The spices of life: herbalist Dianna Lee shares ways to let your food be your medicine.

About 10,000 years ago, our ancestors first started throwing seeds, sticks, nuts and pods into their food for flavor. Six thousand years later in the Mediterranean region, our first documented account exists of spices blended into food preparation. Their importance was such that wars have been fought, empires built, poets inspired, bodies anointed, and people healed all in their name. Spices were one of the reasons that inspired travel into dangerous waters and unexplored foreign lands. The collection and distribution of spice has been a major business since trading began. While we are familiar with looking to herbal formulas for medicinal value, spices also have much to offer medicinally. Two common examples are ginger and turmeric.

Ginger is one of hundreds of spices belonging to the Zingliberaceae family along with turmeric. Ginger appears in many varieties with an estimated count of 50 types existing in India alone. Each has a distinctive taste and aroma depending on the soil and how it is grown. In India, it was given the name vishwabhesaj, or the universal medicine. This reverence is still demonstrated today in the Orient where it remains a component of 50 percent of all herbal remedies.

Ginger contains more than 300 compounds that have been classified and studied. Gingerols and shogaols are considered to be the principle active group of constituents. Some common uses of ginger ale as digestive aid, to decrease colic and flatulence, for the flu, colds, coughs and headaches. Brigham Young University did a study that showed ginger was more effective for nausea than Dramamine, a common over the counter drug. This spice is high in vitamins A, C, and potassium.

Turmeric is a rhizome that can be grated and used fresh. However, it is more common to be used dried. Most often it is used in Indian dishes, particularly in lentil preparations. Other common spices used with it in curries are coriander, fenugreek, cumin and chile.

Turmeric is known for its antimutagenic properties, which means it has anti-mutation effects on a cellular level. Curcumin present in turmeric has been extensively researched and thought to be responsible for this plants antioxidant properties. It works with environmental mutagens and inhibits the toxic effects of cigarette smoke. Shown to be a much stronger cell-protective agent (antioxidant) than vitamin C, tumeric offers protection against DNA damage induced by lipid peroxidation by 85% compared to beta carotene by 50% and vitamin E at 57%.

An effective anti-inflammatory, tumeric has a positive affect on the immune system. Research is revealing this spice to be very important in its effect on cancer fighting cells, and it is becoming widely accepted in cancer treatment therapies.

Research about the healthy benefits of the aromatic vegetable substances we use to increase the flavor of our meals certainly shows how food can be medicine. Learning how to incorporate these beneficial spices into our dishes is time well spent.

Dianna Lee is co-owner of the Spice of Life Stall Market in the Grove Arcade in Asheville, which offers medicinal herbs and fine teas. Knowledgeable in herbology and iridology, Dianna is a certified and licensed craniosacral therapist and massage therapist.