Although it has been used for other things since ancient times, the idea of taking turmeric for cancer prevention is new.
Like resveratrol, green tea and other supplements, turmeric is growing in popularity among people that want to reduce their risk of this disease.
But, there's something that many people are unaware of.
In order to provide the chemo-preventative benefits, the supplements must be able to get into the blood stream.
Green tea catechins seem to have no problem passing swiftly along into the blood, but resveratrol and turmeric's active component (curcumin) do.
Resveratrol is an antioxidant that is present in the skins of red grapes and red wine, but researchers have shown that drinking wine or taking an uncoated supplement does not increase the amount of resveratrol in the bloodstream.
They have found the same thing with curcumin.
If you wanted to take resveratrol or turmeric for cancer prevention, the supplement that you choose must include an enteric coating to protect the nutrients from stomach acid.
Both of the compounds are quickly changed into inactive substances that the body does not recognize, if they are allowed to interact with stomach acid.
Researchers commonly refer to this phenomenon as low bioavailability.
There are some common vitamins and minerals that face the same problem.
You have to think of it this way.
The human body was designed to break down foodstuff into its component parts.
Because of that, stomach acid is very strong.
The body was not designed to accept individual nutrients.
If foods provided a single nutrient, there would be no need for gastric acids.
Our technology has taken us to the point where we realize the importance of individual nutrients, but the body has not changed.
So, if you want to take resveratrol or turmeric for cancer prevention, you need to be sure that the manufacturer protects those nutrients from gastric acids.
Otherwise, you are just wasting your money.
The benefit of turmeric for cancer prevention is this.
In the bloodstream, it finds and attacks cancer cells.
It kills them, without damaging healthy cells.
The benefits of resveratrol for this purpose are several.
It prevents the formation of a cancer cell.
It prevents the growth of tumors.
It stimulates cellular DNA to protect itself and it causes the death of a cancerous growth.
Most health experts recommend that you include a variety of beneficial plants in your daily diet.
But, it is very difficult to include them all on a daily basis.
Our lives are busy and our need for convenience foods limits us.
With the right multi-nutritional supplement, we can get all of the benefits of a diet full of plant foods, without giving up the convenience that most of us need.
Food is sustenance, but it also contains compounds that reduce our risk of numerous life threatening and degenerative diseases.
If our diets were perfect, we would have lower risks of heart disease, high blood pressure, blindness and many other health problems.
Taking turmeric for cancer prevention is only the first step.
There is more that you can do.