Spice Up Your Life: Three Spices to Enhance Your Meals and Body

July 13, 2018

There’s a big misconception that for food to be healthy and nutritious, they have to be bland. That’s so far from the truth! We believe in that order to use food to heal the body, it has to be delicious!

 On top of being a nutrition and wellness expert, Just Add Water™ founder, Serena Poon, is a classically trained chef who graduated from the esteemed Le Cordon Bleu. One of her secrets to enhancing her dishes in both taste and health benefits? Spices!

Below are three spices that you should stock up to enhance your meals and body:

 

Cinnamon

Cinnamon is a well-known spice that many of us already have in the pantry. While we associate cinnamon mostly as a dessert flavoring (cinnamon buns, anyone?), it’s actually incredibly versatile due to its sweet and savory flavor. Throughout history, it’s also been used for its medicinal properties. Cinnamon is rich in protective polyphenols and flavonoids, giving it antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, anti-microbial and immune system-boosting properties!

 

Star Anise

Star Anise is commonly used in Asian recipes to give dishes a warm, licorice flavor. It’s also one of the ingredients in the popular five-spice powder. Both Traditional Chinese Medicine and Indian Ayurveda use Star Anise to warm the body and to boost circulation. In modern medicine, Star Anise was found to contain shikimic acid, a potent anti-viral that is currently used as the main active ingredient in the flu treatment, Tamiflu.

 

Turmeric

One of the biggest wellness trends of 2018 is Golden Milk, a delicious Ayurvedic elixir featuring turmeric. That’s because turmeric is not only delicious and warming, it’s also high in anti-inflammatory and contains antioxidant properties.  Traditional Chinese Medicine often uses turmeric to help women with menstrual issues. New studies are showing that curcumin, found in turmeric, may also help with rheumatoid arthritis due to its high anti-inflammatory nature!

 

Happy Wellness!

XO

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