How Toxic Turmeric Ends Up in Your Food

Video Description

Turmeric has been cooked into staple dishes and used in herbal medicine for thousands of years in India. But in the last decade, the spice has taken on new life in the West, encapsulated into tablets and pressed into juice shots. That’s all thanks to America’s newest obsession: curcumin. The healthy compound is found only in turmeric and is responsible for the spice’s anti-inflammatory and antioxidant powers. Health companies in the US and Europe are willing to pay big bucks to get turmeric with a curcumin level above 5%. But Indian farmers, who grow most of the world’s supply, can’t cash in. What they produce isn’t that high in curcumin — only about 2%. Meanwhile, other countries, like Fiji, are creeping in, growing more turmeric with higher levels of the compound for Western markets. So what does it take to make a healthier, more valuable turmeric? And is there a way for farmers in India to cash in on Western demand? 00:00 - Intro 1:02 - Harvesting Turmeric 1:24 - Turmeric’s Importance 2:01 - Farmer Ashok 3:43 - Polishing Turmeric 4:20 - Challenges of Turmeric Farming 5:12 - Curcumin 5:41 - Nizamabad Turmeric Market 9:15 - Powdering Turmeric 11:10 - Counterfeit Turmeric & Lead Poisoning 12:33 - Burlap & Barrel 13:26 - Turmeric Bans 13:54 - History of the Turmeric Trade 14:33 - Turmeric Trends in the West 16:01 - Why Indian Turmeric Farmers Can’t Cash In 16:57 - Fiji: The Next Turmeric Frontier? 19:47 - Tariffs on Turmeric 20:19 - Helping India’s Turmeric Farmers ------------------------------------------------------ #Turmeric #curcumin #healthandwellness #bigbusiness MORE BIG BUSINESS VIDEOS: How One Tiny Country Rivals American Farming https://youtu.be/diBS0VfVcbs Meet The Teacher Who Wakes Up At 3:30 AM For His Labubu Business https://youtu.be/gzoY27hzOmU The Rise And Fall Of The American Diner https://youtu.be/VyCtgTQWe8Y Business Insider tells you all you need to know about business, finance, tech, retail, and more. Visit our homepage for the top stories of the day: https://www.businessinsider.com Business Insider on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/businessinsider Business Insider on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/businessinsider Business Insider on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/businessinsider Business Insider on Snapchat: https://www.snapchat.com/discover/Business_Insider/5319643143 Business Insider on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@businessinsider India Grows 80% Of The World’s Turmeric. So Why Are Farmers Struggling? | Big Business | Business Insider