The Real Impact Saffron Can Have On Your Health

Saffron has enriched people's diets for centuries — perhaps even millennia. And if we go back as far as ancient times, we’ll find people all over the world consuming the earthy spice, and not just for the sake of adding flavor to dishes, though it certainly did that. No, people used this incredible spice as medicine, too.

No one knows for sure where saffron was first cultivated, but Iran seems like the most likely candidate. People living in this area long ago made great use of the spice. If they wanted to raise their spirits, they’d have some saffron. If they wanted to enhance their memories, they’d have some saffron. If they wanted to improve their performance in the bedroom, you guessed it — they had some saffron.

Nowadays, of course, saffron doesn’t come cheap. According to some measures, it’s actually the costliest spice around. But that makes sense when you consider how it’s harvested. Basically, the red strands we’re looking for when we talk about saffron come from a flowering plant known as Crocus sativus. To get these strands, people pick them using their bare hands. It’s extremely labor intensive.

Nonetheless, saffron is widely available. And if it’s in your meal, you'll recognize it instantly. It has a unique taste that’s easy to pinpoint but difficult to describe. Some would say it’s a little sweet, others would say it tastes a bit flowery, and a few people would shrug and say it tastes like the earth. It’s not really comparable to anything else, and that's exactly what makes it so valuable outside of the kitchen, too!

Beyond the taste, saffron has a whole host of incredible benefits for our health. So, let’s break some of them down. In its essence, saffron is full of special chemical compounds that can help prevent our cells from becoming degraded and damaged. These include safranal, crocetin, crocin, and kaempferol — yes, they're all a mouthful! So of these four compounds, let’s consider two.

Crocetin and crocin are the compounds that make saffron so darn recognizable. They give the spice its eye-catching red hue! But the health properties of these compounds are really impressive, too. It’s said that these compounds can help fight depression, keep our brain cells in a healthy state, and help us keep our appetites in check. This, in turn, helps us lose weight.

But when it comes to the special flavor and scent of saffron, we can thank a different chemical compound — safranal. And that’s not the only thing this compound brings to the table. Safranal has been shown to help with people’s memories and their capacity to learn new things efficiently. If your brain could use a boost, consider adding a sprinkle of saffron to your next savory meal.

As for the kaempferol compound, it comes from the flower petals of the saffron plant. It’s said to be great for keeping inflammation inside one's body under control, which can help reduce symptoms of autoimmune conditions like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. Plus, some researchers believe that kaempferol could decrease the risk of cancer developing. Most surprising, however, is the spice's potential impact on people's mental health.

Like crocetin and crocin, kaempferol is apparently a good way for people to keep their mental well-being in a positive place. Our mental health is obviously a complicated business, but we can aid it in all sorts of little ways. And there’s evidence that saffron really might help keep us feeling happy. If you’ve ever heard it referred to as “the sunshine spice,” now you know it’s not just because of its color.

Several scientific studies have looked into saffron’s effects on our mental well-being, and the results are quite promising. In fact, some research has indicated that it might be just as effective a treatment as actual antidepressant medications. And on top of that, there are fewer side effects that result from the consumption of saffron. Sounds too good to be true, right?

Well, maybe it is too good to be true. First of all, the research suggests saffron might be effective in milder cases of depression, rather than in severe instances. The second caveat is that a lot more research is needed before you can throw your Prozac into the trash. Still, the minimal research that has been conducted is quite encouraging, and not just in the field of mental health.

As for saffron’s ability to fight cancer, we can point toward its high antioxidant content as being a big plus. These antioxidants help to limit the damage caused by free radicals, which are unstable molecules whose presence can impair other molecules in the body. In more concrete terms, researchers have indicated that saffron can help to destroy cancer cells in the colon while leaving the normal cells around them intact. This is huge news!

After all, squashing cancer cells in a small way is better than nothing. It’s also been suggested that saffron is good for fighting cancer cells in other parts of the body, be it in the lungs, breasts, skin, or bones. Some studies have even indicated that the crocin compound in saffron further exposes cancer cells to the effects of chemotherapy. Again, though, more research is needed as to saffron's cancer-fighting abilities. Until then, saffron can still help with more common ailments.

As a woman starts her menstrual period, she may experience a range of physical, psychological, and emotional symptoms. Known as premenstrual syndrome (PMS), these symptoms can completely stop you in your tracks if they're severe enough. Luckily, some research has indicated that saffron may actually help to ease some of these symptoms. One study in particular aimed to determine saffron's healing properties not as an ingestible spice, but as a scent.

Amazingly, this study suggested that merely sniffing saffron was good for easing anxiety and stress brought on by PMS. Aromatherapy, anyone? And a different study focused on females aged between 20 and 45 showed that a 30-milligram dosage of saffron every day was good at treating a range of symptoms related to PMS. These included headaches, general pain, irritability, and cravings.

And just as ancient peoples long ago suspected, it seems saffron really can help with our love lives. Studies in contemporary times have shown it may really act as an aphrodisiac, meaning it raises libido. It seems to be especially good at raising libido for individuals who are taking antidepressant medications. Antidepressants are known to decrease some people's sex drives, and it's possible that saffron, of all things, could help even out libido levels.

For example, a daily dosage of saffron for about one month seemed to really help male subjects of one study, who were having sexual issues at the time due to their antidepressants. And other studies have shown similar results in women, too. The spice, if these studies are anything to go by, can be a miracle worker — and not just sexually.

Nothing beats a healthy diet and safe exercise when it comes to losing weight, but as we learned, saffron could be a useful weight loss tool as well. If you’re prone to eating snacks regularly, you might have difficulty shedding those unwanted pounds. Ingesting saffron, though, can supposedly reduce your appetite, which means you’ll feel less of a need to graze. Of course, there's an obvious caveat to this "trick."

The fact is, it’s not entirely clear how exactly saffron helps keep people’s appetites down and otherwise helps them to shed weight. It may simply be down to the fact the spice is good for raising people’s spirits, rather than anything else. If people are happy and fulfilled, they’ll be less inclined to want to snack in an unhealthy way. In a metaphoric sense, saffron could help heal your heart. But what if it wasn't only metaphorically heart healthy?

Yes, saffron seems to be good for the health of our hearts, too. This is, again, down to the antioxidants it contains, which arguably keeps blood cholesterol down and also hinders the possibility of arteries and blood vessels from becoming clogged. The chances that heart disease might develop, then, are lower.

Saffron might be good for people with diabetes, too. And for those of us who don’t have the condition, it might help us to avoid it. That’s because saffron is thought to keep blood sugar low and to boost the sensitivity of insulin. This has been shown to be the case in mice, but more studies in humans are undoubtedly required before we can be sure of anything.

A versatile spice, saffron might even be good for our eyes. In those of us who suffer with age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the spice has been shown to be effective in clearing up vision. It may also help to prevent the condition from arising in the first place! In fact, saffron has been known to improve a few other age-related maladies.

Another serious condition saffron may help with is Alzheimer’s disease. The antioxidants in the spice might help to boost cognitive activity and memory in adults afflicted with the condition. Some studies have even compared intake of the spice to more conventional medical treatments for Alzheimer’s! While it may only be equally effective, it does lead to less problematic side effects. The obvious question is, how can we safely add saffron to our daily routines?

As we’ve seen, saffron has so many potential benefits for our health. And while more research is needed to be certain, it definitely seems worth incorporating it into our lives. And that’s the easy part, as it goes great with a bunch of recipes like risotto and paella. Don't start eating spoonfuls of the spice, however.

Saffron should be savored, not overpowering. And as far as spices go, saffron is certainly on the expensive side. But luckily, we don’t actually need to ingest that much of it to reap the benefits. And as far as introducing it to our food, it’s definitely best not to go overboard. In small doses, it can add a warmth and richness to a dish, but too much won’t taste right.

And even though saffron is on the expensive side, it is pretty widely available these days. If you take a trip to a specialty market, you’re pretty sure to find it in some form. That might be in strands, or maybe as a powder. The former is best, as the strands are more versatile when it comes to cooking and preparing meals with the spice.

Even though there’s more we need to learn about saffron, it seems a safe bet that, in small doses, it won’t affect us in a negative way. That means you definitely shouldn’t be afraid to cook with it. Using even a small amount like 30 milligrams a day should bring us health benefits. But as we've established, eating too much saffron can have some truly scary side effects.

If you have as much as five grams of saffron in a sitting, it can actually be dangerous to your body — even toxic. Pregnant individuals especially should steer clear of high amounts of the spice, as it might negatively impact the pregnancy. Spices can seem innocent, but when it comes to saffron, it’s always best to speak with a medical professional before you start adding it to your regular diet.

And if you can only get your hands on saffron in powdered form, you should also exercise caution. It’s more likely to have been combined with other ingredients, which might not be as beneficial as saffron in strand form. So, make sure you trust your saffron sources. After all, spices should only add to food and life's deliciousness — it shouldn't take anything away. All of this might have you taking another look at the herbs and spices in your diet, though. One particularly notable item you can add is ginger tea. This drink actually comes with a whole range of amazing benefits — but there’s one that’s especially impressive.

One of the great things about ginger in general is how easy it is to incorporate into your diet. You can get it in a whole range of different forms, be it fresh, dried, or as a powder or oil. And you can use it as an ingredient when cooking your dinner. But one of the simplest ways to avail yourself of its perks is to drink it as a tea.

Ginger has been helping people for a long, long time. Cultures long ago figured out how useful it was for treating a whole range of ailments, though their scientific understanding of what was going on might not have been totally up to scratch. Nowadays, though, scientists can tell us exactly why the root is so good.

We know today that ginger contains a compound called “gingerol,” which is what’s behind a lot of the root’s health benefits. Gingerol acts as an anti-inflammatory in the body, plus it also possesses antioxidant properties. That’s all well and good, of course, but what does it all mean for us practically?

Let’s start with the big benefit of gingerol. The compound is great for keeping our digestive systems ticking along as they should, which means food doesn’t stay in our bodies for longer than necessary. And that means it’s amazing for treating nausea. That’s an especially useful thing for people who have just had surgery, are undergoing chemotherapy, or who are pregnant and experiencing morning sickness.

The evidence is compelling. Studies focused on pregnant women have been conducted, and the findings suggest as little as 1.1 grams of ginger can really help to alleviate nausea. Of course, caution should always be exercised. Ginger is widely considered to be safe to consume, but pregnant people especially should speak to their doctors before they start taking a lot of ginger.

If you’ve ever suffered from indigestion, you don’t need anyone to tell you how uncomfortable it can be. What might be useful, though, are some solutions. And here again, ginger can be really great for easing things along. So, pour yourself a cup of ginger tea if you find yourself feeling bloated.

Ginger helps to speedily clear food out of the stomach. So, that means it’s great for dealing with the onset of indigestion: the evidence is there to prove it. Studies have indicated that ginger really does reduce the amount of time it takes a person’s stomach to process food.

And anyone hoping to lose a little weight might consider sipping on some ginger tea, as a 2019 literature review cited by website Healthline has indicated. According to this review, the presence of ginger can help to bring down a person’s body weight. Plus, it encourages a healthy ratio between the size of a person’s waist and their hips.

Another study undertaken in 2016 found that women considered to be obese were aided by consuming ginger. It apparently helped to bring down their body mass index (BMI) and the levels of their blood insulin. Research like this is promising, but more will be necessary before the link is conclusively proved.

This is an emerging focus of research, but some scientists are beginning to think ginger might be great for people with diabetes. A 2015 study, for instance, indicated that a couple of grams of ginger a day significantly brought down blood-sugar levels. It’s also thought it might reduce the chances of developing heart disease.

High levels of bad cholesterol can be a major risk factor for the onset of heart disease. But in very high dosages, ginger has been shown by researchers to bring down bad cholesterol. It’s been noted, though, that the amounts of ginger required were really high, so maybe this isn’t a surefire solution.

Osteoarthritis can be a nasty condition, causing a person’s joints to become stiff and sore. It’s a common issue, though, so lots of people will be looking for relief. And, it turns out, ginger might just help with that, too. With minimal side-effects, consuming ginger really might ease joint pain for people.

Women who suffer with menstrual pain should also consider incorporating a cup of ginger tea into their routine. Having said that, it might be even better to take it another way — maybe in the form of a powder. One study has suggested that doses of ginger were actually as effective as over-the-counter medications such as ibuprofen at reducing menstrual pain.

Gingerol is beneficial in all sorts of ways, but this point is up there with the most promising. The evidence is, at present, fairly minimal, but there are indications that gingerol might help to ward off certain types of cancer. That would be amazing, of course, but more research is required.

Ginger is also said to be good for our brains. It might specifically help to keep us protected from the nasty effects of Alzheimer’s disease, which is thought to be driven by inflammation and oxidative stress. Research focused on animals has indicated that ginger’s compounds might help to keep these processes in check.

Ginger may also be good for our brains in a more general sense. A study from 2012 — which was focused on healthy females in their middle age — suggested that memory and reaction time saw some improvements when ginger was consumed every day. Animal studies have also pointed towards similar findings.

Gingerol is also thought to be good at reducing bacterial growth. In other words, it can help to protect you from infections. An example suggested by a study in 2008 is that it might help to prevent different types of gum disease. But the potential goes beyond that: the chances of respiratory infections developing are also thought to be reduced by ginger.

All in all, then, it’s pretty clear that ginger can be great for our health, so you should get sipping on a hot, steaming cup of it whenever you can. But if you don’t actually like the taste of the drink, there are other ways of reaping the benefits. It can add great flavor to all sorts of dishes, so look up some recipes.

Now, it’s not all necessarily good. Some people have reported feeling bloated after consuming ginger, and it can also lower blood pressure. That means care should always be exercised and it should be taken, as with everything, in moderation. Have a chat with your doctor if you’re unsure about anything.