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A few months ago, I was at an event when a woman came up to me with a request for this newsletter: “Will you please write about turmeric?”
(You, too, can assign me topics to write about!)
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She had seen a flurry of content on Instagram about turmeric and its anti-inflammatory properties. On account after account, women were talking about how beneficial it was for midlife and the perimenopause transition especially. They weren’t just talking about cooking with the yellow spice, commonly used in Middle Eastern and South Asian cooking; they were talking about supplements. So she bought a giant bottle and started taking them — and then when she mentioned this to her doctor at her next check-up, her doctor told her to stop immediately.
Turmeric can decrease the efficacy of tamoxifen, a drug used to prevent estrogen receptor-positive breast cancer — and one she was on.
It’s a good reminder: There are many potions and pills touted online, promising “wellness.” In reality? Lots of things that seem harmless at worst and good at best can actually hurt.
So for her and the rest of us, I called up some experts to learn more about the turmeric trend.
The science of spice
First I spoke to Dr. Nirupa Raghunathan, an internist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. She’s also an integrative medicine specialist there, so no stranger to thinking about holistic habits to support health.
Raghunathan said as a person of South Asian heritage, she finds it fascinating to see the way a common ingredient for some cultures takes on superpower-like qualities in certain spaces.
“Turmeric is interesting because it is a spice like almost anything else,” she said. “We can attribute qualities to spices partly based on flavor, partly on what we pass down in terms of what people believe.”
Studies have shown that turmeric can have one notable anti-inflammatory benefit, specifically in regards to joint inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis.
Preclinical research — which doesn’t involve looking at effects on a full living human body — has indicated some potential benefits for the immune system, brain health and digestion. And some studies looking at large populations show that diets rich in turmeric are linked to longer lifespans. Research like this gives turmeric the sheen of being a “health food.”
What happens next, Raghunathan said, is that people assume that a turmeric supplement is a natural version of ibuprofen. Except this isn’t really true at all.
Food first
There are two big differences between cooking with turmeric and taking it as a supplement: concentration and interval.
The active component in turmeric, the one linked to anti-inflammatory effects, is the chemical curcumin. In supplements, you can’t tell from a label what level of curcumin concentration there is. Some also have piperine, or black pepper oil, added to make the curcumin more absorbable and thus more potent. (It might be listed on the label as either piperine or black pepper oil; sometimes it’s listed as part of a “proprietary blend.”)
On top of that, when you consume a spice you cook with, you’re eating smaller amounts of it stretched over the length of time it takes to eat a full meal, whereas a supplement gives a much higher amount of the active chemicals in a quick burst.
That’s why Diane McKay, PhD, program director and assistant professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University and an expert on the role that nutrients and bioactive compounds play in healthy aging, reminds us that we already have a great way to get nutrients without buying a single bottle of pills.
“We recommend food first,” McKay said. “Try to get all of your nutrients as well as your phytonutrients and all of these other bioactive types of compounds that you find in plant-based foods and try to get them from food first because they’re present with other nutrients and other compounds in the food that often optimize their intake and utilization by the body. When you isolate something and put it into a supplement, it may have a different effect.”
Raghunathan said that when she speaks to patients about turmeric, she always begins by explaining that turmeric is great to use in food.
“Have a turmeric latte if you want! Throw it into a smoothie in a reasonable dose!”
But supplements, she said, are a whole other story.
Curcumin is known to interact with certain liver enzymes, which means taking turmeric supplements can impact how you absorb any medication. And the piperine can have its own drug interactions.
“If you’re on multiple, complex medications, you should avoid it,” Raghunathan said of turmeric supplements.
(Great time to offer a general reminder that you should always talk to your doctor before beginning to take any kind of over-the-counter supplement!)
Buyer beware (you’re still going to age)
It’s also important to remember that no supplement is going to “fix” the natural process of aging.
Supplement manufacturers do not have to follow the same regulatory standards as pharmaceutical companies overseen by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Some may have pesticides and contaminants, and many are not transparent about their sourcing.
McKay advises extra caution when it comes to buying supplements you see marketed and sold by influencers online.
Increasingly, she said, she hears midlife influencers talking about turmeric supplements as some kind of miracle pill, a magical way to eliminate inflammation and promote longevity. This conversation is divorced from the role the actual spice holds in the culinary traditions of many cultures and also is rarely backed by any kind of substantive research.
“It’s not a general panacea,” McKay said. “Healthy aging doesn’t come from one of these single, hero ingredients. It comes from patterns: what we eat every day, how we move, our sleep patterns, the social connections we make.”
Raghunathan points out that Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center even has its own online “About Herbs” checker, where you can research supplements to find out any potential interactions they may cause.
“I think it’s nice to think that something from nature is invariably going to be the best thing for us.” But reality is more complicated than that, Raghunathan said — something she knows even as an integrative medicine specialist herself.
“When I have a headache, I still take an Advil. I don’t go to curcumin,” she said.
Concerned about inflammation? Moderate your intake of foods that are known to increase inflammation in the body — like added sugars, added saturated fat and added sodium.
And use turmeric when it makes sense, Raghunathan said.
“I strongly suggest if you want to include turmeric in your food, go to the spaces where culturally they’ve been doing it for a long time because it usually tastes better. Lentils with turmeric? It’s been done in India for thousands of years, so it tastes better, probably, than trying to add turmeric in your mac and cheese.”
