system doesn’t just attack invaders, it attacks your own body, and we call that an auto-immune disease—it’s why those who have an auto-immune disease take medication to suppress the immune system, or “un-boost” it), I am specifically disgusted by every company trying to capitalize on the general population’s fears during a global pandemic.

(BTW if you don’t want to read the explanation about what’s inside? Feel free to skip to the summary and conclusion.)

Screen capture photo of an email add for nuun's "Immunity" product — More like “our profits come first.” Actual screen capture of the email from my inbox. Notice the emphasis on the “botanical blend”? More on that later…

Like most supplements, the website for nuun’s two flavors of “Immunity” doesn’t have any citations to peer-reviewed research, other published studies, or even clinical trials, of the products. (Since I wasn’t able to find any, I’m assuming the lack of links and citations on the website confirms their non-existence.) Absent those, we’ll just have to take a look at the product itself.

Let’s Look At The Main Ingredients

The “Ingredients” list on the nuun website is pretty innocuous: Dextrose, Citric Acid, Natural Flavors, Stevia Leaf Extract, Avocado Oil, Rice Concentrate. Translated, those are: sugar, a weak organic acid that occurs naturally in citrus fruits but is also manufactured industrially, “Natural Flavors,” a sweetener that is not sugar, avocado oil, and rice hulls.

Dextrose is a simple sugar made from corn. It is chemically the same as glucose, which is the form that sugar takes when it circulates in the blood. It may also be called “corn sugar” (NOT “corn syrup”) or “grape sugar.”

Citric Acid is what gives citrus fruits a tart taste. It is used in food products for flavor, and to acidify things, but also as a chemical agent that bonds things together (a chelating agent).

“Natural Flavors” is a term that is defined by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (a part of the Department of Health and Human Services) in the federal rules that regulate food labeling, specifically 21 CFR sec. 101.222

“The term natural flavor or natural flavoring means the essential oil, oleoresin, essence or extractive, protein hydrolysate, distillate, or any product of roasting, heating or enzymolysis, which contains the flavoring constituents derived from a spice, fruit or fruit juice, vegetable or vegetable juice, edible yeast, herb, bark, bud, root, leaf or similar plant material, meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, dairy products, or fermentation products thereof, whose significant function in food is flavoring rather than nutritional.”
21 CFR sec. 101.222

If that seems really broad to you, it is. When you see “natural flavors” on a label is it made of wheat? Or shellfish? Or eggs, or milk, or tree nuts, peanuts, or soybeans? You can’t tell—and that’s why people with Celiac Disease, and people with food allergies, avoid packaged foods that use the term. The benefits to manufacturers is that if they have to change the exact formula–say, red grapefruit extract becomes unavailable, but they discover they can use a pomelo extract and get the same taste–they don’t have to change the product labels. (Changing a product label is a very expensive and time-consuming process.)

Stevia leaf extract. Stevia rebaudiana is a plant that is native to South America (specifically Brazil and Paraguay). I was quite interested to learn it has only been legal for use as a food additive in the US since 2017, and it was Monsanto that began to lobby the US for testing and approval of stevia in the 1980s. What makes stevia particularly useful as a sweetener is that the human body does not metabolize the glycosides in it—which is why it has no calories—AND it does not ferment stevia (so you don’t get the tummy trouble caused by some sugar alcohols). You can read more than you ever wanted to know about stevia leaf extract, including the FDA paperwork approved it for “generally recognized as safe” (GRAS) status for use in food.

Side note: wait, if there’s sugar, why is there also stevia? Simple: stevia can have a bitter aftertaste (and some people taste it more strongly than others). A blend of stevia leaf extract and sugar allows a product to reduce the amount of sugar it contains, while still remaining palatably sweet.

Avocado oil is an edible oil pressed from avocado fruit. It is used as an ingredient in food products. Primal Kitchen, for example, makes a mayo using avocado oil, and sells it separately as a cooking oil. It has a really high smoke point (meaning you can turn the temperature way up before the oil in the pan will start to smoke). Since it doesn’t have a strong flavor, avocado oil can be used to help spread/carry other flavors. It is high in the “good fats” (monounsaturated fat) and Vitamin E, which is one of the reasons it is also a popular ingredient in skin care and cosmetic products.

Rice hulls are not what you’d think of as actual rice. Instead, this is the outer fiber and silica layers of rice; this is used as an anti-caking agent (keeps powdered ingredients from sticking together/clumping) in place of something like silicon dioxide.

But Wait! There’s More!!

But this isn’t actually a complete ingredients list. If you look at the “Nutrition Info” section, you can see the rest of them. Below is the “amount per serving” listed on the website as of today. (“DV” is similar to”RDA,” but it does not account for age, gender, or pregnancy.)

Sugars 2g (this is the dextrose)
Vitamin A (as beta carotene) 450 mcg (50% DV)
Vitamin C (as ascorbic acid) 200 mg (222% DV)
Vitamin D (as ergocalciferol) 10 mcg (50% DV)
Vitamin E (as d-alpha tocopherol) 3 mg (20% DV)
Calcium (as calcium carbonate) 15 mg (<2% DV)
Magnesium (as magnesium oxide) 15 mg (4% DV)
Zinc (as zinc sulfate) 5 mg (45% DV)
Selenium (as selenium rice chelate) 20 mcg (36% DV)
Chloride (as Himalayan sea salt) 40 mg (2% DV)
Sodium (as sodium bicarbonate, Himalayan sea salt) 100 mg (4% DV)
Potassium (as potassium bicarbonate) 150 mg (3% DV)
Proprietary Herbal Blend (125 mg): (1) Elderberry extract [Sambucus nigra L. (fruit)], (2) Organic Ginger Powder [Zingiber ofﬁcinale L.(root)], (3) Organic Turmeric [Curcuma longa (root)], (4) Echinacea purpurea (aerial)

Since a serving size is one tablet, and that is 5.4g, one serving of nuun Immunity is 2g sugar (dextrose) and 3.4g other stuff. At 15 calories, sugar accounts for more than half of the calories. 1g of dextrose is 3.4 calories, so there are 7.8 calories attributable to dextrose. (If you’re running or otherwise exercising–and even if you’re not–the small amount of calories aren’t going to hurt you. To be clear: I’m not trying to imply there is anything wrong with dextrose or calories in your electrolyte beverages.)

What Is All That Stuff?

Vitamins. You probably recognize the vitamins. Selenium powers the internet, according to Google, and allows you to work in parallel across browsers with no coding skills. (Nerd joke! Really though.) Selenium is a basic chemical element (Se, atomic number 34). It is toxic in large doses—notice it is measured in micrograms—but necessary for the human body in small amounts. (The acceptable daily limit is around 400mcg, though one study found humans can ingest 800mcg before showing symptoms.) It serves as a catalyst in a variety of necessary chemical reactions in the body.

Electrolytes. Sodium, calcium, potassium, chloride, phosphate, and magnesium are all electrolytes. Nuun contains all of these except for phosphate. Dissolved electrolytes create a positive or negative charge. This is really important in the human body, as electrolytes help to maintain the balance of fluid inside cells and in the space between cells. If your electrolyte balance is out of whack, you can drink tons of water but still be dehydrated! (This is because your body has to maintain the right amount of electrolytes in each location–inside and outside the cell–to protect you.) Both dehydration and overhydration can cause major problems with the heart and brain.

That leaves zinc and the “proprietary blend.”

Need Vitamin C? Get an entire day’s worth in single orange–plus fiber and more! (c) Styled Stock society

Zinc

Zinc is another element that human bodies need in trace doses; it is the second-most abundant trace mineral in the human body (iron is the most abundant). It plays an important role in a large number of biological reactions in the body. The human body stores about 2-4g of zinc in the brain, muscle, bones, kidney, liver, prostate, and eye. Zinc supplementation may help with acne and depression (when taken with an antidepressant medication).

Zinc appears in nuun Immunity because people associate zinc and vitamin C with preventing the common cold. I turned to Examine for more information because Examine does not advertise supplements or accept ads, and bases their articles on peer-reviewed science. I also really like that each article includes a chart showing the claims and the evidence to support it. HIGHLY recommend you bookmark it.

High dose zinc lozenges appear to reduce the duration of the common cold; it isn’t clear whether zinc provides protection against getting a cold in the first place. (In other words, there isn’t solid proof zinc will prevent you from getting a cold.) Examine notes that “Zinc lozenges, for the purpose of reducing the common cold, seem to be most effective when the total daily dose is over 75 mg and is divided into 6-8 doses, each separated by 2-3 hours when awake. It is likely dangerous to take zinc lozenges for extended periods of time.” (This is because taking zinc at high levels can prevent your body from absorbing copper properly—taking too much of any one thing into the human body tends to cause a deficiency of something else.) So the 5mg of zinc in nuun Immunity? It’s on the low end for a zinc supplement. To reach the most effective dose to shorten a cold—remember it does not prevent the cold—you’d need to take 15 tablets per day.

Now if you’re just trying to make sure you get your recommended daily dose of zinc sure, one tablet is almost half. But you can also find it in food—animal products have zinc (meat, fish, shellfish, poultry, eggs, dairy) and so do plant foods. Assuming there is adequate zinc in the soil, plants with the most zinc include wheat, seeds (sesame, poppy, alfalfa, celery, mustard, pumpkin, sunflower), beans, nuts, almonds, and blackcurrant.

So how about that “Proprietary Herbal Blend”?

First, let’s look at the label “proprietary herbal blend.” This is a term supplement manufacturers use to avoid stating how much of each individual ingredient is in a product. Some supplement companies, and seemingly every blogger indexed on google, will tell you that this is a sketchy way of avoiding quality control, or hiding what’s in the product. To be fair, there is a reasonable argument to be made that a company may use that term in order to prevent other companies from marketing a competing “knock off” product, essentially stealing their special formula for a dietary supplement. I don’t find it particularly convincing as an argument though, since it’s still possible to buy that product, test it to see what’s really in it, and then knock it off anyway. Further, people who are taking multiple supplements may need to keep track of how much of a given component (like caffeine) is in each product. Federal law only says that the label must identify each component of the “proprietary blend” and list the ingredients in order by weight. So if a “proprietary blend” lists ingredients A, B, and C, the blend contains more A than B, and more B than C. If you want to get nerdy on it, take a look at 21 CFR sec. 101.36(c).

Maybe this isn’t even a big deal for nuun’s “Immunity.” At 125 mg of a 5.4 g serving, the “proprietary herbal blend” isn’t very much of the product. Let’s just do the math: one serving is 5.4g or 5,400mg. So 125mg = 2.31% of the product.

Elderberry extract [Sambucus nigra L. (fruit)]. Elderberry syrup has been a folk remedy for colds for like unto forever. I personally have friends that swear by it. If any group was going to make a claim that elderberry is helpful, you’d think it would be the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health. But at least as of September 2016, NCCIH states “although some preliminary research indicates that elderberry may relieve flu symptoms, the evidence is not strong enough to support its use for this purpose” and “there’s not enough information to show whether elder flower and elderberry are helpful for any other purposes.” These are descriptions of research with PURE elderberry—not a product with some fraction of a proprietary blend. To be fair, there is a study that shows elderberry was helpful to reduce cold duration and symptoms, but it was limited to intercontientnal air travelers. The study is called “Elderberry Supplementaton Reduces Cold Duration and Symptoms in Air-Travlers: A Randomins, Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trial.” It was published in the journal Nutrients in March 2016. You can read the extract on PubMed. A subsequent meta-analysis—that’s not a study, but an analysis of all published studies—shows black elderberry can be effective in treating upper respiratory symptoms. “Black elderberry (Sambucusnigra) supplementation effectively treats upper respiratory symptoms: A meta-analysis of randomized, controlled clinical trials.” This was published in the journal Complimentary and Therapeutic Medicine in February 2019. The abstract is on PubMed. Again, these are studies of actual elderberry, not a fraction of a proprietary blend. Further, the studies that indicate it might be effective show it reduces the length and symptoms—there is no evidence it is preventive.

Organic Ginger Powder [Zingiber ofﬁcinale L.(root)]. Ginger is well-known for use in settling upset tummies. According to Examine, doses of 1-3 grams can fight nausea. Examine also found studies tend to show ginger reduces inflammation. But remember, we don’t know how much ginger is in the “proprietary herbal blend” and it could be less than 1g. Even if there’s a ton of ginger powder in that 125g, reducing inflammation does not mean you are protected against viruses (including the common cold—caused by a type of coronavirus). It’s also notable that loads of supplement makers and processed food manufacturers are capitalizing on the current “anti-inflammatory” trend. But there isn’t any evidence that inflammation plays a role in catching a virus like COVID-19 (or even a cold, for that matter). Before you get too excited about the “inflammation is bad” theory, you should also consider that inflammation is a necessary component of the healing process for acute injuries, and is also the reason you get sore muscles after a workout.

Organic Turmeric [Curcuma longa (root)]. The health benefits of turmeric (largely as an anti-inflammatory) are intensely overhyped, as I wrote back in October 2018. The little research that has been done is on curcumin, and turmeric is only about 3% curcumin. The articles cited on Wikipedia conclude there is no high-quality evidence for using turmeric (or curcumin) to treat any disease. There’s nothing in PubMed that backs claims for turmeric either (and not much for the 3% curcumin it contains).

Echinacea purpurea (aerial). Echinacea is widely sold to prevent or treat the common cold, but the evidence that it does so is sketchy at best. Similarly, a meta-analysis I found on PubMed indicates echinacea might have a preventative effect on upper respiratory infections BUT “whether this effect is clinically meaningful is debatable” AND there was no evidence for an effect on the duration of upper respiratory tract infections. “Echinacea for the prevention and treatment of upper respiratory tract infections: a review and meta-analysis.” Published June 2019 in the journal Complementary Therapy and Medicine. Abstract on PubMed. While there is one study about echinacea being effective against the common cold, it wasn’t a study of echinacea in general, but a study of Echinaforce (a specific brand of extract—and not what’s in nuun “Immunity”). “Echinacea purpurea: A Proprietary Extract of Echinacea purpurea Is Shown to be Safe and Effective in the Prevention of the Common Cold.” Abstract on PubMed.

In Summary: This Is Not Going To “Boost” Your Immunity

Also, that is A Good Thing. Your immune system is a complex system of structures and processes. It’s not something you can easily manipulate with a supplement, especially if your lifestyle involves insufficient sleep. Instead of looking for magic in a potion or a pill, why not adopt some permanent healthy habits and make some lifestyle changes? The New York Times has some suggestions. My favorite? “Eat a balanced diet, exercise, and skip unproven supplements.”

Citrus fruits contain carbohydrate, fibre, vitamin C, potassium, folate, calcium, thiamin, niacin, vitamin B6, phosphorus, magnesium, copper, riboflavin, pantothenic acid and a variety of phytochemicals. (c) Style Stock Society

In Giveaway! October 3, 2018

Turmeric, Curcumin, and You!

The first time I used turmeric, I was cooking from a recipe for an Indian curry in the kitchen of the very first apartment I rented by myself. As I was cleaning up, I spilled some of the curry on the brand-new white linoleum. Immediately I wiped it up but it left a bright yellow spot on the floor. Eek! Terrified to lose any part of my security deposit, I grabbed the first liquid cleaner I could find. The bright yellow? Promptly turned bright purple!!

Fortunately it only took a damp washcloth to wipe away the bright purple. (whew!)

Brightly colored turmeric — The vibrant color of turmeric can stain! Beware!

Turmeric is the hot ingredient du jour, and played a major role at Expo West in 2017 and 2018. Since I’m not a big fan of the “golden milk” flavor, I’m giving away a turmeric prize pack (more on that below), but first I thought I’d do a deep dive into the truth about turmeric.

Disclosure: I received the contents of the Turmeric Taster Prize Pack as a New Hope Blogger Co-op member. All of the content in this post is mine, and none of the brands included even know I am writing this.

Get Your Nerd On!(Or Start Scrolling)

Since I’m an attorney for my day job, let’s start by defining turmeric. In the United States, the Code of Federal Regulations, Title 21 (Food and Drugs), Part 73 (Listing of Color Additives Exempt from Certification), Subpart A (Foods) defines turmeric:

(a) Identity. (1) The color additive turmeric is the ground rhizome of Curcuma longa L. The definition of turmeric in this paragraph is for the purpose of identity as a color additive only, and shall not be construed as setting forth an official standard for turmeric under section 401 of the act. [Bain: Section 401 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act is “Definitions and standards for food.”]

(2) Color additive mixtures made with turmeric may contain as diluents only those substances listed in this subpart as safe and suitable in color additive mixtures for coloring foods.

(b) Uses and restrictions. Turmeric may be safely used for the coloring of foods generally, in amounts consistent with good manufacturing practice, except that it may not be used to color foods for which standards of identity have been promulgated under section 401 of the act, unless the use of added color is authorized by such standards.

(c) Labeling. The color additive and any mixtures intended solely or in part for coloring purposes prepared therefrom shall bear, in addition to the other information required by the act, labeling in accordance with the provisions of 70.25 of this chapter. [Bain: this is the labeling requirements for color additives, other than hair dyes, 21 CFR 70.25]

(d) Exemption from certification. Certification of this color additive is not necessary for the protection of the public health, and therefore batches thereof are exempt from the certification requirements of section 721(c) of the act. [Bain: Section 721 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act is “Listing and certification of color additives for foods, drugs, devices, and cosmetics.”]

21 CFR 73.600 (revised as of April 1, 2017). There is an entire separate definition for “turmeric oleoresin” at 21 CFR 73.615 (which is “the combination of flavor and color principles obtained from turmeric by extraction using any one or a combination of” specified solvents).

Hey, this is what you get when you cross a nerd with a blogger.

If you read that and wondered what the part in (a) is about “definitions and standards for food,” here it is:

Turmeric tea sampler — Multiple companies are making teas infused with turmeric

Whenever in the judgment of the Secretary such action will promote honesty and fair dealing in the interest of consumers, he shall promulgate regulations fixing and establishing for any food, under its common or usual name so far as practicable, a reasonable definition and standard of identity, a reasonable standard of quality, or reasonable standards of fill of container. No definition and standard of identity and no standard of quality shall be established for fresh or dried fruits, fresh or dried vegetables, or butter, except that definitions and standards of identity may be established for avocados, cantaloupes, citrus fruits, and melons. In prescribing any standard of fill of container, the Secretary shall give due consideration to the natural shrinkage in storage and in transit of fresh natural food and to need for the necessary packing and protective material. In the prescribing of any standard of quality for any canned fruit or canned vegetable, consideration shall be given and due allowance made for the differing characteristics of the several varieties of such fruit or vegetable. In prescribing a definition and standard of identity for any food or class of food in which optional ingredients are permitted, the Secretary shall, for the purpose of promoting honesty and fair dealing in the interest of consumers, designate the optional ingredients which shall be named on the label. Any definition and standard of identity prescribed by the Secretary for avocados, cantaloupes, citrus fruits, or melons shall relate only to maturity and to the effects of freezing. [BTW: the official version use “avocadoes” which makes me think former Vice President Quayle did the editing!]

21 USC 341. (You can find all of the nerdy goodness at http://uscode.house.gov in Title 21, Food and Drugs.)

If you don’t care about the legal stuff, start reading here.

I was surprised to learn there are six different plants called “turmeric” (see the disambiguation page here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turmeric_(disambiguation) The one I care about, of course, is the gold-yellow one: curcuma longa, ”a rhizomatous herbaceous perennial plant of the ginger family, Zingiberaceae.”

In English, it’s a plant that has underground stem that sends out roots and shoots, and if you separate that piece it can become a new plant (“rhizomatous”). It does not have a permanent woody stem, but has a stem that dies at the end of the growing season like a potato or a carrot (“herbaceous”). While the stem dies at the end of the growing season, a part of the plant survives underground and the plant can grow a new stem in the next growing season (“perennial”). This means that unlike some other plants that Americans have fixated on over the years, it’s unlikely we’re going to accidentally wipe out turmeric.

Uses of Turmeric

As a plant dye, turmeric has been used to dye clothing. (Wikipedia reports it isn’t very good for that purpose as it fades in sunlight, but another site I found claims Asian monks use it to dye their robes.) Turmeric is also used as a dye in food products, as well as in cosmetic products. (According to UKfoodguide.net it is sometimes identified by E100 on labels.) You can find turmeric as a colorant and a featured ingredient in soaps, teas, cheeses, and more.

In cooking, the turmeric root is ground up and used as a flavoring. Turmeric is what makes yellow mustard yellow. It flavors and colors a variety of curries. A little turmeric in rice turns the dish yellow and adds a little flavor. If you just run a quick web search, you’ll find millions of recipes that use turmeric. (Here are a bunch from my friends at Luvo, and here is one for roasted carrots that I think looks delicious!)

The part of turmeric that does all the cool things is called curcumin. (Note this is not the same as cumin, which is an entirely different plant.) Curcumin’s chemical formula is (1,7-bis(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)-1,6-heptadiene-3,5-dione), and it is also called diferuloylmethane; it is a polyphenol. [Hewlings/Kalman for that factoid, and for most of the rest of this paragraph.] Not all that helpfully, Wikipedia explains that polyphenols are “are a structural class of mainly natural, but also synthetic or semisynthetic, organic chemicals characterized by the presence of large multiples of phenol structural units.” Curcumin is also a curcuminoid (which has an equally unhelpful definition for those of us who are not chemistry majors). That category includes curcumin, bisdemethoxycurcumin, and demethoxycurcumin. The FDA labels curcuminoids “Generally Recognized as Safe” (GRAS), even at amounts much longer than you are ever likely to ingest (12,000/mg day).

Tasty in Curry, Questionable as Medicine?

With all the hype turmeric has gotten in the past few years, you’d think there is a bunch of science backing the effectiveness of turmeric. Nope!

What’s old is new again, as youtheory demonstrates with their Turmeric tablets

Sure, ancient people did not have microscopes and the period table, or even a basic understanding of biology (just look at the history of “hysteria”), but there wasn’t any interest in proving turmeric had health benefits until recently. Call me cynical, but that interest seems to coincide with the natural product manufacturers’ realization that adding a health claim to a turmeric product would make it much more profitable. Saying, “it tastes nice” is one thing, but if you can say “contains anti-oxidants” then you can up the price.

Ready for a total oversimplification of the science? The two main ways curcumin acts within the human body are as an antioxidant and as an anti-inflammatory. There is evidence curcumin acts to reduce markers of oxidative stress in the body. [Hewlings/Kalman] Oxidative stress and inflammation are like BFFs, and as near as I can tell from reading what’s on PubMed, one can cause the other. There is some evidence curcumin can downregulate (stop the action of) things that cause inflammation. While we’re on the topic of inflammation, that word gets tossed around WAY too much these days, especially in the fake-science and pseudoscience that is running rampant on the internet. You’ve got two ways to know you have real inflammation, and pretty much only two: one, observing something that is inflamed like a bruise or an injured body part or two, diagnostic testing by a qualified medical professional, like a blood test (other tests may be appropriate to diagnose inflammation). If you vaguely feel crummy, you can’t just magically tell inflammation is the cause or get diagnosed over the internet.

Some of the promising research on curcumin (not turmeric) has been for arthritis and the cluster of symptoms known as metabolic sydrome. The Hewlings/Kalman article has a decedent overview and summary of the state of the research up to 2017. Unfortunately, most of the research to date has been animal research, not human research; and while we have some means to logically extrapolate, the results of even well-designed animal studies do not always translate to how a substance actually works in humans.

Turmeric has been used medicinally for a long time, though until recently there wasn’t much research to support the effectiveness. While we now have additional research and data out, the health benefits of turmeric specifically, and curcumin generally, is not as rock-solid as the ads for turmeric-based products would have you believe. Even the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health states, “Claims that curcuminoids found in turmeric help to reduce inflammation aren’t supported by strong studies.” [NCCIH]

Important Safety Tips!

Talk to your doctor or pharmacist. As with ANY supplement, herb, vitamin, or mineral you use on a regular basis: tell your doctor! If you’re interested in trying a supplement of any kind and you also take prescription medication, please talk to your doctor or pharmacist first. You’ve probably come across at least one mention of an older person who got sicker or died because they drank grapefruit juice with their medication. There is some evidence that curcumin can affect anticoagulant and antiplatelet drugs, and interact poorly with GERD and some other health conditions.

natural Factors Muscle Recovery and — natural Factors has an entire line of supplements, the curcuminRich line

Understand this: turmeric is NOT what’s been studied. Remember that all of the studies and papers out there are testing refined curcumin compounds and NOT mere ground-up turmeric like you can buy in the spice section. Turmeric is only about 3% curcumin!! In addition, most of the studies don’t use pure curcumin because the human body can’t simply grab all the goodness out of the curcuminoids; instead, they enhance the bioavailability (making it easier for your body to grab the goods) by adding another substance. One of the more common ways to enhance the bioavailability of the ingredients in certain supplements that I have observed (by reading labels) is something called piperine, which is a substance extracted from black pepper.

Remember, you’re not a lab rat. In addition, most of the studies of curcumin have been done either in petri dishes or in animals–not in people. This makes sense, since it’s unethical to test potential medical things on human being until there is sufficient evidence that (1) it’s safe, and (2) it’s probably going to be effective. After all, if there is a treatment that will definitely cure your cancer, and something that will probably work but if it does not then you will die, it would be cruel to put you in a double-blind study instead of just giving you the treatment that is proven to work. In any case, animal studies can be useful, but human bodies do not respond the same way that mouse bodies (or any other animal bodies) do. Oh, and some of the published studies were retracted due to problems with potential data manipulation (read: lying). [Blakemore]

As with any substance, too much can cause problems. With turmeric, you’re pretty much good to eat your curries every day–remember curcumin is just one component of turmeric. If you’re scarfing down huge quantities of curcumin, like drinking the tea all day and swallowing a fistful of capsules as well, you might have some unfortunate side effects. Most things you eat too much of will cause some tummy troubles, from indigestion and nausea to vomiting and diarrhea. [Hall]

gaia herbs golden milk — **“Golden Milk” mixes are readily available in the grocery store**

References

Harriet Hall.” Turmeric: Tasty in Curry, Questionable as Medicine.” Science-Based Medicine, June 17, 2014. Available online. This is now four years old, but is a very readable overview.

Susan J. Hewlings and Douglas S. Kalman. “Curcumin: A Review of Its’ Effects on Human Health.” Foods. 2017 Oct; 6(10): 92. PMCID: PMC5664031; PMID: 29065496. Available online. Not as old, but much more technical; great for getting your nerd on.

NCCIH (National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health), “Turmeric.” https://nccih.nih.gov/health/turmeric/ataglance.htm (This article has a bibliography at the bottom that includes many articles available online.)

Gid-MK. “The Bitter Truth about Turmeric.” January 30 2018. Medium. Super readable, mostly focused on poor (misleading) media coverage of the study on curcumin and Alzheimers.

Erin Blakemore. “What should you make of the health claims for turmeric?” August 20, 2017, Washington Post. A quick read, covers some of the potential problems with studies in curcumin, including that it might be some other compound delivering the claimed benefits.

Turmeric Taster Prize Pack!

There is ONE prize, which consists of the following items:

natural Factors Muscle Recovery & Growth Curcumizer 5.5oz (approx. retail $22)
gaia herbs golden milk 3.7 oz (approx. retail $15)
Golden Goddess Turmeric Chocolate Elixir sample x2, Turmeric Chai Elixir sample x2, and turmeric infused tea sample tin
Tea samples: yogi tea Honey Chai Turmeric Vitality, pukka turmeric glow, Republic of Tea turmeric
Nature’s Path Golden Turmeric cereal sample x2
youtheory Turmeric tablet samples x2
Raw and Root Organic Tur Latte Golden Milk Infusion ($22 on Amazon)

a Rafflecopter giveaway