Chicken tikka masala is said to be Britain's favourite dish, but the recent scare about artificial colourings may have put some people off it. Last month, trading standards officers in Surrey found that 58 out of 102 chicken tikka masala samples contained illegal and potentially dangerous levels of artificial colourings. The dyes, such as tartrazine, ponceau, and sunset yellow, have been implicated in a number of disorders, ranging from hyperactivity in children to cancer.
Many newspapers carried pictures of lurid, seemingly radioactive, curries, and top British curry chefs called for a return to natural colourings, such as paprika, saffron and turmeric. Now, a study conducted by Italian and American scientists has found another good reason to stick with natural colourings: they may save your brain.
An ingredient called curcumin (found in turmeric) could stave off Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases. One of the chief causes of neurodegenerative illness is oxidative damage caused by free radicals. The enemy of free radicals are antioxidants. Scientists have been looking for ways to get the body to produce more antioxidants. Previous studies have shown that a protein, known as hemeoxygenese-1 (HO-1), protects neural cells from oxidative damage. The trick has been to get these genes to express HO-1 when it is needed. This research, carried out on the neural cells of rats by scientists at the University of Catania in Italy, and New York Medical College, shows that curcumin stimulates genes to express HO-1. Scientists say that more work is needed to find whether curcumin can help to prevent neurodegenerative conditions.
It is possible that the low incidence of Alzheimer's in India could be due to the nation's love of turmeric. Practitioners of Ayurvedic medicine have long recognised the health properties of the yellow spice. They believe that it aids digestion, a claim backed up by recent research. Other studies have shown that turmeric has cancer-fighting properties. But all of this doesn't necessarily mean that curry is healthy. At least, not the way it is served up in most of Britain's 9,000 curry restaurants.
Most curries are cooked in ghee - a clarified butter that is high in saturated fat. Home-cooked curries tend to have less ghee, cream and artificial additives, but as eating out has become more common, so has the incidence of diabetes and heart disease, both of which are on the up in the British Asian population.
"It's very easy to make a healthy curry," says Steven Waller, president of The Curry Club, "but most people go for a curry after a few beers and don't care how healthy it is. All they care about is that it tastes good."
Although Waller shuns artificial colourings and additives, he believes that fat adds to the flavour. The average British curry weighs in at a whopping 1,500 calories per dish. "Basically, anyone trying to make curry a healthy dish is fighting a losing battle," says Waller.
Perhaps it is just as well that turmeric also has anti-blood clotting properties. In previous studies, researchers found that turmeric prevents blood platelets from forming clots known as thrombi, which can cause stroke and heart attack.
But isn't it possible to cook a tasty curry without drowning it in lard? Alfred Prazad, head chef at London's Tamarind restaurant, thinks it is, and he says that there's a trend towards making healthier curries both in the UK and in India. "Quite a few restaurants in India are going back to regional, household specialities," says Prazad. "The reason is that there's a lot of health awareness in India. People are going back to the way most housewives cook in India, and they've found that the food is delicious and healthy at the same time."
So if you're cooking a curry at home, remember to use lashings of turmeric, as well as cumin, cardamon, coriander, fenugreek, paprika, allspice and ginger. All of these herbs and spices have proven health benefits, and many of them are prescribed by herbalists for conditions ranging from baldness to circulation troubles. Add some chillies to protect the stomach lining from the ravages of too much beer. Use lean cuts of meat, and make tomato-based sauces rather than cream or coconut ones. Tomatoes - especially tinned tomatoes - are rich in lypcopene, a powerful antioxidant. Just remember to go easy on the ghee, and stay away from the poppadoms and naan bread, both of which are laced with fat.
