Knowledge Base > Deb Kennedy, PhD - Culinary Medicine: Ask Me Almost Anything
Deb Kennedy, PhD - Culinary Medicine: Ask Me Almost Anything
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Question:
I’ve been told that in order to activate turmeric you must add black pepper, why?
— Janet Carosella
Answer:
So turmeric, the active ingredient in turmeric is called curcumin, and about 5% of turmeric is made up of curcumin. Now, you want that curcumin to stay in your body to be anti-inflammatory, uh, antioxidant, um, to be really powerful in helping heal your body, right? And then in black pepper you have an ingredient called peppering, and 5% of black pepper is made up of peppering. Well, pe what peppering does it is slows the meta, the rate of metabolism of that curcumin, meaning the curcumin's gonna stay in your blood for a longer period of time instead of just being metabolized really quickly. So when you add black pepper to your turmeric, you are increasing by 2000% the amount of curcumin that is gonna be in your blood. So that is why you must have black pepper when you are taking turmeric.
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