5 spices that can boost your health quotient

Here are the health benefits of garam masala.

By: Editorial Team | | Updated: January 21, 2014 10:05 am

Spices are a common addition to the quintessential Indian dish. Adding flavour, aroma and that special zing to dishes, an Indian curry or subzi is often incomplete without them. But did you known the humble cardamom, cinnamon, jeera and turmeric are elixirs for your all-round health? Here are some benefits they render to your everyday diet:

Cardamom: Known for its unique sweet-spicy flavour, cardamom is often added to sweet as well as savoury dishes. One of the most interesting benefits of this spice is that it helps in burning calories. Full of digestive properties that enhance one’s metabolic activity, it actually helps you burn fat more efficiently and and prevents it from adding to your weight. Using a little goes a long way; sprinkle some on your coffee or even your subzi, to give your weight loss goal a boost. (Read: 10 Indian foods that help you lose weight)

Turmeric: Turmeric has been known as a spice that has several health benefits. Right from adding it to dishes to give them that characteristic yellow colour, haldi is an age old remedy for healing wounds. According to the Journal of the American Chemical Society, turmeric is packed with nutrients like proteins, dietary fiber, niacin, vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin K, sodium, potassium, calcium, copper, iron, magnesium and zinc. All these essential components put together make turmeric a great antioxidant, antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal, anticarcinogenic, antimutagenic and anti-inflammatory agent. (Read: Turmeric or Haldi – health benefits galore!)

Cumin: Also known as Jeera, cumin is a known for its pungent odour and flavour. But the tiny jeera is much more than simply a spice. It helps improve concentration, beats constipation, fights cancer, regulates blood pressure and your heart rate, relieves asthma and cold, prevents anaemia, improves your sexual health, is great for pregnant mums since it helps them with the symptoms of morning sickness, beats insomnia and enhances memory. All you need to do is either use it as a powder or whole in your daily diet. Optionally you could have a spoon of the powder on an empty stomach at the start of your day. (Read: Up your health with jeera – the wonder spice!)

Cinnamon: Or dalchini, is a common addition to coffee, cakes and subzis. But apart from adding a lovely aroma and punch to the dish, cinnamon is known to have various health benefits. It helps keeps one’s blood sugar in check — keeping diabetes at bay, is known to slowdown the onset of alzheimer’s, fights cancer and has shown that it has properties that can reduce the size of a tumour. Cinnamon is also a great remedy to soothe aching joints, speed up digestion, treat a cold and cough, keep heart disease at bay by reducing the amount of plaque buildup in one’s arteries and fights tooth decay. One of the most noticeable benefit of the spice is that it has strong antibacterial properties that help to fight acne. So, for acne free skin, strong heart, normal blood sugar levels and weight loss include a little bit of cinnamon into your diet. (Read: Health benefits of cinnamon (dalchini))

Garam masala: A common addition to most north Indian dishes, garam masala is a combination of cloves, cinnamon, cumin and cardamom. Packed with the combined health benefits of every spice garam masala is like one pill for many diseases.

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Published : January 20, 2014 12:29 pm | Updated:January 21, 2014 10:05 am

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