The western world is now beginning to appreciate ginger for the sick day panacea that it is. However, even that is just scratching the surface. There are a host of benefits to be gained by featuring more ginger in your meals and we’ll be discussing those in this article.
To start with, you know that flavour and fragrance that is unique to ginger? Well, it is thanks to its natural oils content, prominent among which is gingerol. But flavour and fragrance are not all that gingerol has to offer. In fact, the reason that ginger works so great as an alternative or traditional medicine is because of gingerol.
Gingerol has medicinal properties that make it effective for fighting illnesses like the common cold and the flu. It also has some really powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties that could help reduce oxidative stress. So, if you are under the weather, a cup of ginger tea or a bowl of ginger-infused soup would actually do you a lot of good.
Ginger is also great for treating certain pains, including menstrual pain. And its pain relief property is also thanks to its gingerol content. Gingerol’s anti-inflammatory property reduces inflammation, of course, and also turns off pain-causing compounds in the body.
Now, this is not saying that every kind of pain will be instantly healed by drinking a cup of ginger tea. In fact, if you start feeling pains in your body, you should first check with your doctor to be sure that the pain is not trying to tell you something terrible. However, if it is a recurring pain that you have been to the doctor for or you are having menstrual cramps, ginger could actually help calm things down.
In addition to alleviating certain pains and illnesses, ginger also contains properties that can fight off a number of infections. Research has shown that ginger extracts can inhibit the growth of certain bacteria including oral bacteria that could cause gingivitis and periodontitis.
What’s more, because gingerols contain antimicrobial and antifungal properties, they do not only ward off these viruses and illness-causing bacteria, they also help to boost your entire immune system. What this means is that instead of waiting till you are ill to eat or drink something that is ginger-infused, you can start right now. You could be keeping yourself from falling ill in the first place by doing that.
Another awesome thing about ginger is that it could actually help with weight loss. Research has shown that adding ginger to your diet could help significantly reduce your waist and hip size. In addition to that, it looks like ginger could actually help your body to burn more calories, thereby helping you to lose weight, of course. And seeing as inflammation contributes to weight gain, Gingerol’s anti-inflammatory property also contributes to weight loss.
Now it must be said that ginger is not a magic potion. What I mean is that you cannot expect to lose weight after drinking a couple cups of ginger ale. And you also cannot expect to lose some weight just by drinking ginger tea. Are you catching what I’m throwing? Anyway, let’s move on.
Interestingly, ginger has been linked to the prevention of certain cancers. Now, one must be careful with this one because no one ingredient can prevent any kind of cancer; at least, not so far. However, ginger has been showing promise and this has been attributed to its gingerol content.
Gingerol is loaded with antioxidants that could help reduce one’s risk of colorectal cancer, pancreatic cancer, liver cancer, breast cancer, and ovarian cancer. Nothing is set in stone yet, though, and a lot of research still needs to be conducted in that area. So, we keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.
That said, one benefit of ginger that has been confirmed is that it helps with many forms of nausea. We’re talking extensive research and experience here; ginger is a great cure for nausea. People who have undergone surgery or are undergoing chemotherapy and struggle with nausea could actually benefit from some ginger.
But research has shown that ginger is most effective for nausea induced by pregnancy. That said, if you are pregnant and want to take ginger to cure your nausea, make sure to consult with your doctor to be sure that you are in the clear and to determine how much would be too much for you.
It has also been discovered that ginger might be able to help lower blood sugar levels. Now, this is a relatively new area of research but the results look promising. If ginger can help reduce blood sugar levels, it would make it a useful resource for people with diabetes. And it might also mean that it is able to prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes. Ginger might also help to reduce one’s risk of certain heart diseases, especially in people with type 2 diabetes.
Another area where ginger could really come in handy is indigestion. So, what happens is that ginger helps to speed up emptying of the stomach, and this works for getting rid of indigestion because a major cause of indigestion is delayed emptying of the stomach. But even if you are not experiencing indigestion, the timely emptying of your bowels encourages overall bowel health.
Ginger has been linked to a significant reduction in bad cholesterol levels. Which is great because bad cholesterol has been linked to a number of heart diseases. However, it should be said that one would have to take really high doses of ginger to achieve this result.
In addition to that and thanks to ginger’s anti-inflammatory properties, consuming anything with ginger could help to soothe irritated skin. It could also help to improve brain function, slow down age-related decline in brain function, and probably also protect against Alzhiemer’s disease.
And finally for this article, ginger has also been used in the treatment of osteoarthritis. People with osteoarthritis that have been put on a ginger medication reported significant reduction in their pain and disability. There were only mild side effects, chief of which is the taste of ginger. But then, some might consider that a small price to pay for pain relief and disability alleviation.
Now, there are different ways to have your ginger; you can have it in your tea, soup, stir fries, with your fish, and a number of other creative ways that I’m sure you can come up with. So, tell us in the comment section how you love to or plan to have your ginger; you know, give some of us some ideas.
