Tasty Curry Might Have a Fringe Benefit
By
Kathleen Fackelmann
Five
years ago Darci Jayne hardly ever touched
a vegetable and pretty much lived on pizza,
pasta and fast food.
That
diet led to weight gain and health problems,
including severe joint pain. "I was
close to 200 pounds and getting scared,"
she says.
By
cutting portion sizes she lost 50 pounds
but always felt as if she were on a diet.
Then Jayne took an Indian cooking class
that emphasized fresh vegetables and curry
spices.
She
began to whip up an Indian dinner once
or twice a week -- and soon she noticed
she wasn't always looking for a late-night
snack. And the curry in the food offered
her a bonus: It seemed to ease the pain
and swelling in her joints.
"I
have arthritis," says Jayne, 55.
"But
I'm moving better now."
Preliminary
research suggests Jayne may be right.
A study in the November issue of Arthritis
& Rheumatism suggests turmeric, one
component of curry spice, almost completely
prevented joint swelling in rats with
arthritis. Other studies have suggested
that the spice could protect against diseases
such as heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer's,
a degenerative brain disease that afflicts
nearly 5 million people in the USA.
Rates
of Alzheimer's in India are about four
times lower than in the USA, says Gregory
Cole, a researcher at the University of
California-Los Angeles. His studies suggest
that curry contains a powerful substance
that might protect the brain from damage
that leads to Alzheimer's.
Surprising
findings in mice
Can scientists prove curry wards off such
diseases as Alzheimer's or cancer? Not
yet, says Bharat Aggarwal at the University
of Texas-Houston. But he says the growing
file on curry includes compelling evidence
gleaned from animal and human studies.
The
findings from Western science fit with
what traditional Indian healers have long
said about turmeric. "They call it
the spice of life," says P. Murali
Doraiswamy, an Alzheimer's expert at Duke
University in Durham, N.C.
For
centuries, doctors trained in Ayurvedic
medicine, a traditional medical system
in India, have turned to turmeric to treat
inflammatory diseases such as arthritis,
says Janet Funk, a researcher at the University
of Kansas. In the USA, many people with
arthritis take over-the-counter supplements
that contain curcumin, the active ingredient
in turmeric.
In
the November study, Funk and her colleagues
gave rats that were bred to develop rheumatoid
arthritis injections of turmeric. "The
turmeric almost completely prevented the
onset of arthritis," Funk says. The
spice also seemed to help stop joint destruction
in rats that had already started to develop
the disease, she says.
Curry
also may offer some protection against
cancer. "Indians eat from 100 to
200 milligrams of curry every day, and
that might be enough to prevent cancer,"
says Aggarwal of the M.D. Anderson Cancer
Center at the University of Texas.
The
curcumin in curry seems to shut down genes
that trigger the development and the spread
of breast cancer, animal studies in Aggarwal's
lab suggest. And a preliminary human study
suggests curcumin supplements might --
in a handful of cases -- be able to stabilize
pancreatic cancer, he says.
Epidemiology
studies in humans also have linked frequent
use of turmeric spice to lower rates of
breast, prostate and colon cancer, he
says.
Large
clinical studies still needed
Other research suggests curry might shield
the brain from Alzheimer's, Cole says.
The studies on curry and Alzheimer's include:
*A test-tube study by researchers at UCLA
in October showed that curcumin could
help clear the human brain of toxic protein
deposits thought to cause the memory loss
and confusion of Alzheimer's.
*A
study of more than 1,000 older men in
Singapore last year found that those who
ate lots of curry-spiced food did better
on memory tests than those who rarely
ate the spice.
The findings from Singapore suggest curry
may help keep the aging brain in top shape.
But to get the proof that curcumin fights
cancer or Alzheimer's or arthritis, researchers
will have to conduct large clinical trials,
Cole says, and those studies will be expensive
and take years to complete.
Americans
don't need to wait for the proof on curry
to enjoy a diet that includes more of
this spice, says Alamelu Vairavan, co-author
of the book Healthy South Indian Cooking.
"You don't need to gulp supplements,"
she says, adding that cooks can find turmeric
in Indian specialty shops and in most
grocery stores.
Americans should give Indian food a try,
Vairavan says. "This kind of food
is very tasty and satisfying.
"Eating
more Indian food has worked for Jayne,
who lives with her family in a small town
outside Milwaukee. A family physician
who recently retired because of disabling
arthritis pain, Jayne says she knows there's
no hard evidence of curry's health benefits.
But that won't stop her from enjoying
a lunch of tuna masala or an Indian stir-fry
for dinner. She says the food seems to
warm her joints and helps keep her in
a size 8 dress.
"You can't argue with success,"
she says.
Source:
USA TODAY