Our Turmeric, part 2

At Astro Botanico, I have a saying: “1+1=7”…

...which is to say I believe that it’s important to always consider how the interactions between the combined elements of a thing can come together to create a greater overall effect on an organism better than individual, isolated ones. This is called “synergy”, or, “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”.

Conversely, most people use plant medicine in the form of isolated compounds in order to have a direct action on a specific body part…i.e., if I have “this” problem, then I should take “this” supplement…or, 1+1=2. But the human body isn’t a static machine with isolated systems and body parts…which means you can’t do something to one part without affecting literally every other part in some way as well.

Likewise, the healing properties of plants aren’t due to single, isolated constituents found in the plant, but rather, they rely on a complex array of interactions between hundreds and thousands of unique botanical compounds working together to provide synergistic benefits. And while I’m specifically talking here about the properties contained in ONE plant, keep in mind this whole concept of “synergy” magnifies tremendously when we consider botanical formulations made of multiple plants.

It’s not to say that single active constituents don’t have a time and place, because they certainly do. The problem is that most people are sold on the idea of long-term supplementation of single-action constituents as a means of addressing chronic dis-ease - which can be both dangerous, ineffective, and expensive, especially when done long-term. It’s a far wiser strategy, then, to utilize plant medicine as a means to achieve wellness BEFORE one gets to a state of dis-ease needing plant medicine to overcome illness.

Now, at one point in (pre-supplementation) human history, our regular, daily consumption of wild plants also included micro-doses of medicinal compounds that were often present in the plants. This is what it means to say "Food is medicine and medicine is food." If you've eaten wild plants before, you’ve probably noticed that many of them have a bitter taste. That bitterness is the medicine (or poison, depending on the plant and dose.) But for the plant, those bitter phytochemicals and compounds serve as protection for the plant to prevent them from being over-consumed and destroyed by predators.

However, in order to appeal to our modern palates, we've either bred much of the bitterness out of our plant foods or stopped eating them altogether - and in the process, eliminated our daily micro-doses of medicine. Breeding out the bitterness also had the unfortunate consequence of reducing the plants’ innate protective mechanisms, making them more susceptible to dis-ease and predation - thereby necessitating the use of pesticides to keep them alive.

And to add insult to injury, we’ve swapped out eating real food in favor of overeating “food-like products” that have very-little-to-no nutritional value, and as our bodies get sicker, we end up spending our money on pharmaceutical drugs and supplements that are derived from the medicinal constituents found in the plants instead of just regularly consuming a wide variety of the plants themselves - first - to keep us in a healthy state.

Crazy, huh?

Take turmeric, for example. In the Western world, most people only know and use turmeric in the form of curcumin - which is the primary polyphenol found in the turmeric root responsible for its anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving properties for which it’s so popularly used. And sadly, in doing so, they end up missing out on a whole host of beneficial compounds that act in synergy with the entire complexity of constituents found in the whole plant.

Even worse, many people mistakenly operate under the dangerous misbelief that “if a little is good, then more is better” and end up taking too much curcumin…and believe it or not, you CAN take too much curcumin…and of course, the herbalism world takes the hit for this mentality.

By focusing on a single botanical constituent found in a plant and then standardizing the dose to then be used in a pharmacological manner to try and eliminate a dis-eased state, the nutraceutical industry is merely borrowing a page from the pharmaceutical playbook…which, again, isn’t necessarily a bad thing when a body is in crisis mode…but it’s also not the best FIRST strategy for optimizing wellness.

You see, turmeric isn’t just the sum of its curcuminoids. It also contains turmerone, zingerone, phellandrene, cineole, sabinene, and borneol…as well as fat, carotenoids, Vitamin A and E, magnesium, silicon, iron, manganese, niacin, potassium, selenium, and sodium…and hundreds of other compounds, all of which work together to make turmeric one of the most medicinally potent spices in the world.

There are thousands of studies showing benefits for several hundred health conditions - including traumatic injury, pain, arthritis, rheumatism, swelling, gout, joint pain, menstrual pain, amenorrhea, dysmenorrhea, uterine tumors, bile secretion, gallstones, poor digestion, abdominal pain, hepatitis, liver congestion, fat intolerance, food allergies, dementia, T2D, fatty liver, bacterial infection, intestinal parasites, eczema, athlete’s foot, dysbiosis, IBS, accesses, wounds, bruises, and toothache…to name just a few.

Turmeric beneficially modulates over 175 distinct physiological actions and is as effective as 14 different pharmaceutical drugs - minus the side effects.

All in all, turmeric doesn’t just help you fight dis-ease when you have it…but taken properly in culinary doses (in conjunction with a healthy lifestyle and environment) turmeric actually helps optimize overall wellness. Which is the point, really…at least the one I try and teach my clients: don’t wait until you’re suffering from a health crisis to start becoming proactive about your health and in need of heroic doses of plant medicine to help your body heal.

Instead, look to “food as medicine” - the daily, regular consumption of culinary doses of medicine to help keep you well, and, ideally, stave off the need for heroics as long as possible.

One of the reasons why I created Astro Botanico was to share with everyone the very same things I share with my family, friends, and clients to help them nourish their bodies and create good health.

The turmeric I use in my golden powders at Astro Botanico has been organically cultivated in the same, traditional manner for over several hundred years - grown by a collective of women farmers in the Lakadong village on the western foothills of Jaintia in Meghalaya, India. Thanks to the extremely fertile alluvial soil it’s grown in, Lakadong turmeric is known as the best turmeric in the world for both its flavor and its high curcumin content (7-12%).

In this way, these golden powders are an excellent way to consume turmeric (as well as a wide array of other beneficial botanical compounds and medicinal mushrooms) on a daily basis in culinary doses to help inspire overall optimal wellness while nurturing the body, mind, and spirit.