On the face of it, the idea that a curry can actively help you to shed the pounds does sound rather far-fetched, especially as most of the offerings from your local takeaway are likely to be drenched in cream and oils.

I suspect what you are referring to are recent reports based on new research that has highlighted the potential “slimming” effect of the spice turmeric, which is used extensively in curries and other Indian dishes. Scientists from Tufts University in the US have discovered that one of the active super-nutrients in turmeric called “curcumin” appears to suppress the growth of fat tissue by preventing the formation of new blood vessels. Fewer new blood vessels means that the fat cells receive less blood flow and are therefore less able to grow in size.

Before you get too excited, though, this research was carried out on mice (those that were supplemented with curcumin for 12 weeks weighed less than those that did not eat this spice with their meals) and on human cell cultures. It needs to be repeated on a large scale in real-life human volunteers to know whether it could fight the flab in practice.

Probably, as with all these potentially exciting-sounding breakthroughs, we need to take the results of the study with a healthy dose of caution, not least because curcumin is not well absorbed across our intestinal wall, which gives it a low “bioavailability” and potency when we eat it.

While it may prove to have a small fat-inhibiting effect in people who eat turmeric-rich foods every day, this shouldn't be used as an excuse to wolf down a chicken korma or tikka masala every night, not least because these dishes are almost always enjoyed with calorie-laden extras such as pilau rice and naan bread. It would be a Herculean task for curcumin to offset meaningfully the effects of 1,455 calories.

Perhaps more interesting is the research that has already been carried out on small numbers of volunteers at Oxford Brookes University, which shows that 5g of Tabasco sauce eaten with a meal can raise your metabolic rate (the speed at which you burn calories) by between 15 per cent and 20 per cent for up to two hours after eating.

In this instance, it is caused by the super-nutrient capsaicin, which is present in the chillies. But to achieve any lasting effect you would have to be prepared to add Tabasco sauce to every meal, which is not very practical.

Back however, to turmeric. A possible role in weight management aside, the curcumin in this spice is known to have powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that might, were enough curcumin to be absorbed, have anti-cancer effects in our bodies.

The absorption is still a stumbling a block, however, and so researchers have looked at possible roles for absorbable synthetic curcumin analogues. When these have been placed with human pancreatic cells in a laboratory setting, they appear to encourage the cancer cells to self-destruct, giving them a therapeutic possibility for pancreatic cancer in the future.

And the poor absorption of curcumin may act as a positive attribute when it comes to cancers of the colon, where this unabsorbed super-nutrient appears to loiter for some time. Its presence here could explain why good intakes of turmeric in the diet have been linked to lower incidence of colon polyps and possibly even colon cancer.

Using turmeric in healthy Indian dishes that you prepare at home is probably the way forward to enable you to reap the possible health benefits of curcumin while avoiding calorie-laden takeaways.

If you have a nutrition question, e-mail amanda.ursell@thetimes.co.uk