I've been struggling with tendinitis issues in my arms lately, which is not good when you're a concert pianist. So a caring, health-conscious good friend of mine (who also happens to be a professional violinist) gave me a recipe for an anti-inflammatory concoction she & her husband drink twice a day. They are around the age of 70 but look and are as active as people 15 years younger than they are. So I decided to give it a try.
Boil 1 cup of water
Add a 4-inch piece of organic ginger, peeled and sliced thin. Slightly boil for 5 minutes.
Remove ginger and discard.
Add 2 tablespoons of organic coconut oil
Add 1 package of gelatin (whisk in while warm)
Add 1/2 teaspoon of organic turmeric
Drink a half cup of this mixture twice a day. It helps to mix it in some orange juice. You will need to microwave the second serving because the coconut oil & gelatin will solidify during the day.
My review...
Well... it's not horrible-tasting (mixed with orange juice) but it doesn't taste very good (no surprise) and I know I'm not going to take the time to make this every day. The other thing that I wasn't crazy about was the calorie content. Coconut oil is really high in calories. One tablespoon has 120 calories. That means I'd be getting about 250 calories each day from this concoction. I'm a little person. 250 calories is a sixth of my daily caloric intake, so I try to choose them carefully. I just don't see myself drinking this every day, as there have got to be other lower-calorie options. Another friend suggested I look into turmeric capsules, so I think I will hit the health food store and see what I can find.
In the meantime, I had bought a pound of turmeric in anticipation of making a lot of this concoction. I think I will give it to my friends. It clearly works for them, and if you have the time to make this, you might find it works for you, too.
My girlfriend and I have been using Turmeric off and on the past few years. Turmeric can be capped up with your own DYI capsule maker (Amazon etc al.) and your DIY gelatin capsules available in various sizes (usually the size machine you get dictates the size capsules to buy - like 00 or 000. The 000 is a larger size). Turmeric can also be added to foods when cooking, sprinkled in rice or blended in with whatever smoothies. If you like Indian or Asian foods, turmeric is used frequently to add a bit of flavor or to add a yellow color (like poor man's saffron). However way you can get it down, it does seem to help with the inflammation, and best I can tell, it doesn't matter if it's raw or if you used it to cook/flavor cooked foods.
ReplyDeleteThe other thing about coconut oil - yes, it's calories, but evidently the body seems to recognize it as a good fat that helps bind and trap the crud and move it on out down the digestive system. It's used a lot in the KETO dietary protocol as one of the recommended good fats. So I wouldn't totally throw out this concoction - maybe reduce the ginger, or else add some stevia to cut down on the ginger flavor if that's what you don't like as well. (Not that turmeric is all that benign a flavor.).