Anil Jethmal had bouts with gout for over twenty years. During that time, he does not remember a single six month stretch without a gout attack. Several visits with New York doctors and several prescriptions yielded no solutions.
During a vacation in India, his family urged him to see a prominent Indian doctor “to cure the gout problem once and for all”. Skeptical, but desperate, Anil Jethmal agreed. After examining Anil, the Indian doctor was of a firm belief that diet was more important than medication. He suggested consumption of fresh green juices with the spice, turmeric, added. The green juices are easy for the liver to detoxify, he explained, while the turmeric will clean the liver of toxins, thus enabling the liver to more effectively process and manage his blood’s uric acid levels, the primary cause of gout. Besides, he added, turmeric is a very powerful anti-inflammatory agent.
That was five years ago. Once a month, Anil Jethmal consumes the green juice cocktail that his doctor “prescribed”. He has not had a gout attack in all that time.
Thinking back to his childhood, Anil Jethmal recalls that his mother would often add certain Indian spices to meals to help cure ailments. While many use ginger ale for a stomach ache, his mother would cook with ginger instead. She reasoned that it was the ginger that was the soothing agent…and that the sugar in ginger ale was harmful as it fed the harmful bacteria that caused the issue in the first place.
She was a proponent of cooking with fresh black pepper. Piperine, the active ingredient in pepper, produces hydrochloric acid which helps in digestion. It also has powerful anti-bacterial properties. More importantly, black pepper is known to reduce blood pressure….an important and perhaps not coincidental benefit since it is so often used as a seasoning in conjunction with salt (a known contributor to high blood pressure and hypertension).
Cumin was another favorite spice…..delicious and with important health benefits. It not only helps in digestion, it helps fight anemia, a blood iron deficiency---a useful side benefit since many Indians are vegetarians and the primary dietary source of iron is meat.
While Anil Jethmal remembers his mother extolling the virtues of saffron (helps with memory and is a powerful anti-oxidant), clove (anti-inflammatory used for toothaches) and cardamom (helps with respiratory ailments), it was the delicious spice coriander that was the “wonder drug”.
In the many years that have passed, research scientists have “discovered” that coriander helps fight diabetes, lowers cholesterol, is a powerful anti-microbial, is an anti-fungal agent and is an anti-oxidant.
What Anil discovered is that his favorite cuisine, Indian, can be both delicious and healthy. In a world filled with having to make compromises, who could ask for anything more?
