Eye on Science:

One a day, four, ten…dare I go higher? Americans currently pop more pills per day than ever before. I'm not anti-Advil—it has eradicated many a headache, but when it comes to preventative medicine or even general health, natural alternatives seem to be the better option.

Most everyone can tell you that spinach is healthier than Pop Tarts, but the question of what actually makes healthy foods more beneficial requires additional investigation. Turmeric, a yellow spice popular in Asia, is one of several "health foods" that has been placed under the careful scrutiny of Dr. Mohsen Meydani at Tufts University's Human Nutrition Research Center.

Turmeric, green tea and oats have been consumed in Asia for hundreds of years, but awareness of their benefits has only recently spread to America. "We are trying to find out what the active components are in these foods that help to heal or exert the [beneficial] health effect," Meydani explained.  

The ginger-peppery zing of turmeric surprises taste buds, especially in curry recipes. For roughly ten years scientists have known that curcumin, which is already been used as an anti-cancer agent, is the active component in turmeric. Curcumin prevents angiogenesis, or the growth of new blood vessels, thus depriving a tumor of nutrients. Without a nutrient source the tumor cannot grow and propagate.

However, Meydani's research primarily focuses on curcumin's effects on obesity. "The nation is more than 30 percent obese," Meydani said, "so finding a way to incorporate turmeric into your diet may help to reduce the risks of being overweight and of obesity associated diseases." The same mechanism in curcumin that prevents the spread of cancer also aids in obesity prevention.  As obesity progresses the body acquires more adipose tissue.  In order for additional tissue growth, the tissue must have access to nutrients and oxygen via the blood vessels.  Thus if the blood vessels don't enter the adipose, the tissue cannot grow.  

Mice were fed a variety of diets to test curcumin's effects. The first group of mice consumed extremely high-fat diets and, had a film crew been available, could have starred in the rodent version of "Supersize Me." Another group was given the same amount of calories as the high-fat group, but with 500mg of curcumin added to their food. "Those animals that got curcumin along with a high-fat diet experienced much less weight gain than mice with just a high-fat diet," Meydani summarized.

Additionally, the mice that ate a high-fat diet and received curcumin had significantly fewer blood vessels growing into and feeding the fatty tissues. "These animals, while they are eating the same amount, were burning more," Meydani said, "so their metabolism was higher than normal."

Green tea may also urge teetotalers toward better health. Not to be confused with turmeric's curcemin, catechins are the powerful antioxidants found in green tea and are known to have anti-arthritic effects. Green tea, unlike black or white teas, is dried and steamed, but not fermented like black tea leaves, so the catechins are preserved within green tea varieties. Meydani has shown that catechins can also affect obesity by slowing growth of adipose tissue by angiogenesis.

Lastly, the drive for oats and whole-wheat foods continues. This area of Meydani's investigations focused on inflammation rather than weight control.  Ever wondered why an oatmeal bath eases the burn of poison oak? Meydani and his team found that a compound unique to oats, AVEN (Avenanthramide), produces an anti-inflammatory effect that sooths the pain. "No one knew why [AVEN] worked, but we found that this compound in oats might be responsible for working as an anti-histamine on poison ivy or oak," Meydani said.

Clearly natural alternatives to conventional medicine exist; many are right before our eyes or already in the food we eat. Today Meydani's team continues to discover additional benefits of curcmin. "Its incorporation into a diet helps to reduce the risk of diseases," Meydani said, "but it also may have an effect on longevity." Her studies show that just adding a dash of spice to a meal may lead to a healthier diet and subsequently a healthier, and longer, life.