Mamta's Kitchen - A Family Cookbook
Are All Spices good for you ?
We know there are herbs and spices that are good for us, garlic is supposed to ward of heart attacks, turmeric is a good antiseptic etc. However are there any that are actually bad for us ?
I think "cloves" or "nutmeg" could be on the list ? Are some spices actually bad for us and should really be used in tiny amounts or even not at all ?
Steve
I know that nutmeg and mace are hallucinogenic if taken in large enough doses, and it's forbidden for people to pick it in countries where it grows. Cinnamon can be dangerous in large amounts and can cause sever body pains and convulsions. Cassia bark is meant to contain a blood thinning agent and is banned in some countries (I thing Germany is one).
I know that thyme and lavender are toxic if you take too much, but I think we are talking about the oils and to get to that stage I think you'd have to eat lots and lots of the stuff - more than you would ever use in a dish. Epazote is a herb I use quite often in Mexican cooking and it is fine as a seasoning, but in large doses (say eaten like a vegetable) it can be extremely toxic and can kill. It has been used by shamans for centuries to expel intestinal parasites.
I guess there are many herbs and spices that if taken in large enough doses could cause us a problem, therefore I'd say that moderation is the key. I've been told that eating pungent spices too often can be very taxing on the liver, I don't know how true that is though. Personally I doubt that billions of Indians could be wrong LOL.
I thought cloves had all sorts of health benefits and that clove oil is of course a natural anesthetic (great as an analgesic for toothache!)
Winton
I seem to remember have a bottle of clove oil (tincture of clove or something) and I'm sure it said something about being toxic.. !
Steve
Just been googling and Cloves contain "eugenol" which can be toxic in relatively low amounts, as low as 5ml - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clove
Steve
Found this interesting article on the net if I am allowed to put the URL
http://uk.lifestyle.yahoo.com/food-drink/10-good-reasons-to-chow-down-on-the-nations-favourite-food-blog-9-rachael-anne-hill.html
It tells of the good reasons to eat spices.
anything ingested can have a negative affect on the body, mostly the liver. Even protein! The liver deals with reducing the payload of chemicals in the bloodstream. Any chemicals. This is done by two means. Either by solubilising less soluable chemicals by attaching a water soluable group, or by using its enzymes to help breakdown the chemical, which is then more soluable. This process is completely natural, and the liver is the body's own 'de-tox' unit. It deals with it all, until pushed to extremes, when eventually it can fail, as in alcohol abuse.
The small amounts of chemicals in spices which give us flavour would not burden the liver on their own. Taking eugenol as an example, in test animals the acute oral dose is 2-3 g per kg body weight. So for a 50kg human, if that toxicity was translated, one would have to ingest 100-150g of pure eugenol, and as cloves only contain up to 7% oil, a 50kg human would have to consume 1400 - 2100 grammes of the stuff. Hardly likely!
If spices were toxic, humans would not have used them (for long!)
While waiting for my rice to cook I thought I'd continue Lapis' calculation. Counting 60 cloves to be 4g, there would be 330 cloves in a 'Schwartz' sized jar. I'd reckon you would need to eat between 65 and 95 jars to have an ill-effect, which would be difficult if not physically impossible!
Given the whole range of benefits in spices, i'd have thought we were far more likely to unwittingly do more harm by excluding them in diet, than in eating them (in moderation.)
Winton