Healthy Diet Plans >> Articles >> Diet and Wellness

Nutrition Value Of Cardamom

April 20, 2011

A part of the Zingiberaceae species, cardamom had been used since ancient times as a condiment with herbal properties. Cardamom is botanically a seed pod, about 1 to 2 centimeters in length.

Cardamom is a rich source of fiber. It is also significantly high in protein and iron content. Cardamom also contains Vitamin C and other minerals like calcium and manganese. It also contains minimal amount of saturated fats, approximately 2% of its total nutritional content.

Some of the health benefits of cardamom are as follows:

• Cardamom is a rich source of fiber. Fiber helps in stimulating your bowel movements, thereby protecting you from constipation. Also, the high fiber content of cardamom flushes toxins out of your body, thereby averting the development and growth of oncogens or cancer cells in the body.
• Cardamom, being a rich source of Vitamin C, helps in boosting your immune system, thereby preventing you from a number of microbial infections.
• Cardamom is anti-inflammatory in action and helps relieve and cure cold, fever, liver problems, pain, arthritis, and bronchitis.
• Cardamom is a potent stimulant.

It stimulates your various physiological systems, which in turn helps improve the functionality of all body processes.
• Cardamom is an excellent carminative. It prevents the formation of gas and should be consumed after meals.
• Cardamom is a rich source of antioxidants. It nullifies the effects of harmful free radicals formed as a result of chain reactions in the body.

As such, cardamom helps prevent the pace of the natural degeneration process that accompanies ageing.
• Cardamom is an excellent expectorant. It clears the bronchi and lungs of mucus, thereby cleaning the respiratory tract.
• Cardamom is also a potent diuretic which promotes the nephrons to remove waste products like uric acid, urea, amino acid, creatinine and other wastes out of the body, thereby retaining the normal health of the body.
• Cardamom is anti spasmodic in action. It prevents as well as relieves you of spasms in the stomach and various biological systems of the body.
• Cardamom is also anti-septic in action.

It helps prevent a wound from septic infections and also assists in the healing of wounds.
• Cardamom, being a rich source of vitamins and minerals, helps maintain homeostasis or a steady state in the body by sustaining the mechanisms at the cellular and tissue levels.
• Cardamom is also an excellent breath freshener. In fact is usually served as a breath freshener after meals in the Middle East and Indian subcontinent.