Mustard on it! The yellow spice paste is extremely popular even with fast-food friends – and above all: super healthy. A nutrition expert confirmed this in an interview with FITBOOK. Find out here what you should know about the delicious sharpener.
There is hardly a German household without a tube or a jar of mustard lying around somewhere. Whether home cooking, health fanatic or gourmet: mustard is a must! Unlike its «best friends,» tomato ketchup and mayonnaise, mustard doesn’t have a reputation for being loaded with sugar or bad fats. On the contrary: «Mustard is healthy,» says ecotrophologist Beke Enderstein. Reason enough to take a closer look at what’s inside.
What nutrients make mustard so healthy?
«The effect is based primarily on the so-called mustard oil glycosides it contains,» explains Enderstein. They are responsible for the sharp taste, have been shown to kill bacteria, fungi and viruses and also have an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effect. «The mustard plant actually developed the said mustard oil glycosides to protect against pests,» the expert continues. A mechanism that apparently also benefits the human organism.
A 15-gram serving weighs just 9 calories, but provides a healthy little extra boost of iron, calcium, selenium, and phosphorus.
Mustard – a success story that is more than 3000 years old
In China and other Asian countries and probably also in India, mustard was a popular spice more than 3000 years ago. 2600 years ago, mustard made its way to Greece, where it was used as a remedy for all sorts of ailments. So when it was mentioned in the Bible a few hundred years later, mustard was already considered old hat.
Today more than 40 types of mustard are known. The fact that mustard also stimulates the appetite and stimulates digestion in a healthy way was also part of the basic healing knowledge in this country in the Middle Ages, which in turn was scientifically proven a few centuries later for the sake of completeness.
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Is mustard anti-cancer? That’s what science says
There is actually evidence that mustard has an anti-cancer effect, Enderstein confirms. According to a study by the University of Freiburg, mustard can effectively switch off cancer-causing substances, also known as carcinogens – including those found in salted, roasted meat.
The study was published in 2011 in the specialist journal «Klinik Management aktuell». To do this, subjects were asked to eat 20 grams of mustard daily over a longer period of time. The blood that was taken from her was then mixed with cancer-causing carcinogens. The surprising observation: The white blood cells of the mustard group were able to fight the potentially deadly substances much better than those of the control group without mustard. And: The hotter the mustard, the better the effect.
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There are numerous promising studies regarding mustard and cancer protection. However, most of them are animal experiments. But even if the above investigation is one of the few that works with human cells, it is only a test tube experiment. Nutrition expert Beke Enderstein: «There is still a lot of research to be done before clear recommendations can be made.»
Mustard Oil – an effective, natural antibiotic
By the way, the healthy mustard oils can also be found in horseradish and nasturtium, the expert knows. «These are used in high doses in herbal medicines to treat infections of the respiratory tract and urinary tract.»
Mustard oils are also a sensible alternative to synthetic antibiotics. A study from 2019 came to the hopeful conclusion that mustard oils can make an important contribution to defusing the ever-growing resistance problem. These have proven to be particularly effective in the treatment of cystitis.
Which mustard variety is the healthiest?
Enderstein clearly recommends the spiciest variety on the shelf – unless you have a particularly sensitive stomach. In this case, the consumption of very hot mustard could irritate the mucous membranes of the stomach and intestines. For everyone else, the expert considers the French Dijon mustard to be the best choice: «It contains a particularly large amount of mustard oil and also has a fine aroma. Accordingly, I recommend ecologically produced mustard. It makes little sense to take in pollutants such as pesticides from conventional agriculture if you want to benefit from health.”
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And one more professional tip at the end: “Eat mustard cold. Heat largely destroys the health-promoting substances. In order to preserve the aroma and the mustard oils, it is best to keep the mustard in the refrigerator and use it up quickly.”