Turmeric contains the potent anti-inflammatory agent, curcumin. I highly recommend it as an easy way to ease inflammatory processes in the body that, when chronic, can lead to scar tissue buildup and ongoing pain and restriction. To be absorbed and become bioactive, curcumin requires piperene, the active component of black pepper.  For optimal absorption these should be taken with a bit of oil/fatty food.  Without pepper, turmeric cannot effectively be taken up from the digestive tract – in fact, piperene increases curcumin uptake by 2000! There are several good studies showing how piperene increases the availability and absorption of curcumin.“Influence of piperine on the pharmacokinetics of curcumin in animals and human volunteers”  by Shoba et al.  is one among several that you could find if you do a web search under curcumin and piperene.For your interest, turmeric also helps to cause cellular death of cancer cells and inhibits the growth of blood vessels for developing tumors….so, all in all, a very important herb! If you don’t want to take a supplement you can always just take a tsp of organic tumeric in a bit of olive oil with a bit of black pepper…or just add these to your cooking!  What a great way to use food as your medicine!

Q:  How would I know if I have food allergies or sensitivities? I get a lot of gas, bloating and congestion when I eat dairy products but how would I know if something else is also affecting me?                                                                                                                        
Thanks,
Wary of Dairy                                  

Dear Wary of Dairy
Most people know when they have true “allergies” or type 1 hypersensitivity reactions to foods/environmental stimuli. These are usually confirmed by the skin prick tests as done by medical allergists. These serious reactions would include swelling, hives, throat constriction, wheezing/shortness of breath and often require the use of an epi-pen or other strong medications. Some people who are allergic to lactose (sugar found in milk products) will have extreme cramping and abdominal pain with diarrhea following consumption of any lactose containing foods. 

What most people do not know is that there are several different types of immune reactions that can occur and when it comes to food sensitivities we are generally talking about the Type 2, or IgG-mediated (type of antibody that is formed in the presence of certain triggers) reactions. The symptoms can range from the more obvious ones such as getting digestive upset within a few hours of ingesting certain foods to the less obvious ones such as headaches, fatigue, congestion, irritability, gas, bloating, reflux, weight gain/loss, and inflammation among others.  These reactions can appear up to 72 hours after eating a trigger food so that it becomes hard to track the cause.  For many athletes who want to achieve their performance potential, knowing which foods work best in their bodies and finding out how to eliminate and then slowly re-introduce these foods can make a world of difference! 

There are many different ways of testing for food sensitivities which will not show up on the “skin prick tests” as the reactions are slower that the Type 1 (severe) reactions.  Doing blood testing through a naturopathic doctor is what I usually recommend because you can get a lot of foods tested at once.  To save on costs, some people opt to do a 3 week period of elimination of certain common trigger foods and then a period of re-introduction that should be done on a 4 day rotation to get accurate results.  This method is great if you just want to test a few foods and have the time and commitment to completely avoid the foods and if you know how to assess for reactions to them as you are re-introducing them one by one.  

By Dr. Nina Lange, ND