Does turmeric help weight loss?
Dr Pihowich, ND at True Potential Health Services in Sasaktoon Saskatchewan is giving you the “Skinny” on turmeric, and about its recent popularity as a weight-loss Aid.
What the heck… turmeric?
Turmeric is rising in popularity. You know that bright and deep yellow spice? It’s a traditional tuber-derived spice from India that has an earthy-bright flavour, and contains a component called curcumin. For the past 10+ years it’s been touted as a cure for inflammation, but more recently has been amounting evidence for its use in obesity and weight loss. It’s not all the same.
How bioavailable is turmeric?
Much of the research on turmeric states that is highly bioavailable. So what does that mean? Well, the active part of turmeric, curcumin, is resinous –meaning, it doesn’t dissolve well in water. This means you’re likely to reap more of its benefit if you take it in a form that is dissolved in fat or oil. It turns out that cooking with the spice with fat is healthier, and even adding in some black or white pepper may increase its effectiveness!
So… does turmeric it really help with weight loss?
The short answer is YES.
It’s very likely that turmeric/curcumin can help along side healthy habits in an attempt to treat obesity. It turns out it does some very interesting things signalling fat cells that can help with weight loss and even preventing/reversing fatty liver!(1)
Furthermore, a meta-analysis showed that turmeric was effective in reducing BMI, Weight and Waist Circumference. (2) Even though we’ve known for a long time that it’s good for inflammation, it seems like it’s good for a lot more than that! This is all very promising information for treating metabolic syndrome, obesity, and even diabetes.
So go ahead and start cooking with it, we have many good recipes on our blog using turmeric. like this recipe for Golden Milk by Dr. Marcoux. And book an appointment with us if you’d like to find out more about supplementation for weight loss, obesity and diabetes.
1. Aggarwal BB. Targeting inflammation-induced obesity and metabolic diseases by curcumin and other nutraceuticals. Annual review of nutrition 2010;30:173-99.
2. Akbari M, Lankarani KB, Tabrizi R, Ghayour-Mobarhan M, Peymani P, Ferns G, Ghaderi A, Asemi Z. The Effects of Curcumin on Weight Loss Among Patients With Metabolic Syndrome and Related Disorders: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Frontiers in pharmacology 2019;10:649.
