More Tasteful Options 2 – Spices

First of all, I wanted to alert all of our blog readers to a very important and helpful section of our webpage that just went up. We have posted a number of pieces on supplements – a very important, albeit somewhat confusing subject. You can click on any of the following words to read about pertinent supplements corresponding to the subject matter: Anti-fungals, Bone & Joint, Depression, General Health, Fatigue, Insomnia, Hearing, Vision, Memory, and Diet. You can also navigate to these pieces by clicking on the “Find Information” tab on the homepage.

These pieces aren’t exhaustive, but they certainly give you a great place to start. After reading up on what supplements might be helpful for you, be sure to check out the manufacturers that sponsor Doug’s show as well; many of them will carry some of the supplements that the posts talk about. Doug goes to great lengths to make sure the sponsors of KTC manufacture the highest quality products, and any time you patronize those companies, it helps keep KTC up and running. I’m sure there will be more to come on this particular subject and page.

If you have some favorite supplements, be sure to inform the other readers in the comment section below. If you’ve heard Doug say it once, you’ve probably heard him say it a hundred times; foods can be medicine. Supplements, many times at their core, are just concentrated foods designed to give you therapeutic doses of the most beneficial nutrients when you need them the most. Despite their potency and efficacy, even someone who loves supplements should know that diet, not supplements, is the cornerstone of any health plan. More research comes out daily that underscores this fact. You simply cannot attain maximum health by eating poorly. And even if you could, who would want to live on supplements alone? I posted last week about how the Kaufmann 1 & 2 diets might feel restrictive at first, but if you really think about it, you’ve got an entire world of flavor, texture and food open to you. Much of that variety you would have probably ignored had you continued eating the standard American Diet.

One of the categories of flavorful ingredients that is wide open and available to you are the spices. Since before Marco Polo made his famous trips to the orient, mankind has always valued spices. Before we had billion dollar Big Pharma companies throwing pills at every imaginable problem, herbs and spices were essentially all people had by way of medicine. While modern medicine certainly does have some advantages (no one on this site would ever tell you to not listen to your doctor after all), spices have plenty of health promoting properties – and they taste awesome. I listed a couple favorites that I use fairly often in my cooking. Oregano – Oregano is common in all kinds of foods, especially Italian. It is a very potent anti-fungal and has very potent anti-oxidant activity as well. Whenever I make pasta-less pasta sauce (I’ll usually dump some on chicken or steamed veggies), I load up on oregano. Fresh is great, but North American Herb and Spice have some great concentrated oils.

So much flavor – so many benefits! Cinnamon – Cinnamon helps control blood sugar. It also happens to be a very potent anti-fungal. Doug wrote a book called the Fungus Link to Diabetes… I think you know where I’m going with this. Cinnamon goes great on roasted almonds and cashews. Get some fresh and grind it up! Turmeric – I LOVE Indian (as in the sub-continent, not the native American) food. It is so laden with spice and flavor. Turmeric is a key ingredient in curry; it is also loaded with curcumin – a powerful anti-inflammatory that works almost as well as some prescription drugs in some studies. It too is anti-fungal. Spice up your life!