You may have heard that Greek cuisine is good for your heart, but did you know that many asian cuisines use ingredients packed with antioxidants and disease fighting ingredients? When you add them to your diet they become both nutritious and delicious.
Vietnamese, Indian, Thai, Greek, and Chinese cooking all contain ingredients that studies have shown reduce heart disease, some cancers, and even Alzheimer’s. The Mediterranean diet has long been touted as a heart healthy diet. Rich in fish, dark leafy vegetables, olives, olive oils, and nuts – the mediterranean diet has been recommended by doctors and nutritionists for weight loss and maintaining good health.
All of these cuisines have a few things in common:
- they rely on nutrient dense vegetables
- they are light on meat and offer a variety of fish and other seafood
- they use a variety of spices that have been shown to offer a powerful kick of antioxidants
Ginger, turmeric, garlic, and cayenne are often used in all of these cuisines and each of them have been studied for their health benefits. Currently, there are several studies underway looking at the active ingredient of turmeric, curcumin. Curcumin is being studied for reducing inflammation and is showing some promise in Alzheimer’s research.
We don’t need sweeping studies to tell us that we could all benefit from modifying our diets – eat more vegetables, less meats, less sugars. And now we learn that “spicing it up” could be the key to good health.
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