Golden milk is not actually milk in the normal sense. It’s not a dairy product per se. Actually, the foundation of golden milk is an amalgamation of heating turmeric (a golden colored spice) together with coconut milk and/or oil in accordance with the recipe you favor.
What’s All the Fuss About Golden Milk?
Utilized for centuries in Ayurvedic therapies, golden milk is an aggregation of potent spices. These spices include turmeric, coconut milk, sometimes coconut oil, and black pepper frequently added in minute quantities. Black pepper is sometimes used to enhance the bio-availability your body’s ability to consume the all-powerful spice turmeric. Chromatic, velvety, and spicy, this tepid soothing drink is more than a flavorsome liquid. Abundant with helpful digestive properties and electrolytes, your body will feel like it has a new lease on life.
Celebrated by people from various walks of life like health conscious bloggers and celebrities, golden milk, also nicknamed “turmeric latte,” is very much touted as the “all-around” go to drink for just about every ill. A traditional “haldi doodh” or “turmeric milk,” the west has assigned this health benefiting drink its own variant with the same ingredients enhanced with a bit more froth and cream. Nonetheless, traditional haldi doodh is non-fussy. Roughly a half cup of hot milk with a tablespoon of ground turmeric is liquified until the ingredients morph into a lambent yellow hue. Milk is simply the channel for the turmeric; however, blending it into hot tea or water, or honey, are also variants to dissolve turmeric and make it more tolerable. Though turmeric has been used in Ayurvedic medicine for centuries, various western frills like coconut butter, almond butter, and sometimes cashews have been added to turn this medicinal drink into a latte type beverage you usually order at your favorite coffee house.
Overall, the main attraction of golden milk is its milky foundation and pinch of yellow turmeric. Some recipes include dried ginger ale or coconut oil, cinnamon, cardamon, black pepper, and sweeteners. Golden milk can be consumed hot or cold. The ingredients are normally mixed in a saucepan or alloyed in a blender. On the whole, golden milk is deliciously appetizing.
Golden Milk Benefits
Golden milk is beneficial at any time, especially during the evening. Incredible benefits include:
The Benefits of Golden Milk Ingredients
- Analgesic, antiseptic, anti-oxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties
- Increases immunity
- Anti-carcinogenic
- Enhances digestive health
- Helps sustain cholesterol levels
- Detoxifies the liver
- Reduces triglycerides
- Improves memory and brain performance
- Boosts digestive health
- Combats various skin conditions
- Helps control the metabolism and weight
- Regulates blood pressure
- Improves neurological disorders
Coconut Oil: This golden milk ingredient can assist with digestion and intestine health due to its antimicrobial properties. This is due to beneficial fatty acids MCFA, which are also known to increase good cholesterol known as HDL.
Coconut Milk: Digestion is greatly improved, as it nurtures the digestive lining with natural electrolytes and beneficial fats that can ameliorate intestine health and improve IBS. Similar to turmeric, coconut milk helps to decrease inflammation and assist with weight loss. The fatty acid MCT is found in coconut milk and improves physical agility, builds muscle, and helps to decrease fat.
Turmeric Benefits: Turmeric’s advantages are fantastic. In fact, one recent study states “it’s nearly to good to be true.” It makes you wonder whether the hype about this “wonder spice” is really all it’s cracked up to be. The anti-inflammatory spice has displayed astounding properties against a host of ills such as Alzheimer’s and cancer. Due to the decreased inflammation, turmeric can assist with digestive uncomfortableness, bloating, and weight loss. Research also reveals that turmeric has antidepressant properties resulting in better moods, reduced stress, improved sleep, and enhanced brain function.
Turmeric is regularly used in Asian food and comes from the turmeric plant. It’s most commonly recognized in the western world as “the spice used to color curry,” and has an acerbic and warm taste. It’s also used to color various foods, cheeses, butters, and mustards. In addition, the root of turmeric is commonly used to make medicines. In fact, turmeric is gaining ground as a potent medicinal food. This potent spice has been valued for its healing properties for hundreds of years; however, in the west, it is not normally consumed. Due to golden milk’s ingredients, the taste of turmeric is basically hidden, which makes it easier to tolerate while each cupful offers an abundance of healthy benefits.
Conventional medicinal used in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) along with Ayurvedic medicine incorporates treatment for gastrointestinal ailments, respiratory illnesses, joint pain, sprained muscles, and overall healing of wounds. The advantages of turmeric has been studied and authenticated in medical literature. Today, it is promoted has a health enhancer for a broad range of health conditions.
The main ingredient and primary active component in turmeric is curcumin, a polyphenol that possess hundreds of possible health benefits. These additional benefits include anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties.
Some golden milk drinkers swear that by adding black pepper to turmeric or food spiced with turmeric, the beneficial properties of the drink are astronomically increased due to black pepper’s hot property piperine.
What is Curcumin?
Curcumin is the formidable component in turmeric. It gives it its yellow hue along with fantastic health benefits. The portion of curcumin in turmeric differs with the type whether aromatic or medicinal, where it was sown, and the processing method. A small amount of curcumin is diminished when heated while making turmeric powder. This is why raw turmeric is so healthy.
Important research published several years ago by a well-respected biology and biochemistry journal determined that the numerous effects of curcumin have not gone unnoticed. It was discovered that this potent natural healer possess anti-inflammatory and antioxidant characteristics.
Taking into account that inflammation enacts a key role in the majority of chronic diseases, anti-inflammatory agents are required to prevent them. Since curcumin suppresses manifold pro-inflammatory pathways and is easy on the wallet, additional study is needed to explore other preventive and treatment benefits of numerous chronic diseases.
Possible Turmeric Side Effects
Overall, turmeric is rather safe when taken by mouth or applied to the skin for roughly eight months. It has been shown to be safe when used as a mouthwash and as an enema for short periods. In general, turmeric does not cause fatal side effects; nonetheless, some individuals may experience diarrhea, dizziness, nausea, or an upset stomach.
Before using turmeric for its medicinal properties, you should check if you may have an allergic reaction. If there is any allergic response to turmeric, you may experience a mild itchy rash that usually show up on the face and neck. What’s more, it is advised not to over do it when consuming golden milk. Too much may cause heartburn, menstruation irregularity, alopecia, overactive gallbladder contractions, liver problems, internal bleeding, and low blood pressure. If you are pregnant, avoid taking turmeric in large quantities as it can trigger uterine wall contractions. Turmeric may impede certain medications as well. For example, if you are taking an anticoagulant like aspirin, you should avoid it completely. Turmeric may also cause conflict with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. It is suggested that you should consult your physician before consuming golden milk with turmeric.
Best Golden Milk Recipe
A Few Last Words
If you’ve never tried golden milk, you are in for a pleasant surprise if it is used properly and not overdone. You may find it most satisfying during the colder months though it’s just as delicious during the summer. It can get a bit messy, so make sure you wear protective clothing and protect your countertop, or you could find yourself with yellow stains everywhere!
