Christmas spices have been proven to reduce inflammation and lower blood sugar

No matter how you celebrate the year-end holidays, food is probably at the center of your winter festivities. And a trio of spices – Cinnamon, Nutmeg and Ginger – are included in many dishes and beverages and are an invariable part of the aroma profile we associate with the holiday season.

As a plant scientist, I was curious to know how these spices grown in the tropics became so closely associated with the Northern Hemisphere’s winter holidays. Just as the fall harvest of cranberries makes them a natural choice for Thanksgiving, I thought maybe the seasonality of the spice crop has something to do with their use during the winter months.

However, this does not appear to be the case. When it comes to growing spices, producers are playing the long game.

Growing Holiday Spices

Take ginger, which is included in many cuisines around the world, both sweet and savory. Ginger roots take eight to 10 months to fully mature. If the plants are mature and have not been exposed to cold or wind they can be harvested at any time of the year.

That timing is important because harvesting ginger means uprooting the entire plant to access the rhizomes growing underground. Rhizomes act like underground stems, storing nutrients to help the plant survive the winter. Once cold weather signals the plant to deplete its underground supply of nutrients, the quality of harvested ginger will decline significantly.

Nutmeg is obtained by grinding its seeds. myristica aroma Tree, an evergreen that is native to Indonesia. Trees begin to flower in their sixth year, but maximum production occurs when they are close to 20 years old.

Workers pick the fruit from the trees, which typically grow to a height of 10 to 30 feet (3 to 10 m), using long poles to pluck the fruit. The fruits are dried in the sun to produce spices.

Nutmeg is obtained by grinding the inner seed kernel; Its sister spice, mace, is obtained by grinding the tissue covering the seeds. Since this plant produces two spices, the long wait for the trees to mature is worthwhile for growers.

Cinnamon is made from the bark of two trees: real cinnamon for cinnamon sticks, and cinnamon cassia For ground cinnamon. The texture and flavor profiles of the two types are different, but both are made from the outermost layer of tree bark. Production usually starts after the tree is 2 years old.

It is easiest to peel the bark from the branches of the cinnamon tree after heavy rains, which soften the bark, so harvesting usually takes place after the monsoon season. The same effect can be achieved by soaking the branches in buckets of water outside the monsoon season.

What makes a spice ‘hot’?

Cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg are all widely described as “hot” spices, which probably has less to do with where they come from and more to do with how they affect our bodies.

Just as peppermint can have a cooling taste due to its menthol content, cinnamon’s warm flavor is due to a compound called cinnamaldehydeWhich gives specific taste and smell to the spice. When we eat it this chemical tricks our nervous system and triggers the same pathways that sense heat, just as the capsaicin in peppers triggers feelings of pain.

Cinnamaldehyde also helps lower blood sugar levels, so enjoying some cinnamon tea after a big Christmas dinner can help keep your blood sugar from rising. Cinnamon has been used in traditional medicine across Asia for thousands of years for its antibacterial properties and as a digestive aid.

Christopher Columbus’s first voyage west across the Atlantic sought to find a direct route to Asia to purchase cinnamon and other spices directly from where they were grown. In fact, the spice trade can be seen as a microcosm for the story of globalization, with all its associated advantages and disadvantages.

Boosting our health and digestive system

Ginger and nutmeg may not give our nervous system a warming sensation, but they both contain numerous compounds that aid digestion and may protect against viral and bacterial infections. Ginger is an excellent anti-nausea agent Due to a compound called gingerol, which increases intestinal motility. This means food doesn’t stay in the gut as long, which cuts down on gas production and keeps us from feeling bloated and sick.

Ginger was first used for food purposes in the Middle Ages as a way to mask the flavor of preserved meat, which was primarily eaten in the winter months around the holidays. Unlike most spices, it can be used in cooking in many forms – fresh, dried and ground, candied or pickled. Each version offers a different level of the signature bite of ginger.

Like cinnamon, nutmeg is also another diabetesIt has been shown to both lower blood sugar levels and increase serum insulin, Insulin helps control how sugar is stored in our bodies by moving glucose from our bloodstream into cells, where it can be accessed later when we need an energy boost, So cinnamon can help ensure that all those holiday baked goods are put to energetic use, whether now or later,

Nutmeg seeds produce several natural compounds, some of which have the ability to fight pathogenic bacteria. During the 1600s, doctors believed that nutmeg could be effective in warding off bubonic plague, and many people tied it around their necks. This belief probably came from the insecticidal properties of nutmeg, which may have helped keep plague fleas away from people who wore nutmeg necklaces.

The sights and sounds of the winter holidays are typical, but there’s nothing quite as ubiquitous and nostalgic as the smells and tastes. Understanding how we developed food-related traditions, and the science behind those foods, can help us appreciate the role they play in the festive season.