Simple ingredient added to meals that could help blood sugar, inflammation and arthritis

From dailyrecord.co.uk

Dr Kanchan Koya appeared on the Zoe health podcast to discuss the benefits of adding spices to your diet - and said that just two teaspoons of one spice could make a big difference

A nutritional expert has offered listeners of the Zoe Health Podcast a simple tip to enhance their meals - suggesting adding just two teaspoons of a particular spice can help with blood sugar levels, arthritis, gut health and inflammation.

Nutritionist Dr Kanchan Koya shared her advice on the importance of incorporating spices into your diet. Renowned for supporting the use of spices in meal preparation, the molecular biologist hailed the benefits it brings to overall health.

Pressing her point, she stated, "You can definitely enhance the quality of the diet by also adding spices."

     Spices can have numerous health benefits as well as adding a kick of flavour to your meals (Image: Getty Images)

Giving listeners an extra insight, Dr Koya discussed an interesting experiment involving what's considered an unhealthy staple - a burger. She introduced a case study conducted by Penn State, where researchers added a blend of spices to typical American-style hamburgers, Wales Online reports.

She said: "So a study out of Penn State that looked at the addition of a spice blend and they added this to sort of a standard American diet, typical hamburger meal - so something that isn't great for you."

The pro further elaborated saying that participants were given either a spiced-up version of the meal or without it. Impressively, the results showed a decrease in inflammatory markers post-meal if it included the spice mix.

Dr Koya noted not only the health benefits but also enhanced flavour: "I think that's really empowering and exciting because again, it was culinary amounts of spices. I'm sure the burger tasted better with the blend versus without the blend and there was this real reduction in biomarkers of inflammation right after the meal."

On Zoe's show, the guest discussed how certain spices could potentially aid those with arthritis. She explained: "There have been some more studies looking at the impacts of specific spices on inflammatory conditions like arthritis. So there was a study that got quite a bit of buzz looking at turmeric supplementation versus traditional non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs that many people use for arthritis, but have some side effects especially on gut health."

Turmeric supplements were found to have numerous potential health benefits, but Dr Koya also highlighted that adding a spoonful of turmeric into your meal rotation can help to lower inflammation - although stronger concentration may be needed for 'full-blown arthritis'.

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/simple-ingredient-added-meals-could-32735092