Spice Things Up A Bit At Mealtime For Better Health And Memory

Chuck Bednar for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online
While the old proverb claims that variety is the spice of life, a pair of recently-published studies offers a different take on things by indicating that spices can actually enhance your life in a variety of ways – specifically, by boosting the memory of those at risk of cognitive impairment and by reducing heart disease risk.
In one study, which appears in the Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Emeritus Professor Mark Wahlqvist from the Monash Asia Institute at Monash University and his colleagues indicated that adding one gram of the spice turmeric to breakfast could enhance the cognitive function of those who are in the early stages of diabetes, a disease which has been linked to dementia.
Wahlqvist explained that the world’s aging population means that the factors which predispose people to diabetes are on the rise, and that early intervention could help prevent or reduce the impact of the disease. In their study, the authors tested the working memory of people who were at least 60 years of age and had untreated pre-diabetes.
“Working memory is widely thought to be one of the most important mental faculties, critical for cognitive abilities such as planning, problem solving and reasoning,” the professor explained in a statement. “Assessment of working memory is simple and convenient, but it is also very useful in the appraisal of cognition and in predicting future impairment and dementia.”
In their placebo-controlled study, the research team gave subjects one gram of turmeric with a breakfast of white bread, testing their memory both before and after the meal. Turmeric, a yellow spice commonly used in Asian cooking, contains a substance known as curcumin that previous studies have found reduces the risk of dementia.
“We found that this modest addition to breakfast improved working memory over six hours in older people with pre-diabetes,” Professor Wahlqvist said. “Our findings with turmeric are consistent with these observations, insofar as they appear to influence cognitive function where there is disordered energy metabolism and insulin resistance.”
In a separate study, a team of nutritionists from Penn State University found that spices and herbs that are rich in antioxidants could help improve triglyceride concentrations and other blood lipids. Triglyceride levels rise after eating a high-fat meal, they explained, which could increase a person’s risk of heart disease.
By adding garlic powder, rosemary, oregano, cinnamon, cloves, paprika, turmeric, ginger and black pepper into a meal, however, the study authors found that a person’s triglyceride levels could be reduced by up 30 percent versus an identical meal prepared without the special spice blend.
“The metabolic effects of spices and herbs and their efficacy and safety relative to traditional drug therapy represent an exciting area for future research given the public health significance of cardiovascular disease,” biobehavioral health and nutritional sciences professor Sheila G. West and nutritional sciences research associate Ann C. Skulas-Ray wrote in the latest edition of the journal Nutrition Today.
West and Skulas-Ray analyzed three different types of substances – spice blends, cinnamon and garlic. They reviewed several cinnamon studies which looked at the impact of the spice on both diabetics and non-diabetics, and found that it could help diabetics by significantly reducing cholesterol and other blood lipids in the study participants. However, it appeared to have no effect on those without diabetes.
The garlic studies proved inconclusive, and the researchers believe the reason was that the trials used a wide range of garlic doses, ranging from nine milligrams of garlic oil to 10 grams of raw garlic. However, West and Skulas-Ray said that, across the research studies, there was an eight percent decrease in total cholesterol reported with garlic consumption, accounting for a 38 percent decrease in risk of heart problems in 50-year-old adults.
As for the spice-blend study, West, Skulas-Ray and their colleagues prepared meals on two separate days for six men, ages 30 to 65, who were overweight but were otherwise in good health. The meals were identical (chicken, bread and a dessert biscuit), except that two tablespoons of a high-antioxidant culinary spice blend was added to the test meal.
“The researchers followed the participants for three hours after each meal, drawing blood every 30 minutes,” the university said in a statement. “Antioxidant activity in the blood increased by 13 percent after the men ate the test meal when compared to the control meal, which may help prevent cardiovascular disease and other chronic diseases.”
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