What is Saffron?
Saffron is a spice derived from a plant that initially grew in Greece. It is the aroma that first drew people to it, but as a spice, it adds a sweet, hay-like taste to food that makes it popular in the culinary world.
The health benefits found in saffron have more to do with its chemistry that its taste, though. Saffron contains carotenoid, which is an organic pigment that allows the plant to absorb light and turn it into energy. Carotenoids offer benefits to human health, as well.
A 2002
study published in Nutrition in Clinical Care explains that dietary
carotenoids help
decrease a person’s
risk of disease, especially
eye diseases like age-related macular degeneration. Carotenoids are
antioxidants, meaning they may help
protect the bodyfrom free-radical damage.