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Medicinal spices

Growing up in an Indian household, I was constantly surrounded by spices, herbs and folk medicines. Everything from sore throats to constipation seemed treatable with the contents of our kitchen cupboards!

Most second-generation kids will concur: Indian families seem to have an encyclopaedic knowledge for complementary health cures. I have vivid memories of being fed a spoonful of toasted spices and salt whenever I had tummy ache. My father would always make a mixture of almonds, clarified butter and sugar during my exams, claiming it was ‘brain food’. And, of course, my mother was years ahead of the ‘Spiced Turmeric Latte’ trend.

You can imagine the number of ‘I told you so’s’ I got when I started researching the clinical validity of traditional treatments. My Indian heritage is steeped in Ayurvedic tradition and what fascinates me is the premise of ‘alternative therapies’ having the potential to become recognised treatment in the battle against chronic disease. Learning about the marriage of flavour and medicinal property was revolutionary for me.

The positive clinical effects of food are unlikely to be caused by a single ingredient, like a spice or herb, so it’s important to maintain a holistic perspective. Remember that any benefit from the inclusion of an ingredient has to be taken in the context of a ‘good diet’. Reiterating what I stated at the start of this book: do not treat food like a pill. Concoctions from herbalists or ‘natural’ food supplements are not panaceas or cure-alls, in exactly the same way that anti-diabetic medications will not manage a patient’s condition if they don’t make changes in their lifestyle to complement treatment. Nonetheless, this does not stop me getting excited about the incredible effects of spices.

Spices make food visibly enticing by adding colour and enhancing the flavour and aroma of the most uninspiring ingredients. Using precise techniques, we can quantify their high antioxidant capacity and activity, which explains why we’ve used spice as a preservative for centuries. There is enough evidence to support the daily inclusion of nature’s wonderful spices and here are some staples I believe everyone should have in the store cupboard and the clinical evidence as to why.

Turmeric

Turmeric is probably one of the most extensively researched spices we have in nutritional science and it’s now commonly accepted that daily dietary inclusion can prevent bowel cancer. There’s also evidence that it could be beneficial for helping dementia, chronic pain syndromes and inflammatory conditions.¹⁵¹ It’s astonishing what effects a single ingredient can potentially have on the body.

As is usually the case in nutritional therapy, supplementation using high doses of one of turmeric’s active compounds, ‘curcumin’, has had mixed results.^152,153 Turmeric is not just curcumin. The spice is made up of hundreds of different plant chemicals of which curcumin is just one. These studies teach us a lesson: use whole plants as much as possible rather than isolated chemicals. A single component is not likely to be responsible for their health benefits; it’s the complex arrangement of molecules in whole ingredients that we find in nature.

Herbs and spices

These are some of my favourite herbs and spices to use when I’m cooking. I always have these in my kitchen and I highly recommend that you get as many of them as you can into your diet.

I use ground turmeric in everything from Malaysian curry pastes to soups and stews; and if you can get hold of the fresh stuff that looks like ginger with bright orange flesh, even better. Using fresh turmeric in cooking with other ingredients like chilli and black pepper (that contain capsaicin and piperine) heightens its effect and availability in the body.¹⁵⁴ If nothing else gets you interested in ‘food as medicine’, this herbaceous plant from the ginger family should.

Garlic

I’ve been raised to expect garlic to be used in most dishes cooked at home. But even now, whether I’m cooking Italian, Chinese or Moroccan food, garlic forms the flavour base for most of my meals. Enough research has been published for me to believe that it can lower your risk of cancer, and laboratory studies demonstrate its anti-bacterial and anti-viral properties.^155–158 It may have a positive impact on human gut microbe populations^159,160 too, and it’s so easy to incorporate into meals. It’s definitely an ingredient I get into my food on a daily basis (you’ll notice how often it’s used in my recipes).

Garlic is also so versatile. You can simply cut the top off a whole bulb, drizzle it with olive oil and roast it for 20 minutes, squeezing the cooked pulp out of its papery skins and storing it in the fridge. I use it as a spread or flavour enhancer when making quick meals. Look out for fresh, smoked garlic and my current favourite, black garlic: it has a sweet balsamic vinegary taste and is a wonder ingredient in pesto and sauces.

Ginger

Here’s another spice often used in Indian cooking, with a host of studies examining its effect on everything from cancer prevention to nausea.^161,162 Gingerols, shagoals and zingerones are all antioxidants thought to be responsible for its health effects.¹⁶³ I use fresh ginger as much as possible for its pungent taste and powerful volatile compounds. It’s a staple base for lots of my recipes and sometimes I’ll boil some up with honey to treat a sore throat. There are many innovative ways to use ginger in drinks, tonics, sauces and curries. My recipes will show you how easy it is to get this marvellous spice into your system.

There are well recognised polyphenol compounds in ginger and it’s been suggested in the research that we class it as a functional food because of its effects on the body. I use it in my Medicinal Broth (see here), I pop ginger skin into tea, I grate it into Asian-style dressings (see here) and it’s cheap and available to everyone. Get it into your kitchen.

Sumac

This vibrant burgundy-coloured spice has the most wonderful, warm citrus flavour. It’s used in Iranian and Turkish cuisines in tagines and stews or simply to garnish plates with a sour note. It also happens to be one of the most antioxidant-rich ingredients on the planet.^164,165 It’s been used in traditional medicine to treat everything from diabetes¹⁶⁶ to cardiac disease, but unfortunately the extent of research we currently have to support these claims is mainly performed in a petri dish or on animals.¹⁶⁷ The research is one to watch.¹⁶⁸

Made from drying a species of the plant genus Rhus, sumac is generally underutilised in cooking, but I use it all the time for its incredible flavour profile and vibrancy. A sprinkle will transform everything from poached eggs to natural yoghurt. Try it out in some of my Middle Eastern-inspired dishes (see Persian Chicken Thighs here, and Spicy Baked Eggs here).

Cumin

Cumin is a functional spice that contains myriad compounds thought to be anti-bacterial and blood-sugar regulating (among many other claims of traditional medicine).¹⁶⁹ Unfortunately, again, there are not many human clinical trials examining the exact effect of this spice and when there are, they’re not conducted well.¹⁷⁰ What we do know is that it contains a really high antioxidant capacity as well as particular compounds that have been implicated in reducing inflammation and fighting cancer.^169,171,172

I couldn’t cook without cumin (or ‘jeera’, as it’s known in my kitchen). Used as ground seeds or whole seeds, it has an assertive taste that is distinctly Indian in my mind, but is very easily incorporated into a variety of dishes. Use it to transform your roast dinners, spice up your omelette or add an exotic hint to any meal. And, if you use it frequently, buy a bag of it from your local Indian store, not a thimble-sized jar!

Cinnamon

Another aromatic, antioxidant-packed, flavour bomb. The compounds in cinnamon have been investigated in order to explain why this spice has anti-inflammatory effects and improves metabolic syndrome.¹⁷³ Study after study reports potential mechanisms of action, and the biology, for someone interested in why spices have medicinal benefits, is groundbreaking. Reading some of the texts is like going back into pharmacology lectures at medical school. It’s a fascinating field of research that I hope will unravel more information, but for now, experiment with cinnamon in my spices, dressings and pastes (see here) to elevate simple dishes.

Its versatility permeates through savoury and sweet dishes, drinks and dressings, modern European cuisine to rural Indian meals. It’s no wonder cinnamon used to be more valuable than gold in Egyptian times. Invest in a large, high-quality tub of it – you cannot have a kitchen without this spice.

Basil, rosemary, thyme

The incredible health properties of herbs and spices are not exclusive to those shipped in from the Far East or Africa. We have some amazing flavour enhancers that are easy to grow here in the UK in a pot in the kitchen, and that have as much functional benefit as the most expensive and beautiful saffron from Iran.

Basil, rosemary and thyme may seem unassuming, but the library of chemicals held within their leaves is inspiring. At the average ‘doses’ that we tend to use in cooking, they contain exceptionally important dietary sources of chemicals that reduce oxidative stress and attenuate inflammation.¹⁷⁴ The theories of heightened inflammation and its role in lifestyle-related disease, such as blood pressure, stroke and diabetes, is very fashionable in medical conferences these days.¹⁷⁵ Any inclusion of foods that can reduce our inflammatory burden is welcome, and these delicious, cheap, widely available herbs are worth every stalk.¹⁷⁶

Adding roughly chopped basil to Italian recipes adds an extra depth of flavour. Thyme, perhaps one of the first herbs to be recognised for its medicinal qualities, is in everything, from my fresh barbecue rubs (see here) to my twist on shakshuka (see here). Pestos, marinades, green curry pastes, aioli … the options are limitless and, as a doctor, I cannot recommend highly enough that you include these herbs in your daily diet.

Any inclusion of foods that can reduce our inflammatory burden are welcome, and these delicious, cheap, widely available herbs are worth every stalk.

Seeing past the herb garden

We really need to start investigating spice compounds further. We know that they are safe for consumption because we’ve essentially been testing them by including them in our diets for years,¹⁷⁷ and exciting early research suggests a potential role for their use in treating different conditions.²² Don’t get too fixated on the exact amounts of antioxidants or measurements of compounds in an individual spice. First, not all the evidence looks at specific ‘dosing’ of ingredients, and second, they have varying effects in our body. The best advice is to consume a complement of different herbs and spices daily. Their synergistic effects have been shown to heighten their physiological properties,¹⁷³ as well as adding a delicious complexity to food.

These are some of my favourite spices, but it’s by no means an exhaustive list. I’ve also written a section on spice combinations in the recipes section (see here) to help you get creative. Label your own spice blends – it’ll impress your friends and help get kids into the kitchen!