Golden Milk Latte
Benefits and Recipe
There are a lot of trending new superfood beverages being promoted as the newest, healthiest option, and we cannot get enough! Adding superfoods into your diet through easy-to-prep and easy-to-integrate recipes is our mission.
There is one superfood in particular that has been popping up that we cannot keep our eyes off. With its golden color and laundry list of health benefits, what's not to love? That's right, we are talking about the turmeric in the classic golden milk latte.
While the golden milk latte may be making its debut on social media, it is certainly not a new creation. The golden milk latte has been used for millennia for its heart and brain benefits, antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory properties.
Lucky for us, this modest drink has been put back in the limelight where it belongs.
What Is a Golden Milk Latte?
The golden milk latte, also called a turmeric latte, is a traditional Indian tea made by steeping turmeric, nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger in (plant-based) milk. With most of the ingredients of golden milk likely in your spice rack already, it is an easy, warming, delicious beverage you can make at home today!
Golden milk has been used in Ayurvedic tradition, which is one of the oldest holistic approaches to health. Beginning over 3,000 years ago, Ayurvedic (translated to “knowledge of life”) medicine combines the body, mind, spirit, and environment into a holistic health approach.
Now, with the advancements in science, these health benefits have been tested and shown to support Ayurvedic traditions.
Do Golden Milk Lattes Have Caffeine?
When you hear the word latte, you probably think of a drink that will give you a boost of energy from a source of caffeine. Since golden milk lattes are only made with turmeric, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, and milk, they do not contain caffeine.
While they may not give you that energy boost (that can often leave you feeling jittery or give you the caffeine crash), they can help with your focus and memory while boosting your mood.
What Are the Benefits of Golden Milk Lattes?
Superfoods are foods that are very nutritionally dense, providing you with many health-promoting nutrients. Golden milk is made with powerful ingredients like turmeric, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger, all with their own health benefits. Combining them in tea is an easy way to support your body in a delicious way.
Supports Cellular Health
Each of the spices in golden milk lattes is full of antioxidants. Antioxidants protect against free radicals, which are molecules that have an extra electron that goes after healthy cells to try and steal an electron. This is called oxidation, which causes cell damage.
Antioxidants defend against free radical damage by giving them one of their own electrons without becoming a free radical themselves.
With golden milk lattes giving you at least four different sources of antioxidant power, you can help protect your body from oxidative stress.
Supports Brain Function
Golden milk lattes are great for supporting the brain. Turmeric provides memory support, especially when it comes to memory loss due to age. Cinnamon and ginger can also support memory and increase attention span.
This is a great beverage option if you need an extra brain boost to get you through the afternoon and finish off the workday strong.
Plus, with no caffeine, it won’t leave you feeling jittery and won’t keep you up at night.
Boosts Mood
Serotonin is a hormone that plays a huge role in mood and balance in your body, and dopamine plays a big role in how you feel pleasure. Both of these hormones together play a big role in your overall mood.
By sipping a warm golden latte, you are consuming ingredients that can boost your mood — turmeric, cinnamon, and ginger all support healthy serotonin and dopamine levels.
Combats Inflammation
While inflammation is a natural immune response needed to protect healthy cells and alert immune cells where to go, chronic inflammation is not so beneficial. Chronic inflammation can happen when the inflammation hangs out for too long. With your body basically on over alert trying to protect against foreign objects, your immune system continues to fight everything in sight, sometimes including healthy cells.
One way to combat excess inflammation is by consuming anti-inflammatory foods. The spice ingredients in golden milk lattes are all highly anti-inflammatory, and this effect is boosted when you use soothing ingredients like almond milk, coconut milk, hemp milk, and coconut oil.
Supports Heart Health
Because of the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of the ingredients in the golden milk latte, it is great for heart health. Ginger specifically has many heart health benefits; not only are there modern-day studies showing the effects of ginger, but ginger has also been used in traditional Chinese and Ayurvedic medicine for centuries to support heart health. Cinnamon also protects the heart and can help support healthy blood pressure levels.
Supports Healthy Blood Sugar Levels
High blood sugar levels can have a negative effect on many areas of the body, such as the heart, kidneys, and eyes. It is extremely important to be mindful of your sugar levels and make sure you aren’t consuming more sugar than what your body can process (which most people are guilty of at least a few times per week).
Eating a whole-food, high-nutrient diet and exercising are great ways to counteract high sugar levels.
Adding turmeric, ginger, and cinnamon in the form of a golden milk latte is another way to support healthy metabolic function.
How Do I Make a Golden Milk Latte?
With just eight simple ingredients, many of which you probably already have in your pantry, you'll be mastering the art of making golden milk lattes in no time.
Seriously, this drink could not be easier to make. Once you have all of your ingredients measured out, just add everything to a saucepan over medium-low heat, and whisk until heated and the ingredients are incorporated together. It is best served immediately, but you can also switch it up and make it iced.
Which Ingredients Do I Need?
Let's get down to the basics — first, you need to choose your plant-based milk. Almond milk is a great choice here, but we love the addition of coconut milk with almond milk. Canned coconut milk is best for this latte just because it has a thicker feel and a richer flavor. It helps give your latte a more luscious feel.
Once your milk choice is made, you will need ground spices of turmeric, nutmeg, cinnamon, and ginger. You can also use your choice of sweetener. We have been loving the taste and health benefits of lucuma as a sweetener, but you can also use maple syrup or coconut sugar — just watch how much you’re adding in.
Two surprising ingredients in a golden milk latte are black pepper and coconut oil. Turmeric isn’t easily absorbed by the body just because of the way our metabolic process works, but black pepper can inhibit this process to help increase the bioavailability of turmeric. You don’t need a lot of black pepper to make a big difference. Then, the added healthy fat from coconut oil can also work to increase the bioavailability of turmeric.
What Recipe Should I Use?
There are a lot of recipes for golden milk lattes out there. While there is no wrong choice, we like this version if you want to try making yours from scratch. Once you get the ratios down, you'll be able to make golden milk lattes without even following a recipe. The most important thing is using good quality ingredients and adding black pepper and oil to get the most health benefits out of your delicious golden latte.
To make it even easier to gain all the benefits of this superfood latte without dealing with extensive prep every time, check out our Ultimate Vitality Latte — it’s everything you love in a golden milk latte recipe, with the added healing powers of reishi mushrooms to give you an immune boost while also calming feelings of stress and anxiousness.
The Bottom Line
The golden milk latte has been around for thousands of years and for good reason – it’s anti-inflammatory, high in antioxidants, supports brain and heart health, and can give you a mood boost. While all of the ingredients of golden milk have their purpose, together they create a superfood drink that is as uniquely nourishing as it is delicious.
With the belief that food is medicine, we at Kroma Wellness love bringing functional whole food nutrition into everyday life. This is why we have added golden tea lattes to our 5 Day Reset — get started with your own reset today to see how functional food can change how you feel in just 5 days.
The effect of curcumin (turmeric) on Alzheimer's disease: An overview | nih.gov
Spice up your holidays with brain-healthy seasonings | Harvard Health
Understanding acute and chronic inflammation | Harvard Health
The Amazing and Mighty Ginger - Herbal Medicine | NCBI Bookshelf (nih.gov)
Cinnamon: Mystic powers of a minute ingredient | nih.gov
Using Black Pepper to Enhance the Anti-Inflammatory Effects of Turmeric | umassmed.edu
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