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Do you remember having a stomach bug when you were little?
This was when you stayed home from school, laid under a big blanket on the coach and watched TV with a barf bucket at the ready.
The only thing that ever made any difference to the awful way you felt was the ginger ale that mom or grandma let you slowly sip.
Back in the stone age, when I was a kid, there was actual ginger in that stuff and I loved it.
I didn’t know it then, but that little bit of ginger soda was powerful medicine. The underground rhizome of the ginger plant has a long tradition of healing, calming and soothing all manner of gastrointestinal distress.
Modern research has shown ginger to be a powerful anti-inflammatory as well.
Here’s a bunch of stuff you should know about ginger:
Ginger calms nausea. Not just your run-of-the-mill nausea either! There has been research showing it to be effective at quelling nausea caused by morning sickness, motion sickness, surgery and chemotherapy
It aids digestion by increasing digestive fluids and saliva it improves your stomach’s gastric motility — your ability to fill and empty.
Ginger helps to reduce Inflammation and ease pain.
It’s an antihistamine and a decongestant that can help to decongest your stuffy nose and calm that headache.
It treats heartburn by inhibiting acid reflux and releasing potent enzymes, ginger has been shown to be more effective (and safer) than conventional, modern acid blockers.
It can help with weight loss. It does this by acting a a fat burner and helping you to feel fuller for longer
Ginger improves nutrient absorption by stimulating certain gastric and pancreatic enzymes so you’re getting more out of the food that you are eating!
Here’s how to get more ginger into your diet:
Toss a piece into a smoothie!
Grate or mince some into a veggie stir fry.
Mix yourself up some tea.
Ginger Tea:
put a 1” piece of ginger into your tea pot
Fill with boiling water
Let steep for about 5-7 minutes
Add Honey and lemon
Enjoy your warming winter tonic!
Bernadette Smith is an organic gardener, life-long tree hugger and certified Integrative Nutrition Health Coach living in Patchogue, N.Y. She offers free 30-minute Health Discovery Sessions and can reached through Facebook or by emailing [email protected].
courtesy photo by Dominik Martin
