Golden Milk: How Healthy Is The Ayurveda Drink?

Golden milk is an Ayurvedic drink with a millennia-old tradition. In the meantime, however, it is also becoming more and more popular in the western world. We explain which ingredients are the best for high-quality golden milk, how to prepare the milk, and what effects the drink has. Is the Ayurveda drink really as healthy as it is often said to be?

What actually is golden milk?

In Ayurveda – the ancient Indian art of healing – golden milk is a proven home remedy for a wide variety of complaints. It is drunk for heartburn, colds, coughs, insomnia, and much more. Children in India also get the drink – in this case, sweetened.

However, golden milk is not only drunk in its homeland for illnesses, but also just like that, for example at the end of the day in the evening. In recent years, gold-colored milk has become the favorite drink of the health and connoisseur scene almost all over the world.

Golden milk is also known as a turmeric latte or turmeric milk. In India, she is called Haldi Doodh. This is Hindi (the official language in India) and means turmeric milk (haldi = turmeric; doodh = milk).

What is the golden milk made of?

Originally, the golden milk consisted only of whole milk and turmeric, possibly also of a little black pepper, because – as we know today – this can increase the bioavailability of the turmeric active ingredients. In the meantime, however, the drink has been enriched with numerous other spices and ingredients, such as the following:

• cardamom
• Ginger
• Cinnamon
• nutmeg
• coriander
• saffron
• coconut oil
• Ayurvedic medicinal herbs such as Ashwagandha or Triphala (see section after next)
• sugar

What sugar do you use for golden milk?

The turmeric milk does not need to be sweetened. If you find the spices (depending on the dosage) too bitter, you can of course use a sweetener. In India, jaggery (as the whole cane sugar of Asia is called), coconut blossom sugar, or a little honey are used.

You can also use healthier sweeteners like xylitol or go inside. The latter is a calorie-free sweetener made from erythritol and stevia that has the same sweetening power as sugar.

Which medicinal plants go well with turmeric milk?

Depending on the symptoms, medicinal plants can also be added to golden milk. Traditionally, of course, Ayurvedic medicinal plants are used. For general strengthening z. B. Ashwagandha and Triphala:

Ashwagandha

Ashwagandha is a powerful adaptogen. Adaptogens are medicinal plants that make you more resistant to stress, which means: Ashwagandha reduces stress hormone levels, improves sleep at night, increases brain performance during the day, and promotes hormone production in the thyroid gland. The latter makes Ashwagandha a natural remedy for hypothyroidism.

For the golden milk, use 2 to 4 g Ashwagandha powder (½ tsp) per serving.

Ashwagandha also has its own drink, the Ashwagandha sleeping drink (also called Moon Milk). If you look at the recipe (see the previous link) you will see that it closely resembles golden milk.

Triphala

Triphala is an Ayurvedic Rasayana (rejuvenation remedy). Triphala means three fruits and consists of three Indian dried fruits: Amalaki (also called Amla or Indian gooseberry), Haritaki, and Bibhitaki. Triphala is said to aid digestion, cleanse the colon, and aid in detoxification.

Why is the golden milk golden?

The golden milk is so beautifully golden because it contains turmeric – and turmeric in turn contains curcumin. Curcumin is the main golden-yellow active ingredient in turmeric, a plant substance with such strong coloring properties that it was once used as a dye for textiles.

You will notice this very quickly when processing (peeling, grating) the fresh turmeric root. After that, everything is colored yellow – fingers, cutting board, knife, tea towel, although the color also adheres very well, so it is not so easy to remove. Kitchen gloves are therefore often recommended.

Today, curcumin is probably the most scientifically studied plant substance. Its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-cancer effects have made turmeric a celebrity and a superfood around the world.

How does the golden milk work?

Turmeric milk is traditionally drunk for heartburn, insomnia, duodenal ulcers, asthma, malaria, colds, and coughs, and is also considered a home remedy for fever (1).

Since turmeric (besides the milk itself) is the main ingredient in golden milk, the effect of the drink is also due in particular to turmeric and its numerous healing properties. Curcumin – i.e. the isolated active ingredient from turmeric and not turmeric itself – is usually used in studies. Therefore, the following statements relate in particular to curcumin, although of course it cannot be ruled out that turmeric also has these effects, also depending on the amount consumed.

The properties of turmeric or curcumin are as follows:

• Supports the regulation of blood sugar levels in diabetes and reduces the risk of type diabetes complications.
• Has an anticoagulant effect, improves the flow properties of the blood, and thus reduces the risk of thrombosis.
• Has an anti-inflammatory effect and in some studies was able to reduce the CRP value (an inflammatory marker that increases in chronic inflammatory diseases) or the cytokine level (cytokines are inflammatory messengers), while those values ​​(SOD, glutathione) that indicate an increased antioxidant potential increased.
• Helps lower blood fat and cholesterol levels.
• Lowers the cardiovascular risk, which the three points mentioned above already indicate (blood thinning, anti-inflammatory, cholesterol reduction).
• Can – if taken alongside antidepressants – increase their effectiveness.
• It May help with arthrosis makes you more flexible and reduces the need for painkillers.
• Can pass the blood-brain barrier and protect the brain from degenerative processes.
• Has an anti-cancer effect and reduces the risk of metastases in existing cancer.
• Has a cell-protecting effect (protects healthy cells, e.g. from radiation, while the cancer cells perish).
• Has a beneficial effect on oral flora and dental health.
• Supports detoxification (e.g. elimination of mercury).
• Promotes digestion as it stimulates the production of digestive juices and improves bile flow.

Where can you find cheap organic turmeric powder?

If you want to make golden milk regularly from now on, you’ll need a lot of turmerics, so it’s worth getting in bulk.

Can you use soy milk for the golden milk?

In most turmeric milk recipes, oat, almond, or rice drink is mentioned as an alternative to cow’s milk. Soy milk is rarely recommended, which can be for two reasons:

1. It doesn’t have the mild sweetness of rice or oat milk, so soy milk requires a sweetener.
2. You don’t want to expose yourself to the usual soy bashing that’s unfortunately unavoidable these days when posting a recipe containing soy. We refute all anti-soy arguments in our main article on soy.

However, a study published in the journal Foods in February 2022 ( 1 ) showed that from a health perspective, soy milk is at least as suitable for golden milk as cow’s milk, if not better.

Turmeric reduces protein content in cow’s milk

In the study, adding turmeric to cow’s milk reduced the protein content of the milk from 2.3-2.4 percent to 1.7-2.1 percent. This phenomenon was explained by the fact that some plant substances (polyphenols) bind to milk proteins and thus prevent their availability.

However, this also reduces the availability of the polyphenols – and it is precisely their effect that one actually wants. (Curcumin belongs to the plant substance group of polyphenols). With soy milk, no reduced protein content was found by adding turmeric.

If you prefer to use rice, oat, or almond milk instead of soy milk, then there is no risk of protein-polyphenol binding due to the very low protein content of these drinks. It also appears to be a specific property of cow’s milk protein that is not transferrable to other proteins.

Higher polyphenol content in soy milk than in cow’s milk

The polyphenol content in the golden soy milk was significantly higher than that in the golden cow’s milk. However, soy milk already contains a higher polyphenol content, since soybeans are also rich in polyphenols. A significant increase in polyphenol content was observed in both types of milk when a 6 percent turmeric paste was added.

The polyphenol content increased from 0.1 to 0.13 g/kg in soy milk and from 0.03 to 0.05 g/kg in cow’s milk.

The turmeric paste was made in a blender from fresh turmeric root and tap water in a ratio of 1:2. 6 percent turmeric paste then corresponds to 2 percent fresh turmeric root.

Soy milk has a higher antioxidant capacity than cow’s milk

The measurement of the antioxidant capacity – i.e. how well golden soy or golden cow’s milk can fight oxidative stress and free radicals – showed that soy milk was clearly ahead:

Cooked golden milk made from soy milk (with 6 percent of the above turmeric paste) had a value of 17.7 mmol Trolox/kg. Cooked golden milk from cow’s milk had a value of only 5.3 mmol Trolox/kg (whole milk) and 5.6 mmol Trolox/kg (skim milk) at the same turmeric concentration.

Why golden milk should be made with plant-based milk

Aside from the above factors, there are other reasons why golden milk is better prepared with plant-based milk:

• Ethics

From an ethical point of view, it is irresponsible to exploit other creatures – as happens with dairy cows – for their lifetime, to snatch the newborn calf from them every year (which is killed after fattening when they are young), and finally slaughter them prematurely, just because milk production decreases.

• Milk intolerance

Many people do not tolerate milk well. The well-known lactose intolerance affects relatively few people in western countries (Europe/North America). In contrast, the number of unreported cases of milk protein intolerance is likely to be significantly higher.

In contrast to lactose intolerance or milk allergy, this often does not cause any acute symptoms or symptoms that can clearly be attributed to milk. Instead, it leads to diffuse complaints, such as

• headache
• constipation
• frequent respiratory infections
• ear infections etc.

Existing chronic diseases can also be aggravated or blocked in the healing process, such as arthrosis, migraines, asthma, chronic intestinal diseases, rheumatism, or (other) autoimmune diseases. Try it once! Avoid dairy products of all kinds for 6 to 8 weeks and see how your condition changes.

• Milk quality

The milk from today’s factory farming and from today’s high-performance cows has nothing to do with the milk that was used in Ayurveda thousands or hundreds of years ago. And even at that time, there were apparently already strict rules for the use of milk.

The milk milked in the morning is said to have been considered unfavorable and not very recommendable. Because the animals would not have had any species-appropriate food or exercise overnight in the barn. As a result, the milk becomes even more difficult to digest than it already is. So what should you think of milk that comes from cows that sometimes never leave the barn at all and are fed concentrated feed based on soy and corn?

What to watch out for when using plant milk for golden milk?

If you buy plant drinks for your turmeric milk, then pay attention to quality and taste. Because only a really good plant drink also produces delicious golden milk. We recommend Natumi’s plant drinks – and advise against some supermarket plant drinks (e.g. Alpro uses unnecessary additives). But you can also find something in the supermarket. Pay attention to the ingredient list. Nothing should be there but water and soybeans. The drink should be unsweetened and also of organic quality.

You can also make your own plant-based milk. Here are recipes for making your own oat milk and rice milk.

If you’re using plant-based milk (bought or homemade) for the Ayurvedic drink, you could add some fat to increase the bioavailability of the curcumin in turmeric. Because cow’s milk normally contains 3.5 percent fat, the plant drinks usually only 1 to 2 percent. Therefore, oil is listed in many Goldene Milch recipes.

Which oil or fat goes in the golden milk?

However, you can also use high-quality almond oil, whose nutty, mildly sweet aroma harmonizes very well with the Ayurveda drink. Almond oil is very similar to olive oil in terms of fatty acid composition, so it contains only a few saturated fatty acids and plenty of monounsaturated fatty acids, which are said to be responsible for the health benefits of olive oil.

Why is the golden milk heated?

In Ayurveda, cold milk is considered indigestible and difficult to digest. It is therefore traditionally heated (or even boiled outright) and drunk with digestive spices.

Here, however, it must be considered that in ancient India there was only raw milk and some people may not feel so well after drinking it due to the bacterial contamination of raw milk (especially sick people or small children). Of course, nothing was known about bacteria at the time. It was only observed that there were no corresponding complaints when boiling and seasoning the milk (spices usually also have an antibacterial effect) and this procedure was recommended from then on – also when preparing the golden milk.

Today, however, unheated milk is no longer available in shops (with the exception of premium milk in health food stores). Plant drinks are even ultra-high temperatures. Basically, it is no longer necessary to heat or boil the golden milk.

Golden milk: the preparation

There are three different ways of preparing turmeric milk:

• Homemade golden milk from a spice paste and milk/plant milk: Here you will find our ZDG recipe for golden milk with turmeric, saffron, and cardamom
• Homemade golden milk made from spices and milk/plant milk (you can also find a variant made from a pure spice powder mixture at the link above, i.e. without having to make a paste first – although in our opinion the golden milk from the paste tastes better!)
• Golden milk as “fast food” – made from a ready mix

Which ready mix for golden milk is recommended?

In the original recipe, fresh turmeric root is used for the golden milk. Today, on the other hand, turmeric powder is increasingly used. There are now even golden milk powders on the market in a wide variety of compositions.

This powder is stirred into a cup of warm cow or plant milk (it can also be frothed). Or you stir the mixture into cold milk and then heat everything together. Some of these powder mixtures even contain milk powder, so you don’t even need milk to mix it, just water.

Of course, the ready mixes also go well with juices, smoothies, yogurts, fruit salads, or sweet bowls. Which ready mix is ​​ideal for you depends on your taste preferences and your diet. We present three ready-mixes below (all in organic quality):

Golden Milk from Raab: 30% turmeric powder, coconut flour, coconut blossom sugar, Ceylon cinnamon, ground ginger, ground pepper, ground coriander

Raab’s mixture contains plenty of turmerics, but also 35 percent sugar and coconut flour. The latter ensures a mild taste. You don’t have to sweeten this golden milk anymore. However, if you do not want to eat/drink sugar, you should use an unsweetened ready-mix (see below from Ölmühle Solling). On the other hand, if you sweeten your turmeric milk anyway because the spices are too strong or too bitter for you, then you can of course choose a sweetened powder right away.

Golden milk from Raibu organic: 47% turmeric powder, coconut blossom sugar, cinnamon powder, ginger powder, ashwagandha powder, and red pepper.

The turmeric milk from Raibu organic provides even more turmeric than Raab but also contains 35 percent sugar. Instead of the usual black pepper, red pepper is used, which gives mild golden milk.

Olmuhle Solling’s Golden Milk Powder consists only of a mixture of spices and is otherwise free of any other ingredients or added sugar. It is ideal for people who live sugar-free or who want to determine their sweetener and the amount of sweetener themselves.

How healthy is the golden milk?

The spices used – whether turmeric, cinnamon, or ginger – undoubtedly have strong healing potential. However, the amounts used in the golden milk (in favor of a milder taste) are usually quite small. An effect can only be expected if significant amounts of turmeric, ginger, or cinnamon are used, although it is always better not to put this amount in a single drink or a single dish, to use spices regularly in ALL meals. In this way, you can spread the effective amount over several dishes. With turmeric, it should be several grams (4 – 7 g) per day to achieve a health-effective dose.

Plant-based milk (particularly rice and oat milk) is often very rich in carbohydrates (with a simultaneous lack of protein) and – like cow’s milk – has a natural sugar content of around 5 percent. If the turmeric milk is then also sweetened with sugar, the supposed healing drink quickly turns into a sweet that you should be careful with when it comes to quantity.

So if you want to benefit from the golden milk, drink only one cup a day (approx. 250 – 300 ml), do not sweeten with sugar, but with e.g. B. Govioside, and choose soy milk or almond milk for preparation, as these have little to no intrinsic sugar content.

Now it could be that you only like rice milk or oat milk. In this case, take one of the two plant drinks, but then eat no sweets that day.

Incidentally, with the organic oat drink powder from Unmilk you can very quickly mix oat milk that consists of nothing but oats, i.e. is completely free of additives: Put a few measuring spoons of the powder in a bottle of water, shake the bottle – and the oat milk is ready.

How often and when do you drink golden milk?

The golden milk is generally drunk once a day – in the evening hours at the end of the day. However, some people also like it for breakfast and the drink makes them feel refreshed for the day.

If you want to consume a higher dose of turmeric than is contained in one serving of golden milk, you better prepare another turmeric recipe that day instead of drinking two or even three servings of turmeric milk. Because the Ayurveda drink is less a drink than a snack and often even a very sweet one. See the next section for more turmeric recipe ideas.

Are there alternatives to golden milk?

The golden milk is nothing more than a tasty way to regularly supply yourself with turmeric. If milk or plant-based drinks aren’t your things, there are of course many other ways to enjoy turmeric.

In Nigeria, for example, the national drink Zobo has now been enriched with turmeric. Zobo is a soft drink made from hibiscus blossoms, pineapple, oranges, and cloves, which is also great with popsicles. Zobo recipes are easy to find on the internet.

If you want to cook with turmeric from now on, we recommend our turmeric cookbook, which contains numerous turmeric recipes (mainly main meals) as well as instructions for the 7-day turmeric cure.

You can also add turmeric to smoothies, juices, fruit salads, breakfast bowls, or other dishes. Especially with juices or other fat-free recipes, you should add a little oil so that the curcumin from turmeric becomes more bioavailable.

Our lung drink made from turmeric, ginger, and onions is also a very healing recipe, which can be helpful for respiratory infections or other lung diseases.

Another drink with turmeric is Moon Milk (Ashwagandha sleeping drink). You can find the link to the recipe above under “What is the golden milk made of?”.