#327 – The Expat Files: Turmeric, Curcumin, and Life in Latin America

Automatically transcribed from the original recording; names and wording may contain errors.

[00:00] South of the border down Mexico way That's where I fell in love when the stars above came up to play and now as I wonder Hello there all you expat wannabes I'm Johnny Mueller and you're listening to the expat files living in Latin America the show that tells you just what it's like to live Work play and or retire down here in Latin America It's a mix of the good the bad the ugly and the great and it's all right here. So let's get started So let's get rocking today with an email from an old friend of the show Robert down in United Kingdom way Or I should say somewhere three or four thousand miles from where I am in this email He says Don Johnny following on from the discussion of coconut oil

[00:47] There's another big health food that gets even more recent exposure in the first world and that's turmeric Especially in the form of fresh roots the roots taste quite different than the powder form and are recommended by the hardcore turmeric purists Then he asked do they even grow turmeric down there or does it all come from India? Cheers Robert. Well Robert. Thanks for that and it's very interesting You brought it up because I happen to be a pretty heavy user myself not of the root turmeric I haven't seen it in the root form down here But I haven't been looking either though you can get the powdered form down here quite easily So I take the powdered form down here called curcuma in Spanish Which is curcumin and of course anyone who listens to the Gary Nall show knows That's that bitter powder that makes curry and Indian food orangish yellow

[01:36] Yes, of course, it's been all over the recent medical news in the past couple of years Anyway with some scientists and researchers saying it's nothing less than a miracle drug and it's good for many many health problems Now I don't know about that But I use it because when I first came down here to Latin America more than 20 years ago I had arthritis in my left knee. Yep an old disco injury from the BG days Yeah, right Anyway, I was diagnosed with it up in the States by more than a few doctors and prescribed a bunch of stuff for a tube But since I don't like to take prescribed medicine, I never did pick up any of that junk at the pharmacy So once in a while, I just suffer with that left knee problem And so once I got down here to Latin America I slowly but surely weaned myself off of all that junk food up in the States even all forms of red meat

[02:23] In fact, how about this for a statistic? I have not had a hamburger of any kind in over 25 years now I don't know if it's the fact that I don't eat red meat very little chicken and seafood every once in a while that I have Absolutely. No arthritis in my left knee anymore or at least no symptoms of it And I know something must have happened because those things don't get better on their own they get worse But in this case, I don't even think about it because for over a couple years now There's no pain whatsoever And it used to bother me when I was up in the States once or twice a week Not to mention when I do an exercise workout on a treadmill for the first 10 minutes of the hour or whatever The knee would always seem to act up and then go away after exercising for a while Which is another anecdotal thumbs up for exercise, right? And of course, this is a totally anecdotal story of my own case

[03:09] So make what you want out of it. So anyway about five years ago I heard about turmeric and curcumin and back then my knee acted up Maybe only once a month as opposed to when I was back up in the States about twice a week And who knows maybe that big reduction in pain was due to coconut oil and better more organic food and much more variety Who knows anyway about five years ago after listening to Gary and doing a little research myself Not to mention having a couple of old Indian friends of mine engineers from India Tell me about the stuff and just to state a little fact here Both of them said they never knew of a single person back in India who had arthritis Isn't that something? Anyway, I started doing what was available down here in Latin America yellowish orange powdered curcuma Which is Spanish for curcumin now

[03:56] I buy it and sealed one pound packs down here for about seven or eight bucks US and yes It is grown here in Central and South America now when you take this stuff as a supplement It tastes just god-awful In fact, sometimes it'll kick in your gag reflex if you know what I mean And of course in India they cook with the stuff all the time. So they got it made They're not mainlining it pure like you do when you take a spoonful of it And I understand you can get it in capsule form up in the States and in Europe to bypass that foul taste You know, so the trick is how to get the stuff down your gullet for the first year or two I did it the hard way and it was tough I tried mixing it with all kind of beverages and fruit drinks even with a little honey But it didn't help since nothing seemed to work. I finally ended up back with the method I started with I'd mix a teaspoon of it in a glass of cold water and just tough it out drink it down

[04:45] And after that you definitely need a chaser like orange juice or lemon juice Something not only that it coats your tongue and the rest of your mouth like the surface of Mars for about three hours Which I have to admit if I saw someone else sporting a day glow tongue like that I'd be totally grossed out. But anyway, I just kept on toughing it out and pounding the stuff down like that once a day Then just by serendipity I happen to mention it to one of my Indian buddies in email telling him in fact that my arthritis had Completely gone away for over a year, but there was a price to pay when you down the foul stuff in the morning Well, he turned me on to an excellent little trick He said take a half a glass of water and heat it up to about 110 120 degrees Fahrenheit About the temperature of a cup of warm cocoa

[05:30] Don't make it hot like a cup of hot tea or coffee either Mix the turmeric or curcumin in that and then drink it and you know what he was right It still doesn't taste in any way pleasant, but it no longer tastes like athletes foot powder either I'll admit it's a big improvement Maybe 80% which is a lot and that normally nasty three to five second aftertaste that you just never get used to well That was greatly diminished to and though you still have that fluorescent tongue effect for a couple of hours, which is pretty gross Well, that can't be helped. So I guess you'll just have to keep your mouth shut when you're around others So bottom line curcumin is available and very cheap In fact, I looked on the internet for the capsule form of curcumin and it looks like the lowest price You're gonna get for a hundred twenty five hundred milligram capsules is around 20 bucks

[06:18] Which weighs in at about a quarter pound and it looks like you can also get the powder on the internet For a bit more than you can get it down here around ten bucks So in the capsule form it's about eight times as expensive as the powder form by weight And I suppose the only reason people buy the capsule form is because it tastes so revolting And of course, you don't get the disco laser tongue effect either So go ahead try the powder and the warmed up water and save yourself a bundle and when you're down here in Latin America If you ever get here know that just about every herb spice and natural food supplement are grown and packaged here, too And when it's the raw stuff like curcuma curcumin in English It's always less expensive if not a hell of a lot less expensive than what you're getting it for up in the States Now here's something that might interest all you new expats and wannabes and gonna bees since once you get down here

[07:07] Eventually, you'll want to get a car of some kind just a day or two ago There's been stories in the newspapers and on the internet about how the US adult population I just now starting to accept cars with diesel engines They're finally starting to get over the dirty diesel stigma the fog and the smog and the soot and all that that always used to Go through people's minds when they think of diesel engines So let me just give you a little snippet of this article It says did you know that after driving 40,000 miles in the BMW? 328d diesel it becomes a very good deal. That's because cars powered by diesel are significantly more efficient than those with gasoline in the tank, especially on the highway but since diesel fuel is more expensive than gasoline and Because diesel cars themselves are usually more expensive by a few thousand dollars when bought new There is a breakeven point when the amount of miles you drive on a diesel starts to give you big

[07:56] Savings over the same car model with a gas engine since diesel motors always get better miles per gallon than their equivalent Gasoline models and then in the article is actually a chart listing diesel cars for sale in the US and how many miles you have To drive them to reach that so-called break-even point where you're actually saving money over the gasoline version of that model And the thing is most people who buy a diesel car in the States and in Europe for that matter think it's gonna save Them money right off the bat, but it doesn't by the way They have no stigma about diesel cars in Europe at all in some countries there over half of the passenger cars are diesel Anyway, new diesel car owners count on the fact that it is gonna be more efficient and have less maintenance and thus sooner Later will be a better buy. However, according to this article only a few cars like that BMW

[08:43] I just mentioned ever reaches that break-even point in fact It says here based on our math the Chevy Cruze diesel and the VW Jetta TDI Will never break even no matter how long you own them. They'll always cost you more than a gasoline version In fact, it says here the smaller the car when it has a diesel engine The less likely that it'll ever be less costly in the long run than its gasoline counterpart So what does that have to do with Latin America? The thing is in that article all the calculations are based on US gas and diesel prices where diesel is At least 50 cents higher at the pump than regular gasoline while the situation is completely reversed in most of Latin America where diesel prices are around 50 cents less a

[09:30] Gallon than regular gasoline and diesel should always be naturally cheaper than gas because it's much less refined Meaning it takes very little processing of crude oil to get your diesel Whereas to make good quality gasoline it has to go through a lot of different chemical cracking steps a more costly process So in the states diesel prices are artificially higher by government edict not by market forces So what we're talking about is a $1 spread at least between US and Latin American diesel prices and without going through all the calculations What that means is there's always a break-even point where a diesel car when down here in Latin America Saves you money over its gasoline version and it's true that new diesel cars down here also cost a thousand or more than their gasoline

[10:16] counterparts but since diesel motors last about twice as long as a gasoline engine and they get about 20% or more better fuel mileage than gas Cars and since you save at least 50 cents a gallon at the pump when buying diesel down here over regular gas Well, all that means is that money-saving crossover point is generally as low as 15 to 20,000 miles Meaning the total operational cost of your car will be more than the gasoline version until you've run it somewhere between 15 to 20,000 miles After that you're doing nothing but saving money. Okay enough said about that. You know the other day I was having an interesting conversation with ex-pat Eddie and sometimes even he has sparks of brilliance You know We were having a discussion about preppers up in the states since Eddie's got a few hillbilly friends up there in Texas who are

[11:02] Hunkering down in that respect not to mention that now in Latin America We've got all those first world television shows coming in to like those prepper shows Translated or dubbed in Spanish, of course, and by the way, let me tell you that Latins down here are totally Confused about those prepper shows. They have no idea what's happening They just don't get it at all even the highly educated ones They think the last country in the world to crash and burn will be the United States Hell the dollar is the world's currency not to mention all the very best movies in the world come from Hollywood You know what? I mean, it's that gringo advantage thing, right? But Eddie made a really good point He said, you know that all of us long-term ex-pats any of us who've been down in Latin America Let's say ten years or more We're probably ten times better at handling a real disaster

[11:49] Than any of those preppers sitting around their water jugs and ammo boxes in the basement and I can tell you for sure We're much better prepared mentally The fact is years ago when things were really ragged around the edges here We had to improvise and cope so often that now we're pretty calm under pressure We just got used to it since so many of those circumstances that preppers are getting themselves ready for up in the states have Happened to us long-term expats time and time again Not much at all these days, of course But back ten years or so ago no matter what Latin country you were in three four even half a day power outages were common Not to mention you'd pull up at a gas station in the middle of nowhere and there'd be no gas So you just sit there for hours that almost never happens these days But back then the service station guys would just shrug and say they were expecting a tanker any hour

[12:38] Then they just go back to having a good old time kicking their soccer ball around the pumps and with an answer like that well down here in Latin America ten or so years ago a Delivery guy who said he'd be there in an hour could easily show up in four or six or even the next day And you know ten or so years ago us long-term expats didn't have our nice little portable water purifiers either So we had to drink the local water and back then the local bottle water companies Generally just ran the municipal water through a sand filter and threw a little chlorine in it meaning back then a lot of long-term expats had a running battle with Montezuma's revenge and Running is exactly the right word So a lot of us didn't have good water or electric 24-7 or for that matter hot showers or baths

[13:24] Even when your electric power was uninterrupted Simply because back then only slightly wealthier Latins had hot running water So what expat Eddie was getting at was absolutely correct. We never called ourselves preppers There was no such word back then But we all know exactly what to do when systems failed and they did all the time and by the way back then Very few of us had first world TV because back then if you wanted such service you had to buy a big-ass Satellite dish as big as a car and dish out a grand or so we just did without Not only that like Eddie said back then the internet was crappy or non-existent You couldn't get a phone landline in your house for sometimes two or even three years Cell phone service was very expensive with calls dropping out all the time

[14:11] Even if you had the service and there was nothing available like Magic Jack or Skype So international calls back home to friends or family in the States cost a bundle a couple of bucks a minute sometimes So you just didn't call back much except at birthdays and holidays and then since we're down here south of the border There's always those tropical storms and hurricanes which bring floods that wipe out bridges and roads that these inept Latin governments Don't get around to fixing for sometimes years. So back then we had that to cope with too In fact, if you remember hurricane Mitch some years ago I recall going through that area about two and a half years after it happened and there were still Temporary bridges all over the place now, of course, it's not like that these days But back then it was and don't forget we have our periodic earthquakes down here, too

[14:57] You can't get away from that. In fact, we get some really big shakers. In fact a year and a half ago I was in a 7.2, which is a big one and unusual, of course But all of us long-term expats have been through stuff like that So it's trial by fire and we don't panic. We know what steps to take bottom line Like Eddie says most all of us long-term expats are ready for anything a prepper sitting in his basement Surrounded by all his canned goods and ammo is looking at short of maybe the government coming door to door and taking away your guns Which is what a lot of those prepper guys think is gonna happen Who knows the fact is most of us long-term expats could teach those prepper guys a thing or two about surviving under harsh conditions But like eddie says we are not in any way preppers We don't need to be for one thing latin governments are weak ineffectual and totally lazy

[15:42] They just can't get their act together on anything including repairing bridges after a three-year-old storm That pretty much says it all and secondly down here. No matter how you think the world's gonna turn We don't have to hoard anything the weather's great There's four growing seasons and there's so much food most of it grown locally and some of it probably from your own backyard Then it's just ridiculous to think that the shelves or the cupboards could ever be bare You'll have to admit when the big crash comes up north and the feces does hit the ventilator down here We might not have frosted flakes or famous aimis cookies on the shelves But we'll still have papayas and avocados bigger than obama's head And by the way a lot of things expats learn to change their gears on is their power usage And some of it has to do with the fact that electricity is so damn expensive down here

[16:28] Sometimes three or four times as much as you pay in the states So what a lot of us expats have learned to count on is propane gas meaning more than half the long-term expats I know have gas stoves have gas hot water heaters And i'm talking about those tankless water heaters those instantaneous ones that are about as big as a carry-on suitcase And these days some expats have gas dryers too Even though a closed dryer of any kind is really not necessary since the weather's so nice people just hang their clothes outside All the time though, by the way What you'll find out is that during the rainy season it's touch and go on the outdoor clothes line So a lot of us expats have those gas dryers just for the odd emergency though Oftentimes they're never used at all and just gather dust now The reason why i'm bringing up this propane gas thing again is because smart expats generally have two 100 pound tanks of propane on hand at all times or at least a couple of small 25 pound tanks

[17:18] And let me tell you if you have two of these hundred pounders around they could easily last in a two-person household Six months and if you don't use the gas dryer much could last a year So how's that for inadvertent prepping and not only that i've run into a few expats along the way who've got one of those Refrigerators that runs on propane gas too like the refrigerators they have in rvs and campers So think of it if all else fails There's a huge catastrophe like an earthquake a hurricane power grid failure or coronal mass ejection You'll still be able to cook your food have hot water refrigeration dry clothes And if you have a portable gas generator You can buy a cheap conversion kit on the internet and convert it to propane gas too So you can have electricity during whatever calamity or problem you have But remember this when you're down here in latin america in the tropical and subtropical climates or even in the altiplano

[18:08] Your heating bill is zero and if you're talking about the basics and the necessities All you really need to be comfortable is a stove water and electricity So the next question is what do two 100 pound tanks of propane gas cost? Well, you see the first time you buy gas you have to buy the tank Then you own it and an empty cylinder will run about a hundred bucks But you can find them in the paper for 50 So you buy two of them Let's say 100 bucks in the paper and the going price to fill those tanks these days is around 60 to 75 for a hundred pounds So if you buy two at a time you're investing around 120 to 150 bucks Let's say every six months and what the propane gas companies do is just come over to your house and switch tanks They trade but there is of course that little problem Like I mentioned on the show some years ago that the gas companies always rip you off for at least five to ten percent on the weight

[18:57] Now the common latin doesn't know that because he doesn't have a scale but some expats have bathroom scales And you can weigh the tanks on them when you trade an empty for a full one When it gets delivered and you can prove to the delivery guy right in his face that you're getting ripped off to the tune Of seven to ten percent then he'll shrug and say i'm just a delivery guy, man And it doesn't matter if you call the company. They won't do anything about it And that's why I think this would be another great expat business opportunity You just buy up a lot of empty tanks fill them up to exactly the right weight advertise that you're a gringle company Have a scale on each truck so that you can weigh it when you drop it off and guarantee that if it's not the right weight You'll give them the tank for free and let me tell you you could start small But I guarantee that within a couple of years you'll steal everyone's business and you'll be the richest guy in town

[19:42] Or at least in your neighborhood unless of course one of the five or so competing propane gas companies bumps you off Just kidding. Oh, and I was kidding about that coronal mass ejection too, because if that happens all bets are off everywhere So as you can see these new and innovative and sometimes strange business ideas pop into expats heads all the time Though you've got to keep your eyes open to see them You got to start thinking a little creatively and generally you have to be down here a while with boots on the ground Off the tourist trail not on it because when you're on the tourist trail the gringos have thought of pretty much everything already And they're not necessarily competing with the latins anymore They're competing with other gringos Which is what you were faced with up north when you had a business, right? Or maybe you didn't have a business when you were up north because up there to start any kind of business that had half a chance

[20:30] To survive you'd normally need 50 grand or well into the six figures to get things rolling And who has that kind of dough these days plus all the other problems in the regulation and all that gringle competition Anyway down here It's dead easy to get a business off the ground for 10 grand sometimes five grand even less I watch plenty of gringos do it all the time and it never fails when the next new group of gringo wanderers Passes by a place like that. The first thing you hear one of them say is gee, why didn't I think of that? I know I know because I said that a thousand times myself now again I'm talking about brick and mortar businesses And I know based on that recent survey that came out in my and robert call pepper's expat wisdom website That about half the people up north who want to be expats eventually want to do some kind of internet business Nothing brick and mortar at all something they can do from a desk in their house or a portable business

[21:19] They can do from practically anywhere at all So for all you wannabes and gunnabes out there who are really thinking about doing the internet thing Well, there are two ways to get those kind of creative juices flowing One is to come down here and get some boots on the ground Or you might contact robert call pepper himself on the expat wisdom website because he's one of those expats himself Who's an expert in portable businesses mainly internet stuff? So if you're not thinking of an expat future with a brick and mortar style business Just go to the expat wisdom.com website and check out what robert's got to offer The guys just got a truckload of great information about portable businesses and internet stuff And if you're an expat going to be looking for a business you can only further your cause by starting there Now here comes another it can only happen in latin america story and I know it's going to be tough to believe

[22:05] But here it is in black and white. It seems that brazil That huge powerhouse of latin america so they call it is presently short around 13 to 15 Thousand doctors good old regular mds. They just don't have enough to service the public So the government says anyway, and I know that's true because i've been there just like in the rest of latin america doctors congregate in the big cities where the money is because they Don't want to get paid in chickens and coconuts in the cities You'll find doctors everywhere and you can't blame them because that's where you get paid in real money Not a lot of money But real money nevertheless And it turns out just last month the government of brazil announced that it will offer places to 13 To 15 000 foreign doctors if they'd like to come to brazil to work

[22:51] Now there's a lot of odd parts to the story and here's the first big wrinkle It says in the article that this new doctor recruitment program was launched despite Thousands of students and young adults protesting in the streets that those positions should be filled by brazilians However, there are no more brazilian doctors to fill those positions. And how do we know that? Well because just last june that same announcement of all those vacancies was made to the brazilian medical establishment and their response Brazilian doctors are all working as doctors already and the ones graduating from medical school They don't want to work out in the boonies and believe me brazil has millions of acres of boonies with tens of thousands of tiny Villages in hootervilles far far away from the maddening crowd if you know what I mean

[23:38] So the medium and large cities suck up most all of brazil's new md graduates and out in the boonies There are no more extra doctors to fill those spots So after the government did its analysis and that reality set in The offer went out to all other latin american countries and first world countries too and guess what the response was so far about 2 000 of those positions have been filled less than 15 percent of the vacancies said brazil's minister of health and get this about 75 of those spots 1400 to be exact came from cuba Which pretty much depleted the entire year's quota for new cuban doctors graduating out of medical schools in havana Of course these new cuban doctors now that they're in brazil don't speak any portuguese

[24:25] So they're being put on the fast track in language schools And all of them seem to be as pleased as punch to be there for two reasons for one They get to hell out of cuba and more importantly the brazilian government is paying them get this 4000 us dollars a month which is beyond the wildest dreams of any cuban doctor in cuba who makes salaries that average from $30 to $100 a month depending if they're working for the government or working out of a home office now Of course those cuban doctors don't get to keep that 4000 bucks a month. No way as you might know the cuban government does not allow its doctors to go overseas without permission They have to sign a contract with the cuban government where the majority of the salary gets remitted back to cuba

[25:12] So we really don't know exactly how much the cuban doctors will be making in brazil But even if they're a little bit is only 500 a month. That's 500 more than they'd make in cuba So anyway, if 1400 of the 2000 doctors that brazil has accepted to fill those vacancies came from cuba Where are those other 600 doctors coming from? Well, the other 600 doctors arrived from different latin american countries all being lured by that tempting 4000 bucks a month which turns out to be more than four times the average salary of a young latin american doctor fresh out of school Yep, you heard me right the average young medical resident makes under a thousand a month Now according to some brazilian critics and newspaper analysts That government offer of 4000 a month may not last long and the doctors who signed the contracts

[25:59] Which are year over year may likely find themselves out on a limb and out of luck after that first year lapses Since support is building to reject that measure or at least that so-called unbelievable salary slash incentive And it seems that's just what it is an incentive to get them down there And then after that it'll get slashed down to a more reasonable level So as not to piss off the rest of the doctors who are making much less after all the average monthly wage in brazil Not the minimum wage is about 800 bucks a month, which reminds me Here's another little something you should know about brazil brazil now has a reputation of being one of the world's worst market For electronic items of any kind why they've got very restrictive import taxes poor roads infrastructure And a lot of crime on the road. So that raises delivery

[26:46] Transportation and insurance costs not to mention brazil has laws that actively restrict the number of imports And that's why even your average run-of-the-mill smartphones cost over a thousand dollars us And right now brazil has the world's most expensive ipads and for you gamers out there You don't want to go to brazil not when you find out that sony's playstation 4 sells for 400 bucks in the us But in brazil it'll sell for 1850 bucks more than four times its first world price and typically all new electronics in brazil Run at least a hundred to two hundred percent more than what you pay for them up in the first world And the thing is in the rest of latin america most of it anyway Imported electronics items are only slightly higher than what you pay for them up in the first world

[27:36] You've been listening to the expat files living in latin america coming to you twice a week From somewhere south of the border email me the expat files at gmail.com And don't forget to check out expat wisdom.com to sign up for your free reports on latin america See you next time. No, es vemos