I keep fresh turmeric root in the fridge for most of the winter, mainly because it turns a plain orange and apple juice into something I would happily pay for. On its own it is earthy, a bit bitter and it stains your fingers yellow for a day, so it is not the sort of thing you sip neat. Paired with two oranges, two apples and a thumb of ginger it becomes a bright golden glass, sharp and clean with a gentle warmth at the back of the throat. I stir in a pinch of black pepper right at the end, and that pinch is the one part of this recipe I would not skip.
Why these ingredients work
Turmeric is the reason this glass sits on a page about focus and memory, so the reason deserves a proper explanation rather than a slogan. The active compound is curcumin, and it is one of the more studied plant compounds there is. The trial that gets quoted most ran at UCLA under Gary Small and was published in 2018. Forty adults aged 50 to 90 took either a high absorption curcumin or a placebo for eighteen months, and the curcumin group improved on memory and attention tests while their scans showed less amyloid and tau. Now read the detail, because the detail is the whole point. They took 90 mg of a specially formulated curcumin twice a day, and curcumin on its own is so poorly absorbed that a special formulation was the only way to get a usable dose into them. A glass of fresh turmeric juice gives you a small food amount, nothing like that. So I drink this because it is a good habit, not because I think it is protecting my memory on its own.
The pinch of black pepper is not decoration. Piperine, the compound behind pepper’s heat, interferes with the process your gut uses to clear curcumin out, and a study published in Planta Medica in 1998 found it raised curcumin absorption sharply in human volunteers. Fat helps as well and there is none in a juice, so the pepper only takes you so far, but it is a free upgrade and worth doing.
The orange is what makes the drink taste good, and it is also where the vitamin C comes from at roughly 85 mg a glass, more than twice the UK reference intake. Vitamin C does not stop healthy adults catching colds, it may shorten one slightly, but it is a sensible thing to have in a glass you were going to drink anyway. Ginger is the best evidenced ingredient here, with real trials behind it for nausea and a long traditional use for a queasy stomach, and it stops the turmeric tasting like soil. The apple is there for sweetness and to keep the whole thing from tasting medicinal.
Be honest about what straining costs you as well. Almost all of the fibre in the apples stays in the pulp and goes in the bin, and this glass still carries around 28 g of fruit sugar, so it is a proper drink rather than something free. Turmeric also stains, so rinse the juicer parts and the board straight away and keep the glass away from pale worktops and pale shirts.
FAQ
Can I use ground turmeric instead of fresh root?
You can, but it makes a different drink. Ground turmeric will not go through a juicer, so stir half a teaspoon into the finished juice rather than trying to press it. Read the label as well, because some supermarket jars are stretched with cheaper fillers. Fresh root gives the clean, sharp flavour and a much better colour, so use it when you can get hold of it.
Is this as good as taking a curcumin supplement?
No, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. The memory trials used concentrated, specially formulated curcumin at doses far above what a glass of juice can carry, and the trials on curcumin and mood used supplements too. This juice is a pleasant daily habit with a genuinely good ingredient in it, not a replacement for anything your doctor has prescribed.
Should I be careful with turmeric if I take blood thinners?
Yes, mention it. Turmeric has a mild antiplatelet effect, so if you take warfarin or one of the newer blood thinners, keep your intake steady and tell your GP or the clinic that monitors you. Anyone with gallstones should ask their GP first as well, because turmeric makes the gallbladder work harder, and high doses of turmeric are best avoided in pregnancy. A glass of juice is a food amount, but a supplement on top of a daily juice is a different question.
More brain recipes: see the full Brain collection.
Turmeric, Orange and Apple Juice
Equipment
- Nut milk bag
Ingredients
- 30 g fresh turmeric root about three thumbs. Scrub rather than peel, then slice thinly
- 15 g fresh ginger root a piece about the size of your thumb
- 2 large oranges peeled (about 300 g of flesh)
- 2 sweet apples cored (about 300 g)
- 0.5 unwaxed lemon peeled if you want it less bitter
- 1 small pinch freshly ground black pepper stirred in at the end. This is the bit that matters for the turmeric
Instructions
Juicer method
- Scrub the turmeric and the ginger under the tap rather than peeling them, then slice the turmeric thinly. Turmeric is dense and woody, so thin slices save your machine a job.
- Peel the oranges and quarter the apples. Run the orange and the apple through the juicer first so the basket is already wet when the roots arrive.
- Feed the turmeric, ginger and lemon through next, and alternate each piece of root with a piece of apple. Dry roots on their own will just spin around the basket.
- Stir in the pinch of black pepper and pour straight into glasses or a bottle. Turmeric settles as it stands, so give it a stir before you drink it.
Blender method
- Cut the turmeric and the ginger into small pieces and put them in the blender with the peeled oranges and 150 ml of cold water. Blend for a full minute.
- Pour that through a nut milk bag or a fine sieve into a jug and squeeze the pulp properly. Turmeric pulp holds on to a lot of liquid, so give it a good press.
- Blend the apples and the lemon with another 100 ml of water, then strain that through the same bag and stir the two lots together.
- Stir in the pinch of black pepper and drink it the same day.