This Spice Can Help You Drop Weight and Lose Fat

Erica Bossert on Nutrition

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You have all most likely heard of the super power spice, turmeric, that has supposedly been helping many people burn fat and fight obesity. You may be skeptical to the claims that you can lose weight while not changing your diet or you may have tried adding it to your diet to see if it really works as well as the media is saying. What is it about turmeric that supposedly makes weight loss a piece of cake? I will not only explain how turmeric can help you to burn fat, but also the even more significant benefits it provides for your health, such as diabetes.

First, I will give a little background information of turmeric, the miracle spice. According to B. Aggarwal’s 2010 article “Targeting Inflammation – Induced Obesity and Metabolic Diseases by Curcumin and Other Nutraceuticals” from the Annual Review of Nutrition, turmeric, which is primarily used in India, has been used for its flavor and medicinal qualities, such as as far back as 3000 BC. Tumeric contains omega-3 fatty acids, volatile oils, and the most important ingredient in turmeric that you should know is known as curcumin. This is the yellow pigment that you see in turmeric, which contains various natural antioxidants.

Now that you know more basic information about turmeric, let’s cut to the chase and discuss more about how it can help you lose weight and improve your health. A 2009 study by the Agricultural Research Service shows that mice that ate a high-fat diet plus supplements of turmeric over a 12-week period had reduced their body-weight versus mice fed a high fat diet without supplementation (Bliss, 2009). Many other studies express that curcumin increases fatty-acid oxidation in adipocytes. In other words, curcumin induces the breakdown of fat cells (Aggarwal, 2010).  Other studies on humans examining the correlation between curcumin and obesity-related issues shows that curcumin reduces blood sugar levels in diabetics and it lowers LDL-cholesterol, or bad cholesterol, and raises HDL-cholesterol, or good cholesterol (Aggarwal, 2010).

To conclude what I have presented about turmeric, this spice can help you break down fatty acids, thus aiding in fat loss, and it can also decrease symptoms associated with obesity, such as diabetes. There are so many benefits from just one, simple ingredient that has been around for thousands of years. Next time you want to spice up a meal or just want to speed up your weight loss, why not add some turmeric?