Ginger! Tasty and… healing! Here are some awesome things about ginger!
“Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.” -Hippocrates (maybe)
The ancient Father of Medicine, Hippocrates, was an early promoter of the medicinal virtues of food. Today this belief is known under the portmanteau of the word’s nutrition and pharmaceutical, blended into nutraceutical by Stephen L. De Felice, founder of Innovation Medicine, a non-profit organisation established to accelerate medical discovery by establishing a more productive clinical research community.(1)
Nutraceutical compounds offer physiological benefits beyond the nutritional value. Meaning, foods can provide more than vitamins and nutrients—they can help prevent diseases or cure illnesses. One popular example is garlic, which has antibiotic actions thanks to its allicin constituent, today’s focus, though, will be on the beneficial properties of none other than tasty ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc.)!
In our home, when we feel a cold coming on, we cook up a ginger decoction, add some lemon and honey, drink it throughout the evening and usually the next day we feel like new. It works so well, we got curious about the science behind ginger and some of its other benefits. Scrolling through academic journals, we were actually blown away with the research supporting ginger’s various effects. Here are a couple highlights:
This ability for ginger to combat nausea has been the subject of frequent studies including the use during pregnancy and chemotherapy. (4)
Ginger could be used against inflammation and thrombosis while lowering cholesterol. (5)
Ginger may also help with the duration and severity of dysmenorrhea and menstrual cramps as shown by a very promising randomised trial. (6)
A great one for Rebel Roots H.Q. is the ability for ginger to recover muscle strength after intense exercise. On the flip side, this study didn’t show any affect of ginger (like almost everything else) on delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) (7).
For a recent (Jan 2020) research review with a handy table on what ginger does and doesn’t work for see Anh and colleagues study here (see page 16 for nifty table).
The research and potential of ginger goes on and on!
We were honestly surprised how much scientific research has been dedicated to the medicinal properties of ginger. Of course the applications and consumption of ginger varies in the studies. At home, we have experimented with tinctures, decoctions and simply adding more ginger to our food and drink to see how it works for us. Specifically we’re trying a ginger tincture for cramps—we’ll let you know how it works out!
If after all that impressive literature about ginger you’re thinking ‘why not add a bit more into my life?!’ then we’ve got a recipe for you! Click here to check out the RR special Ginger Golden Delight Syrup.
References
- Bartram Thomas, Bartram’s Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine. (1996). Great Britain: Grace Publishers
- Shukla, Y., Singh, M. (2007). Cancer preventive properties of ginger: A brief review. Food and Chemical Toxicology, 45(5), 683-690.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S027869150600322X#bib18 - Grant, K., Pharm.D., FASHP, Lutz,R. (2000). Ginger. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy, 57(10), 945–947, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajhp/57.10.945
- Lete, I., & Allué, J. (2016). The Effectiveness of Ginger in the Prevention of Nausea and Vomiting during Pregnancy and Chemotherapy. Integrative medicine insights, 11, 11–17. https://doi.org/10.4137/IMI.S36273
- Thomson, M., Al-Qattan, K.K., Al-Sawan, S.M., Khan, I., Ali, M. (2002). The use of ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc.) as a potential anti-inflammatory and antithrombotic agent. Prostaglandins, Leukotrienes and Essential Fatty Acids. 67(6), 475-478. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0952327802904412
- Rahnama, R., Montazeri, A., Huseini, H., Kianbakht, S., Naseri, M. (2012). Effect of Zingiber officinale R. rhizomes (ginger) on pain relief in primary dysmenorrhea: a placebo randomized trial. BMC Complementary Medicine and Therapies. 12(92). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3518208/
- Matsumura M.D., Zavorsky G.S., Smoliga J.M. The effects of pre-exercise ginger supplementation on muscle damage and delayed onset muscle soreness. Phytother. Res. 2015;29:887–893. doi: 10.1002/ptr.5328
- Ali, B., Blunden, G., Tanira, M., Nemmar, A. (2008). Some phytochemical, pharmacological and toxicological properties of ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe): A review of recent research. Food and Chemical Toxicology, 46(2), 409-420. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278691507004243
- Anh, N. H., Kim, S. J., Long, N. P., Min, J. E., Yoon, Y. C., Lee, E. G., Kim, M., Kim, T. J., Yang, Y. Y., Son, E. Y., Yoon, S. J., Diem, N. C., Kim, H. M., & Kwon, S. W. (2020). Ginger on Human Health: A Comprehensive Systematic Review of 109 Randomized Controlled Trials. Nutrients, 12(1), 157. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12010157
- Hatfield Gabrielle, Encyclopedia of Folk Medicine: Old World and New World Traditions. (2004). California: ABC-CLIO
- Chang, J., Wang, K.C., Yeh, C.F., Shieh, D.E., & Chiang. L.C. (2013). Fresh ginger (Zingiber officinales) has anti-viral activity against human respiratory syncytial virus in human respiratory tract cell lines.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23123794 - Kalra, E.K. (2002). Nutraceutical-definition and introduction. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2750935/
- Preppe and me, Ginger-Turmeric syrup, https://preppie-and-me.de/gesundheitssirup-ein-fruchtig-suesses-und-scharfes-allround-talent
One thought on “Incredible edible ginger!”