Today Turmeric And Its Benefits Are Being Researched Everywhere

The subcontinent did not give just zero and ayurvedic (parent of modern medicine) medicine to the modern world. Turmeric, clove, tea, yoga are just a few of the many that it has offered to the West in a silver platter. And the world changed for ever since then.

Vasco De Gama, the Portuguese traveler, would not have come to India and sailed back just to break a sixteenth century Guinness record. He had an agenda. Taking Turmeric back to Spain and Portugal was one of them!

Meanwhile, modern science continues to find the very many goodies about this enigmatic spice Turmeric. If it was not for its yellow ochre color and innate qualities, it may have sat on the shelf for ever. It attracted attention!

Today Turmeric and its benefits are being researched every where as if it was the next distant planet with ample water on it - ready to be conquered, invaded.

That's what the scientists have been doing now a days all over. Invading the very many secrets of desi/deshi food, spices, plants, herbs and animals.

Rutgers scientists have now found that the curry spice turmeric has significant prostate cancer preventive qualities in laboratory mice. Prostate cancer is the second-leading cause of cancer death in American men.

Their research also shows adding curry, spice paste, to your diet, along with certain vegetables holds real potential for treating and even preventing prostate cancer.

For example, adding cruciferous vegetables, like cauliflower with curry, helps treat established prostate cancers. And, in addition to cauliflower and kale -- cabbage, broccoli, brussels sprouts, kohlrabi, watercress and turnips -- contain a chemical that is a significant cancer-preventive.

It all boils down to a pair of crucial chemicals that "hold real potential for the treatment and prevention of prostate cancer," the Rutgers study stated. The vegetables contain phenethyl isothiocyanate, or PEITC, while the curry contains curcumin, a yellow pigment found in the spice itself. Both are considered phytochemicals -- nonnutritive substances in plants that have protective, antioxidant or anti-disease qualities.

These scientists have noted that although prostate cancer rates are high in the U.S, they are much lower in India, where people eat a lot of curry and vegetables. In fact. majority of the Indians remain vegetarians even today regardless of where they are living.

Curry itself has also prompted other significant findings.

Last year alone, the University of Texas found it inhibited the growth of both skin cancer and breast cancer cells, while the University of California at Los Angeles found it stopped the spread of harmful brain plaque in patients with Alzheimer's disease.

Is that the reason why we desis/deshis eat curry so much as if it was going out of business? May be! Some habits are passed on in families without footnotes. Eating curry may be one of them!

Source: ID