Are You Sprinkling Enough ‘Medicine’ On Your Plate?

Hippocrates’s ‘Food is Medicine’ cannot be more directly relevant than in the case of herbs and spices commonly used in the kitchen.

This might feel like a small detail in the picture of often multifaceted health-promoting nutritional plans I prepare for my clients. However, the simple addition of common culinary herbs and spices in meals on a regular basis is one powerful way for looking after your ‘body terrain’, your body’s inner environment that is ultimately responsible for keeping you healthy and able to fight off disease.

How so? 

Many common culinary herbs and spices contain a variety of bioactive components that interact positively with our physiology. For thousands of years our ancestors have included them in their meals not only because they make food taste good but also for their healing properties.

Common culinary herbs and spices help protect us from infections (antimicrobial and antifungal properties), gently lower oxidative stress (antioxidants) and inflammation (anti-inflammatory), regulate blood sugar levels, and support detoxification, immune function, and more. Many of these have cancer cell growth-inhibitory effects, too.  

My Top Six Favourite Culinary Herbs and Spices

The list of the tasty wonders to keep in the kitchen could be much longer, and each alone would deserve an entire article! Here I wanted to include my personal favourite ‘must haves’ that can be easily included in many dishes, with just a brief description of the main health benefits that have good supportive evidence:

Top Tips for Maximum Benefit

• When herbs and spices are consumed with each other and other nutrient-rich whole foods, this produces a synergistic effect, increasing the absorption of health-promoting compounds

• Use herbs and spices to replace less healthy ingredients like sugar, ultra processed condiments and excess salt

• Using garlic, rosemary, ginger, parsley, oregano, etc. in marinades helps reduce the formation of heterocyclic amines (HCAs), which are created when meat is cooked at high temperatures

• Dried herbs are more potent than fresh herbs, but whether you use spices fresh or dried, you'll still get beneficial compounds

• As much as possible choose organically-grown herbs and spices, to minimise pesticides and other contaminants

• Avoid frying or grilling because this can decrease spices' antioxidants. Gentle cooking at medium temperatures, simmering or stewing foods on the other hand can actually heighten the antioxidant levels of herbs and spices

• Many herbs and spices are used to make delicious teas, which is a practical way to easily harness their benefits.

References

• Culinary herbs and spices: their bioactive properties, the contribution of polyphenols and the challenges in deducing their true health benefits.

• Impacts of turmeric and its principal bioactive curcumin on human health: Pharmaceutical, medicinal, and food applications: A comprehensive review

• Orally consumed ginger and human health: an umbrella review. 

• Immunomodulation and anti-inflammatory effects of garlic compounds. 

• Light-to-moderate raw garlic consumption frequency is inversely associated with thickened carotid intima-media thickness: a population-based study. 

• The effect of different amounts of cinnamon consumption on blood glucose in healthy adult individuals. 

• Therapeutic effects of rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) and its active constituents on nervous system disorders. 

• Rosemary as an adjunctive treatment in patients with major depressive disorder: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. 

• Salvia (Sage): a review of its potential cognitive-enhancing and protective effects.