Cardamom

This article is part of a larger article titled "100+ Healthiest Foods On Planet Earth."  Read it here.

Cardamom is a popular ingredient in Indian and Bangladeshi cooking. It is often used in sweets and puddings to provide a beautiful, aromatic flavour. For a long time, cardamom has also been used in folk and Ayurvedic medicine. Now the scientific evidence is beginning to stack up to support claims made that cardamom is a powerful medicinal plant.

Helps Fight Against Cancer. A few studies over recent years have investigated the effects that cardamom has on various types of cancer cells; one of those studies was carried out on stomach cancer in mice. The initial findings seem very promising for application in human trials and show that treatment using cardamom helped to reduce the incidence of tumours by 41.7%; even more encouraging were the results that showed that cancer cell growth had been reduced by as much as 74.5%!

Lowers Blood Pressure, Acts As A Diuretic And Is a Relaxant. Generally, most scientific trials try and examine one or two aspects of something. But in 2008 a team of researchers decided to get stuck in and investigate the effects of cardamom on gastrointestinal health, blood pressure, as a relaxant and as a diuretic. They used different animal models to do this.

The results showed that cardamom 1.) reduced blood pressure in anaesthetised rats, 2.) relaxed induced contractions and spasms in a rat aorta and part of a rabbit’s small intestine, 3.) encouraged a diuretic effect in rats, as well as a saluretic one, which is the removal of excess or unneeded salt via urine; and 4.) it helped anaesthetised mice to sleep for longer.

Can Help Manage Diabetes Complications. Glycation is a process whereby sugar molecules react with proteins in the body to form structures that are classed as non-functional; they are of no use to the body. This in turn leads to the proteins becoming compromised and effecting various diabetes-related diseases such as nerve damage and cardiovascular problems. This is seriously bad news for anyone who suffers from diabetes!

However, cardamom, along with wild caraway, black pepper and turmeric, was found to be a strong antiglycation agent – this means that cardamom had a significant impact in preventing glycation from occurring in the first place and therefore helps to manage complications associated with diabetes.