Turmeric and Ginger Tea Recipe for Healthy Skin
Turmeric and ginger tea is not only delicious, but it is a skin boosting powerhouse.
I'm going to give you the recipe today and a little tip if you use bagged tea. Okay. I'm Jessie Gutsue and I'm a functional medicine dietitian with Oswald Digestive Clinic. If you're interested in more skin and gut health cooking tips, then check out our link below for the Five Tips for Quicker Gut Healthy Cooking. Now, without further ado, let's get into our recipe.
[Video Transcript Below Video - it is the same information]
Turmeric and Ginger Tea Recipe for Healthy Skin
Okay, we are going to start with our fresh ingredients, turmeric and ginger, and of course, a couple of assisting ingredients that help with increasing the bioavailability of these potent roots. So there are a lot of benefits that ginger and turmeric carry. We are going to start off, I have about 10 ounces of water here starting to boil and to it I am going to add about an inch of ginger and an inch of fresh turmeric.
We are going to skin these, and the easiest way to do that is to just take a spoon and scrape it in the opposite direction. Look at how beautiful that is. The main component of turmeric is potent bioactive ingredient called curcumin, and that's that brilliant yellow orange cue that you get. So this is what most studies refer to in the benefits of turmeric. Now I'm going to do the same thing with about an inch of fresh ginger. If you use ground ginger or dried ginger or turmeric, then use about a teaspoon and those will disperse right into the water.
So one of the primary active compounds in ginger is ginger oil, and there are a lot of benefits that each of these carry in terms of skin health. So we'll get these peeled and then I am going to cut them into little coin rounds because the more surface area helps with greater bioavailability, just gets those potent ingredients mixed in a little bit more.
So you're welcome to put these into a small tea bag, either metal or a little canvas, Chet, or you can throw 'em in as is. Either way, whatever you prefer. I'm going to put mine in this bag just because it's cute, and then we'll toss it in here to steep. And already you see that color being diffused in the fresh roots help to maximize the potency in the bioavailability. But like I said, you're welcome to use dried ginger and dried turmeric here. It's about a one teaspoon equivalent to the one inch of fresh and chopped. So we're just letting this simmer. I am going to add to it some black pepper. Just a pinch will help to increase the absorption of curcumin by 2000%, which is a lot.
So one thing to know is when you're using functional foods like this, you'll never get the potent amount that a supplement would have. So yes, I'm using about an inch of each of these roots and it requires almost a third a cup or even more of fresh every day to get the therapeutic effects that are shown to help reduce overall inflammation. So that's important to keep in mind, but every little bit adds up. So to that, I added the black pepper and we're just going to let it simmer here. I'm going to turn it down just a little bit. It doesn't need to boil simmer for about five minutes or so.
Now, ginger and tubic are relatively heat stable at about five to 10 minutes. Beyond that, you really do start to degrade the roots. And then with this, I'm also going to add in about a tablespoon of coconut oil. What that does is the fat helps to aid in the bioavailability of the curcumin as well because it is a fat soluble nutrient. That's it. I'm going to put a cover on this to help steep it and keep all the volatile compounds in as much as we can.
Health Benefits of Turmeric and Ginger
Now, let's talk about some of the benefits here. I bet most of you know that turmeric or curcumin rather the active compound in turmeric is really good at anti-inflammatory. There are a lot of different supplements out there that tout turmeric as an anti-inflammatory compound, and so that helps a lot of skin issues like acne, psoriasis, eczema. When there is underlying inflammation, then you have benefit when consuming things like turmeric or curcumin.
So another benefit of turmeric and skin health is that it helps to fight free radicals, and we know that free radicals can cause early signs of aging and wrinkles. It also helps to boost collagen synthesis, which will help reduce those wrinkles as well and may help with skin hydration. So all of which would contribute to wrinkles and early signs of aging. And lastly, turmeric can help with skin pigmentation. So those darker spots have been known to be reduced with topical use of turmeric. And then ginger. Ginger contains a bioactive called ginger all and that can help boost collagen synthesis as well. So same benefits that turmeric has in terms of this is that it helps with fine lines, wrinkles helps with hydration and elasticity. Overall, just skin health.
Ginger also helps to boost circulation. So if blood flow is better, then nutrients can be delivered to different cells and can help overall skin health. Ginger is also a great anti-inflammatory. Again, we know that inflammation is rooted in a lot of our skin conditions like acne and eczema and psoriasis. So we added in our black pepper, which is known to be required really in terms of helping to boost the absorption of turmeric, and same with the fat in the coconut oil that we added.
So both of those will help with the bioavailability of these two veggies. Now, we used about one inch of each of these roots, and I did mention before, but I think it's important to note that therapeutic dose. When you look at studies that cover inflammation and these two roots, there are a lot of studies that show that you need upwards of a third, a cup or a half a cup of these fresh roots per day in order to be a therapeutic dose. So while this can benefit most definitely your health, I think it's important to remember that quantity is really important when trying to reach a therapeutic dose. Which brings me to another point.
Maximizing the Benefits
If you're not interested in following a fresh recipe that uses fresh, whole ginger and turmeric for your skin health, then you can find something like this, a pre-bagged option that is turmeric and ginger tea. I would just recommend that you use two bags to get a closer to a therapeutic dose. And then again, it depends on how many times a day you feel like you need this in order to get the best maximum benefits Important contradictions to note though are things like ginger and turmeric in excessive amounts can interfere with certain drugs.
Safety Considerations
So it can have effects on lowering your blood pressure too much, your blood sugar, especially if you're diabetic and on other medications. It's not recommended that we take these in excessive amounts if you're pregnant just because the research isn't there.
Topical Benefits
I think it's also important to note some of the topical benefits of turmeric and ginger for your skin health. So topically meaning applied to your face directly or your skin directly can have benefits as well. So turmeric can reduce redness, can reduce lesions, and can help with healing and hyperpigmentation.
Ginger can help reduce puffiness and may lighten darker spots as well.
So both can be used topically. But this tea is really simple. We've hit about five minutes or so, so we're going to put this in a cup and enjoy it, but it was a very simple recipe and one that you can use with functional food ingredients and improve your overall skin health. So I hope you try this recipe. Let me know what your favorite variation is.
Thanks for watching. I hope to see you next week. And if you want more information on a 30 minute cooking demo such as this, then
Email us at cookingdemos@oswalddigestiveclinic.com.
See you next time.
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