These medicines are hiding in your spice rack | Kanchan Koya & Dr. Sarah Berry
Make smarter food choices for your body: zoe.com/podcast
In today’s episode we’re uncovering the medicines that are hiding in your kitchen.
Molecular biologist Kanchan Koya joins Jonathan and Sarah to explore the incredible health benefits of spices. From controlling blood sugar to soothing a sore throat, we’ll discover what the latest research says about household favourites including ginger, cinnamon and cloves.
Kanchan Koya is a food scientist, founder of the spice-centric food blog Chief Spice Mama and author of the cookbook ‘100 Recipes with Healing Spices for your Family Table’. She will show us how to get the most out of spices, with simple cooking tips and delicious recipes.
Want to make Kanchan’s show stopper spice dish? Find the recipe here: www.laboiteny.com/blogs/recip...
Follow ZOE on Instagram: / zoe
Timecodes:
01:26 Quick fire questions
03:39 What are spices?
04:10 Polyphenols in spices
07:47 Spices and health
11:35 Cinnamon and blood sugar control
15:40 Anti-inflammatory benefits of spices
21:56 A practical guide to using spices
25:46 Introduction to Kanchan’s dabba
33:48 Reviving old spices
35:40 The wonders of ginger: from morning sickness to gut health
38:30 Spiced cooking tips
40:17 Breakfast ideas: add spices to start your day
42:09 Creative ways to incorporate spices into snacks
44:44 Dinner delights: spicing up main meals
46:30 Spices for kids
48:47 Spiced drinks: from chai to golden milk
50:28 The ultimate spice dish
Studies related to today’s episode:
Safety and efficacy of curcumin versus diclofenac in knee osteoarthritis: a randomized open-label parallel-arm study, from Trials. Link: trialsjournal.biomedcentral.c...
Analgesic effect of the aqueous and ethanolic extracts of clove, from Avicenna Journal of Phytomedicine. Link: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/arti...
Effect of cinnamon spice on continuously monitored glycemic response in adults with prediabetes, from The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Link: www.sciencedirect.com/science...
Star anise (Illicium verum): Chemical compounds, antiviral properties, and clinical relevance, from Phytotherapy Research. Link: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31997...
Ginger-Mechanism of action in chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting, from Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition. Link: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25848...
Is there a nutrition topic you’d like us to explore? Email us at podcast@joinzoe.com, and we’ll do our best to cover it.
Episode transcripts are available here joinzoe.com/learn/category/nu...
Really inspiring. It'd be great if Kanchan would produce a book with all the medicinal information about spices, including some of the recipes she talks about. I love using food as medicine and would certainly buy her book if she produced one. I've made myself a mug of Golden Milk and I'm just chewing on a clove now for a sore throat 🙂
I like adding spices to my coffee, an easy way to get a daily dose.
Cardamom coffee is a lovely drink
@@Elspm ground? I guess just test how much until you like it?
I add Ceylon Cinnamon or 5 Spice
5 spice covers all the bases.
I love the spices mentioned in this Zoe edition, and it would be lovely to also hear about the herbs which we can grow in our gardens-rosemary, sage, parsley, thyme, nettles, wild garlic etc.
Greek cuisine uses cinnamon in savory food a lot. And if you look at Sicily today or all of Italy a couple of hundred years ago, spices were very much a part of the cuisine. Just a thumbs' up. This was a fascinating conversation to watch.
No wonder I love cinnamon & add it to as much as possible!
I don’t think anyone mentioned that “true” or Ceylon cinnamon is safer than the typical and cheaper cassia cinnamon found in grocery stores. If you eat a lot of cassia cinnamon, you will get an unhealthy amount of coumarin, which is toxic. By contrast, Ceylon cinnamon has almost no coumarin.
Yep, they should have mentioned that.
True, but unfortunately only cassia has an effect on blood sugar.
Thank you for sharing the name of the cinnamon. I had heard about this but didn’t know which one it was. Will definitely be buying some of this instead.
My husband used to tell me to mix 'ordinary' cinnamon with water, let it srttle then not use the sludge - was courmarin what he was talking about?
@@lauragray19are you sure? I’ve never heard this, been using Ceylon cinnamon for years
Lesson of the day here is spices, such as cinnamon have a natural packaging (cells walls and internal structures), which protect the polyphenols and you can get a bit more out of the spice by crushing the it as part of the prep, rather than buying ground spice, releasing the bioactives and fragrance at the last minute. Also, using mixed spices is a good idea because they are already blended in the correct proportions.
Excellent podcast. I increased my intake of spices quite a bit a few months ago and inflammation is definitely down. They also help me feel satiated quicker and eat less. Also, the flavor that it adds is amazing. I tried all sorts of things - pipali pepper on tomato soup, cacao on smoothies, cinnamon or cacao on oatmeal, oregano, basil and rosemary on beans, ginger on celery/lime juices, paprika on tempeh. Also added fenugreek, which I believe (and studies confirm) that it helped me with resistance training. There is no end to what you can do.
I've added spices and seeds to just about everything over the past four months. Now it's time to spice my coffee and try ginger turmeric tea. I have the turmeric rhizomes in my fridge at the moment. Right now having my sourdough rye toast (rye flour, water) with almond butter, beet and red onion and red cabbage sauerkraut topped with fennel, cumin and caraway seeds sprinkled on top. Delicious! I'd like another but the bread is so dense that a tiny ultra thin slice comes in at 110 calories. We've gone full plant based but everything I make is so delicious I've gained 7 pounds in 5 months. Eek! Heavy grain and pulse salads with olive oil dressings may be the culprit. And serving sizes - 'virtuous eating' doesn't mean I can eat whatever I want, sadly.
Good Lord, your mind is sooooo beautiful! I can listen to Kanchan Koya all day.
Thank you! watch our episode highlights and clips.
Great stuff... I hardly used to cook with spices, but over a year ago, I switched to an exclusively whole food diet, and since have started incorporating a variety of spices into my diet. Practically every day now, I make a vegetable stew in addition to whatever else I'm eating. To this stew, I always add ceylon cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, chilli powder, parsley, dille, oregano, coriander, rosemary, turmeric, black pepper, a pinch of nutmeg and a little salt. Garlic and ginger are a no-brainer of course. All this adds a lot of flavor and I genuinely feel way better, in part because of these spices. Next I'll be trying to incorporate star anise into the mix...
This was fabulous! Thank you. Inspired and motivated to spice it up :)
Thank you! watch our episode highlights and clips
Definitely in agreement with Kanchan, we use spices in our daily cooking most of the time. Kanchan should write a cooking to help us all!
Thanks, keep supporting
I hit the subscribe button after listening to this, the first video I watched on your channel, after the 1 minute.
Thank you! watch our episode highlights and clips
Fantastic episode. Kanchan is incredible combining science with real practical suggestions. I too was intimidated by using spices thinking I had to follow precise recipes rather than sprinkling on anything! Please can we hear more of Kanchan? That dinner at her house with the Zoe team would make an awesome YT film. Normally we listen in but on seeing this video I am amazed how few notes Jonathan takes before giving his well packaged summary. I would be furiously scribbling notes to try and catch every word. Clearly he listens well and retains absolutely everything. Looking forward to the roast cauliflower,
Thanks, keep supporting
Thisis such an exciting & enjoyable video! Thank you!💖
Impressive content! I cover similar themes on my channel.
Thank you for your wonderful presentation 😊
Keep up the good work! I have content related to this on my channel.
Excellent
I'd love to know how much blue food dye to use to test the gut transit time x
Incredible value here, and for free!!!!
Thank you 😀 watch our episode highlights and clips
I love this episode. Not least because last week I ordered a load of whole spices and a Dabba to collect when I am in the UK later this month. My timing couldn’t be better. Meanwhile, I have plenty of spices here anyway I can make some good medicine with. Sadly Spice Spice Baby (the book) is not available on Amazon as a new book and is £72 used!
As an Italian, I have to say, I never never would put those spices into a sugo. !!!!!!!!! 😅 But, I love an indian Dal, and it’s easy to make. And as a snack: roasted chickpeas are perfect!!!
A riveting episode; I took the time afterwards to make my own notes and log ideas in a special booklet, and to read all the comments. I'm going to work on combinations. It made me look back at my hasty notes last time Kachan Koyal was on the Zoe podcast. Definitely going to try and get hold of a 2nd hand copy of SpicSpiceBaby, but certainly not using Amazon.
Really fantastic episode! I've been unsure lately of how much spice I should use, e.g. curcuma or cinnamon. This really reassures me to use spices whenever I can. Thank you Zoe and Kanchan Koya!
Thanks for the wonderful insights! keep supporting.
Thank you for the missing piece of my cinnamon jigsaw puzzle: your guest mentioned cinnamaldehyde. I have particular SNPs critical in detoxifying aldehyde. Probs with endogenous formaldehyde etc. I now know why i can’t tolerate cinnamon & feel wonky even if it goes up my nose. Immediate have the sensation like I’ve sniffed pool water up into my sinuses. Case cracked - cheers, appreciated
When I eat Indian food loaded with spices I feel like a million bucks. You can feel these spices working in your body. 😊
Fabulous episode!! I have been using spices in my daily diet but you have inspired me with lots of wonderful ideas. Thank you!! I have the same question about Cinnamon.... I heard only ceylon cinnamon has health benefits.
The health benefits are lowering blood sugar, and yes. Other cinnamons are made from a different plant, or aren't even real cinnamon. You can research it, for sure. I did, and it's true. :)
I have been drinking a form of golden milk (unheated and unnamed) for a few months, and wonder if there is any difference in the effects if you use fresh turmeric and ginger, rather than the dried powders?
Great episode, what I was looking for!
Thank you ❤ u can now watch our episode highlights and clips
I love this content, my new favorite episode after the one you talked about mushrooms with Merlin Sheldrake! Please, pleeeease make that episode of dinner party at Kanchan Koya's place :D
Is there a link to the study where they added a spice blend to burger/everyday meals? Would be interested to know what the spice blend was.
Really interesting podcast, I already like using spices in my cooking but Kanchan has encouraged me to experiment more with a different variety of spices
Watch our interesting clips and episode highlights too
This talk gives great wisdom on spices…. Thank you!!!! I’ve tried to source the book Spice Spice Baby but it’s not available in the UK. Could this be rectified because I would love the book myself and to give to family and friends. Thank you. S :)
Check her website.
I always crave mixed spice when I've got a cold or flu and feel run down, I mix it in a cup of tea with some citrus honey, always makes me feel better and have a short lived cold
What spices do you mix together when you fill a cold coming on or the flu?
I do this too. Just fresh chilli, ginger root grated, garlic, lemon and honey
@@lynkemp1816 ooooh I'll give that a go, sounds very nice 😋 thanks 👍
Another good analogy is mixing raspberries with pineapple bring out much more flavours then eating them separately.
Inspirational!
Thanks for sharing this! I discuss similar ideas on my own channel.
Im addicted to chilli. If i dont eat something spicy for 2 or 3 days im craving it to the point my mouth waters at the thought of it. I hope this is keeping me healthy. Anyone who doesnt do chilli, start with a mild one or a spinkle of hot paprika or cayenne pepper and work your way up. I ate chillis as a young teen and now i eat vindaloo with no watery eyes or runny nose i eat birdseye chillis raw seeds in, love it
Congratulation for your higher cancer Risk pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36215887/
Like a drug, you are addicted to the dopamine hit that spicy food gives you. The more you eat, the more you crave. Several years ago I was the same with wasabi, it desensitized my taste and probably affected my stomach and gut for a long time. If your food has lots of pathogens, continue using it. If not, try reducing it to a healthy point where you don't feel the crave anymore. It will allow you to rediscover flavours in normal food and let your microbiome have a break from the constant burning lava barrage flowing through your pipes 🥵
I once heard that most people die at the end of their lives. I am wondering what we should start eating in our 50's to prevent that from happening?
😂
Don't all people die at the end of their lives?
😅
😂😂😂😂😂
Try sprinkling Dukkah on your salad!
I've just listened to this on podcast and decided to try the rice pudding with cinnamon 😋 yummy. My question is, can you put termeic in instead?.
I think I'd like to hang out at Kanchan's house as well... By the way, in the video, when talking about the cauliflower recipe, you mention steaming it first, so as to speed up the overall cooking time. However, the recipe in the link doesn't mention this pre-steaming... So, for how long should you steam the cauliflower?
Woo mostly. Though it makes food taste good.
Good to know now how to use those unopened spice jars ,I like those sound of the spiced pop corn
Glad u loved it ! check out our clips for nonstop engaging content
Everyone in the carnivore/low carb crowd need to watch this video! They claim all these protective compounds found in plants are nothing short of deadly poisons 😅
If anyone chooses to demonise food groups, let them. Their choices will have zero impact on your personal belief system & why waste your great energy on stressing over others food choices or opinions however misguided 😉
@@SandyBatten1962 But it’s not just my personal belief system. By putting out misinformation that plants are generally toxic, they steer people away from better food choices. And furthermore, the diet they promote propagates animal agriculture which is inherently cruel toward animals and destructive to the environment. So me taking time out of my day is more than worth it to support a vegan diet 😉
Since when did carnivore/low carb diets enthusiasts claim such a thing about plants - your statement is bonkers.
Was that Ceylon cinnamon or just regular cinnamon?
Whoever reads this., I pray for you to cure all your diseases and to remove all your pains from your daily life.. 🙏
thank you!!
Show us your spice box?? 🤣...aside from the entertainment, this was a wonderfully, informative Zoe video.
Perhaps Kanchan can explain the difference between real Ceylon Cinnamon and Cassia (cinnamon commonly found at the food store) and the possibility of negative side effects of cassia coumarin in some people. Are there other spices not correctly labeled at the store?
Does turmeric have an impact on iron levels? Seems to be research to suggest this which can then lead to anaemia?
Are there any spices that shouldn’t be combined?
I have some baby new potatoes out of a tin (starch - I know). What's a good spice to use? I was either going to use herbs and butter but wondering if I could maybe fry them or something else instead. I have lots of herbs, so chilli (as recommended) is probably going in. Thanks! 😄
Maybe some dukkah might be nice.
Cayenne, paprika, mase, cumin , cinnamon all work well together or alone with or without chilli
Pleased to hear that Hugh has a ‘Zoe’ type cook book out next week. 🥳
They should get him on in a few weeks.
I wonder if there is research on the fructose or sorbitol content of specific spices. I use several in moderation, but having HFI, I cannot ingest more than 2gm of fructose per day. All I need to know is how much fructose in 4gm of cinnamon, for instance. I might see if I can contact Kanchan. If anyone knows, she will.
Thanks, keep supporting
Asafoetida for people who can’t eat onions or garlic?
So inspiring!
Thankyou.
New studio? Lighting looks amazing!
Thank you! watch our episode highlights and clips
At about 14 min. Dr. Koya mentioned a statistically significant reduction of blood sugar over 24 hr. period. How big is that reduction? Also, it seems that polyphenols can neutralize free radicals but also cause a little stress? How is that? Thanks.
I am doing this big time but my spices are on display where is the evidence that it runs like this!..please what's the science behind it! thank you :)
All sounds good but are there any papers or clinical trial results to look at?
There's no money in using food as medicine. Studies are rarely funded for so-called "alternative" remedies. You need to ask yourself "Alternative to what?"
The adverts for joining Zoe are frustrating, when you live in a country in which Zoe does not operate. I tried to join and was refused!
Love your program. I am finding the new lighting rather dark for me. Just my opinion.
check out our episode clips and highlights to keep u engaged with the content
Show me your spice box?
4 grams of cinnamon is closer to one teaspoon...
A heaped teaspoon
Thank you for another great talk. As a health hacker I take lots of spices. I was taking a cooking class and the teacher heated the spices in frying pan first before adding any oil or water. Any research done on whether this heatinb improves the health bebefits of the spices.
Thanks. You answered my question.
What is Johnny boy doing in his undershirt?
Just an observation for listeners from the States where Indian-inspired foods are not as common as they are in the UK. Many of these spices are also featured in Mexican and South America dishes, which are more integrated into America food culture and might seem less intimidating than Middle Eastern flavors.
Yes, it's because of the spice trade between continent, many of the spices found in South America and Mexico are from Asia and the middle east during the European colonialism time when they started the Marchant and spices trade.
Amazon sell all spices
What about Lectins that come with the plant based foods ? these are inflammatory and create leaky gut !! if you can advise
Did I miss what is good as an anti-inflammatory spice?
Turmeric
@@jessieelliott3157 thank you. I was afraid chilli was going to be suggested as I cannot eat chilli.
Hello Zoe 👋
Hello!
Mexican chilli is not the same without cinnamon.
Still waiting for Zoe to help people living with Celiac, Crohn's Disease or Ulcerative Colitis. Pleeease.
Celiac stop eating gluten. Crohn's and uc they don't really link to specific foods do they? It's different for everyone, so don't see what this company can do? Does your comment mean there's no point in me watching this if I have one of those?
Dr Will Bulsiewicz is on the ZOE board. His book is "Fiber Fuelled". I hope you are not suggesting he has done nothing for gut health.
@@StephenMarkTurner Sarah may mean you can't join zoe if you have one of those diseases.
My Dad has celiac disease. We avoid all the ultra- processed gf products and cook plenty of quinoa, millet, buckwheat, etc My dog had ulcerative colitis and I dosed him up with slippery elm powder, which soothed the inflammation and gave him a good life.
@@chrisburke9932 some food additives commonly used in the agroindustry May have a link to UC and Crohns disease. I still wonder (as a UC patient myself) what are these. Or is there any New studies out there regarding this subject? It would be good to know. Also I wonder if UC patients can consume healthy fats like avocado or nuts and seeds... or does it cause inflammation? I stick to low fat meat like chicken as it is considered "safe" in UC/Crohns. But I wonder if plant fats/proteins are ok (if tolerated at all, of course) or should be avoided. (A whole food plant based diet is way too much fiber if one has IBD- inflammatory bowel disease) There would be so much things to discuss.
Put spices in icecream and with bananas
There should be a warning that for people with arthritis, hot spices are not to be recommended. I have grated ginger and nettle tea first thing in the morning, high curcumin turmeric and cinnamon with my breakfast without problems. Coriander seeds (and fresh coriander), cumin, cloves, cardamom are fine, but chilli is absolutely not. It irritates my gut and inflames my arthritis, possibly because it’s a member of the nightshade family, along with tomatoes, potatoes, aubergines, and peppers. Curiously, raw tomatoes and peppers, don’t affect my joints but cooked do. Aubergines and chillis are sadly an absolute no-no, because the Italian aubergine dish Melenzana parmigiana is absolutely delicious - tried it once, never again!
Just go to an 'authentic' South Indian vegetarian thali-type restaurant regularly, i.e. not the commercialised ones and you will cover all your bases lol
I suspect that the taste factor was a product of selective evolution. That is we enjoy them because ancestral species adapted to favour them because they were beneficial.
That is an unusually insightful comment.
@@supersiism I guess you have been reading other comments I have made. Hence the phrase "... unusually insightful ... ". Sadly I think many others would agree.
This was great…and Zoe thank you finally for having BIPOC medical professionals on the show, who can share their culture and diverse experience and knowledge. Especially when your show is viewed in the UK and US with a diverse population. At the moment, it’s unfortunately way too White & Euro-centric.
Good Lord. The only people making this an issue is other people of color. When will you stop seeing color!
23:25 Really?? I guess you don't want to upset big pharma, after all.
Love the channel and the videos but sometimes TLDW "too long didn’t watch”
Appreciate the info! I discuss this further on my own channel briefly in short clips.
Yellow pepper 🌶️😂😂😂
Golden milk? I only know golden showers.
I smoked spice in prison. It didn't seem to do me much good. (just kidding)
Why on earth are you sitting in the dark?
Very middle-class. I don't posses a spice rack
I buy a small pot of spice every now and then and have a pretty good spice rack now. Small pots cost under £2 here in UK so I'm not sure about your prices. I'm certainly not middle class
Food is medicine. Turmeric! But pushing seed oils? It's the WRONG Omega fat - we need the fats from fish oils and such. ZOE -- full of half-truths as usual. smh
FIX your studio lighting. You look sad at a home after grandpa passed away.
Why no mention that turmeric is dangerous for people on blood thinners? Very important fact.
Wow, your podcast never fails to impress! Just had to create a highlight, clip from it. Let me know what you think!
why don't you turn the lights on?
It's better in the dark 😂