Very often I get this question – What is this spice useful for? Being Indian we do use a lot of different kind of spices for taste and health benifits but most of the times I used to remember the taste and not the other reasons I would use them. Hence I have come up with a list of spices and their benifits so that if you like then you can try them and change the quality and taste of the food.
Enjoy a spicy day my friends 🙂
Black pepper | Improve Digestion and Promote Intestinal Health |
Basil | DNA Protection Plus Anti-Bacterial Properties |
Tumeric | It helps deal with skin problems. Turmeric powder can be used for healing cuts and wounds. It also makes coping with diabetes easier. |
Chile Pepper | Fight Inflammation, Natural Pain Relief, Cardiovascular Benefits, Clear Congestion, Boost Immunity, Help Stop the Spread of Prostate Cancer, Prevent Stomach Ulcers, Lose Weight, Lower Risk of Type 2 Diabetes |
Cayenne Pepper | Fight Inflammation, Natural Pain Relief, Cardiovascular Benefits, Clear Congestion, Boost Immunity, Help Stop the Spread of Prostate Cancer, Prevent Stomach Ulcers, Lose Weight, Lower Risk of Type 2 Diabetes |
Asafoetida (Hing) | Remedy for whooping cough and stomach ache caused due to gas. |
Bay leaf (Tez Patta) | Bay leaf oil possesses antifungal and anti bacterial |
Cardamom (Elaichi) | Helps to control bad breath and digestive disorder. A whole cardamom chewed is good for coping with diabetes. |
Chilli (Lal Mirch) | The antioxidants present in chilli help to cope with cholesterol. It also helps burning calories |
Cinnamon (Dalchini) | It supports natural production of insulin and reduces blood cholesterol, the highest anti-oxidant strength of all the food sources in nature |
Clove (Laung) | Clove oil is beneficial for coping with tooth ache and sore gums. It is also beneficial remedy for chest pains, fever, digestive problems, cough and cold. |
Coriander (Dhaniya) | It can be used externally on aching joints and rheumatism. It is also good for coping with soar throat, allergies, digestion problems, hay fever etc |
Cumin (Zeera) | It is a good source or iron and keeps immune system healthy. Water boiled with cumin seeds is good for coping with dysentery. |
Curry leaves(Curry Patta) | These leaves are beneficial for reducing blood sugar. Each part of the plant provides some benefit or the other. The dried leaves are extensively used in herbal medicines. |
Fenugreek (Methi) | Fenugreek seed tea or sweet fudge is good for increasing breast milk. It also helpful for treating diabetes and lowering cholesterol |
Garlic (Lassan) | It is useful for coping with cough and cold. It also has antibiotic properties. |
Ginger (Adrak) | Helps to avoid digestive problems. It is beneficial for coping with cough and cold. |
Mustard (Rye) | Mustard oil is good for body massage and even for getting good hair. It consists of omega-3 fatty acids. It is an excellent source of iron, zinc, manganese, calcium, protein etc. |
Nutmeg (Jaiphal) | It is beneficial for the treatments of asthma, heart disorder and bad breath. |
Pepper (Kaali Mirch) | It helps coping with cold, cough, infections etc. It helps to deal with muscle pains and digestive problems |
Saffron (Zaffran/Kesar) | It helps to cope with skin diseases. It is a good remedy for cough, cold and asthma. |
Star anise (Chakra Phool) | Star anise oil is beneficial for rheumatism. It is helpful for digestion and avoiding bad breath |
Nutmeg | anti-oxidant, disease preventing, and health promoting properties, vital B-complex vitamins, including vitamin C, folic acid, riboflavin, niacin, vitamin A and many flavonoid anti-oxidants like beta-carotene and cryptoxanthin |
Mustard seeds | rich in phyto-nutrients, minerals, vitamins and anti-oxidants, B-complex vitamins, niacin (vitamin B-3), vitamin E, gamma tocopherol, minerals. Calcium, manganese, copper, iron, selenium and zinc |
Oh ya, a spoon full of garlic (chopped, of course) every day. That’s a great way to make friends! 😉
Hahahaha…so right Mike..specially if you cook with spices then you can also boast about your cooking skills…I think most of us love spicy food here in Australia..
One more question: how do you know what spices (and in what proportion) to mix in Indian cooking. I love Indian cooking. But when I asked one of my Indian friends for recipes I got: oh, do not worry add a little bit of this and a pinch of that…you’ll be good to go …I don’t get it!
I use corriender powder, tumeric, Cumin (Zeera), red chilli, garlic and ginger in almost everything…rest you need to check the recipie as different spices go with different recipies…but you can always play around and see what taste suits you really…and there are ready mix for certain things that you can buy as well.
I never used ginger in something savory. For me, ginger is meant for cookies! I will give it a try, though. Thank you for the hint.
Thanks for sharing !
Cheers for peppers !
Thanks Ren dear..how have you been? Any plans for the weekend?
So I’m good for reducing blood sugar? 🙂
Hahaha..sure now u know Matt 🙂
Thanks dear for thre Re-awakening 🙂 ….and spreading Aroma all around 🙂
We Indians generally know what we are using but realisation about it’s benefits seldom dawns.Saving this one for ready referance.God bless.
Awe ur nice Kkarunita..glad that u liked it 🙂
I am eating most of them without knowing about their benefits. Thank you I will make a copy.
Oh great Andrian…that is very good .thanks for sharing n m glad that u liked it
Reblogged this on Wyndy Dee.
b e n E f i t s !
by the way, WHAT’s in the bowl in the pixure? i think i could really GO for that right now!
hahahha..that was a herb I saw long time ago somewhere and the picture fits here perfect so I attached…not really sure what is it tho 🙂
oops…see people do mistakes..lol ..thanks for correcting 🙂
Yay…I so love spices in my food but then, I didn’t really want to bite into one (especially cloves) and gotten the ‘over-spiced’ taste…LOL…
Thank you for sharing this very informative post, my friend!
Have a wonderful weekend ahead, always~ Cheers!! 😀
I know exactly what you mean when you talk about cloves as I am the same really. But now as I have learned more about spices then I realized how important clove is specially in winters so I just grind them and put them into food.
Aww…I guess you’ve survived this winter pretty well, so when will the warmth be back over there?
I love the smells of spices… like fresh basil, or mint. The smell of herbs makes me happy and in a shop, smelling a basil plant usually means I will buy it 🙂
wow that sounds familiar now….glad that you are into spices really…I love smell of coriander into everything I can imagine for some reason
I think it’s really important to understand the benefits of spices. I have only learnt this through Indian cooking and since moving to India! Otherwise, before I had no idea. Thanks for outlining this.
Fantastic post, thank you!!
What a comprehensive list – well done!
This is great. I always knew spices have benefits but I didn’t know how. This is really great, Kavita.
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