Anti-Inflammatory Golden Protein Shake
Recipe by Chris Newport, Nutritionist and Head Coach
Gold is good: gold medals, gold jewelry, and golden tickets (thanks, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory!). But what about golden food, or more specifically, turmeric, which makes everything it touches turn gold (or yellow–but gold sounds much more romantic, right?). And why not a golden protein shake?
Turmeric the spice (or root) that turns curries and yellow rice gold. Curcumin is the active compound in turmeric. It packs a huge anti-inflammatory and antioxidant punch, which is critical for athletes (source, source, source).
So what’s the black pepper in there for, you might ask?
The active ingredient in black pepper is piperine, which increases the absorption (ie bioavailability) of curcumin by 2,000 times (source). And you don’t need a lot of the black pepper–just a smidge. Besides, black pepper is not that delicious in a shake (well, at least to me).
If you’re using this as a meal replacement, try to include higher fat yogurt and/or coconut butter for a nice balance of carbs, fat and protein. If you’re using this as a post hard or long endurance workout beverage, use low fat yogurt and skip the coconut butter. This can be used for a pre-endurance workout too if you leave out the coconut butter and protein powder and use plain yogurt (instead of Greek).
Anti-Inflammatory Golden Protein Shake
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup milk organic dairy or non-dairy alternative
- 1/2 cup Greek yogurt 2% plain (or your choice)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 small banana
- 1/2 tsp tumeric start with 1/4 tsp, taste, then increase to your taste
- very tiny pinch black pepper to increase absorption of the turmeric
- 1 scoop Klean Isolate protein powder optional
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1 T coconut butter, soft or melted optional
- honey, to taste optional
- 1/2 cup ice optional
