Arsenic is an unfortunate fellow traveller with the food you eat. Fish, shellfish, poultry, cereals, dairy, rice, fruits, vegetables and even water can all bring it home. Arsenic is a natural element and found in our earth’s crust from where it makes its way into our food and water.
First identified by Albertus Magnus in the 1200s, the Greeks, Persians and Chinese used it, frequently to also murder royalty. Though Napolean Bonaparte was believed to have died of arsenic poisoning, his hair showing several times the normal levels of this heavy metal, actually he had been ingesting it all through his life.
Arsenic has an immediate effect on your body, causing vomiting, damage to the nervous system, disturb blood circulation and even cause death. You would have to ingest between 70 to 200 milligram of it before it became toxic. It can, however, stay for several months, so imagine you are consuming arsenic regularly, it can build up and become toxic at some point.
Arsenic plays havoc at the cellular level, causing something known as oxidative stress. Worse, it inhibits your bodies natural defence mechanism. If you are living in an urban city, the water you drink could quickly be bringing the arsenic home. People in Bangladesh discovered to their dismay that the tube wells constructed by the World Bank were causing arsenic poisoning.
So if arsenic is the evil lurking in your food is there an antidote nature has provided us. Fortunately, there is, and it is called turmeric. Think of turmeric as Superman fighting evil forces.
Research has shown that turmeric can bind arsenic in the body and also heal the oxidative stress in the body. In one fell swoop, it was fighting all the effects of the poison.
Indians eat a famous rice and lentil dish called Khidchi. The traditional preparation is made using turmeric, to negate the ill-effects of arsenic in the rice and the water, not to forget its healing properties as an anti-inflammatory. #riteshbawri #breatheagain #turmeric #curcumin #worldsbestturmeric
