19 Amazing Health Benefits of Ginger, Side Effects, and More

Ginger (Zingiber officinale): It is a herbaceous tropical perennial belonging to the family Zingiberaceae. It is a flowering plant whose rhizome (underground stems) is known as ginger. There are numerous health benefits of Ginger.

Ginger has a very long history of use in spices, flavoring agents, and medicinal (both modern and traditional). Most of the medicinal uses of ginger are found in Ayurveda. It contains carbohydrates, fat, protein, vitamins, minerals, natural antibiotics, and many more useful components that our body needs.

Vitamins

  • Thiamine (B1)
  • Riboflavin (B2)
  • Niacin (B3)
  • Pantothenic acid (B5)
  • Vitamin B6
  • Folate (B9)
  • Vitamin C
  • Vitamin E

Minerals

  • Calcium
  • Iron
  • Magnesium
  • Manganese
  • Phosphorus
  • Potassium
  • Sodium

Nature

Ginger is hot by nature, it keeps your body warm. In the winter season, adding it to your diet reduces the feeling of coldness.

It is bitter in taste if you take it alone but this can taste better if you add honey or jaggery to it.

Forms of ginger

Ginger is one of the most widely used spices in India which comes in various forms, including fresh, dried (sunthi), pickled, preserved, crystallized, candied, and powdered/ground.

People in India take ginger in their diet and tea. If you want to add ginger to your diet, here are some famous recipes and ways to try:

Recipes

  • Ginger can be used to temper the vegetable
  • Ginger pickle: You can include in your diet which tastes delicious
  • Ginger tea
  • Ginger powder can also be consumed
  • Cut ginger long and thin, then dry it in the sun by applying salt, pepper, and spices of your choice. Now it is ready to eat anytime.

Used as spices

You can also use ginger as a spice in food. Do you make roasted chicken or mutton? Sprinkle some ginger on it and it will be much better. Use it in sauces as well, just make sure you don’t use too much as it can add bitterness to the taste.

Health benefits of Ginger

Ginger may have anti-inflammatory, antibacterial, antiviral, and many other healthful properties. It’s been used to aid digestion, induce appetite, reduce nausea, and help in fighting the flu and the common cold. Below are the top 5 health benefits of ginger.

1. Reduces oxidative stress

Ginger contains gingerol, which is the main bioactive compound found in ginger. Gingerol has the most powerful medicinal properties. Its unique fragrance and flavor come from its natural oils, the most important one is gingerol.

Gingerol has powerful anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, found in research. Antioxidants are compounds that prevent stress and damage to your body’s DNA.

For instance, it may help reduce oxidative stress, which is the result of having an excess amount of free radicals in the body.

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2. Helps in chronic diseases

They may help your body fight off chronic diseases like high blood pressure, heart disease, and diseases of the lungs, plus promote healthy aging.

3. Keeps your body warm

Ginger keeps your body warm during the winter season. For this, you can take it in any form but it is more beneficial when you take it with Jaggery.

4. Prevent Alzheimer’s disease and dementia

Alzheimer’s is a neurological disorder related to the brain, in which the problem of forgetting is seen in old age people. Using ginger can help in controlling the growing effect of this problem to a great extent.

Research suggests that ginger contains several phytochemicals, such as gingerols, shogaols, and zingerone, which may help in preventing the natural damage of neurons that carry messages to the brain.

This can give you relief to a great extent in the problem of Alzheimer’s. On this basis, it can be assumed that using ginger can help in controlling the effects of Alzheimer’s to some extent.

Ginger may also improve brain functions and help in dementia.

5. Boost immunity

Consuming ginger can also help in maintaining your body’s immunity. This is confirmed by research conducted by the International Journal of Preventive Medicine.

According to this research, it is found that ginger has antioxidant (destroying free radicals) and anti-inflammatory (reducing inflammation) properties. In addition, it also has immunonutrition properties. That is, it can also prove to be helpful in promoting immunity. For this, you can use ginger powder in tea or decoction.

6. Pneumonia treatment

Mix 1 or 2-year-old ghee and camphor in 5 ml ginger juice and massage it on the chest. This will help in getting rid of Pneumonia.

7. Keep the flu away

We have already mentioned that drinking ginger tea strengthens your immune system. In such a situation, consuming ginger can be a lifesaver during the flu season. If you want to avoid this disease, then start using ginger, even if you drink ginger tea.

8. Bile and skin diseases

  • Drinking 5 ml ginger juice mixed with jaggery is beneficial in the diseases related to bile.
  • Mixing 10-12 grams old jaggery in 25 ml ginger juice daily and drinking it cures skin diseases like bile spurts.

9. Increases appetite

  • Mix an equal quantity of dry ginger powder in 1 gram of yavakshara. Add double the ghee to it then consume it. This will help you increasing appetite.
  • Take 2 grams of dry ginger powder with lukewarm water every morning. This also removes the lack of appetite.
  • Eating 2 grams of dry ginger powder with ghee or only dry ginger powder with hot water every morning increases appetite.
  • Eating salt and ginger chutney at the beginning of every meal cures tongue and throat disorders. By using it your appetite increases and also your heart becomes strong.
  • Eating ginger pickles increases appetite.
  • Take carom seeds, fenugreek, myrobalan, and dry ginger powders in equal quantity. Taking 2-4 grams a day may relives pain and also increases appetite.

10. Relieves joint and arthritis pain

  • Add 500 ml of sesame oil to one liter of ginger juice and cook it on fire. When water evaporates, only oil remains, take it off and filter it. Massaging this oil on the body cures joint pain.
  • Grind dry ginger, sesame, and jaggery in equal quantity. Drink it in the amount of 2-4 grams with 50-100 ml milk. With this, the pain of arthritis starts curing and will completely cured in 3-7 days.
  • Make a decoction of dry ginger and castor root. Mix 125 mg asafetida and 1 gram Sauvarchal salt in 10-20 ml decoction and take, it cures arthritis pain.
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11. For Vata dosha

  • Make a decoction of pippali and dry ginger and take 20 ml in the morning and evening, it cures gout.
  • Drink an equal quantity of ginger juice, matulung juice, chukra, and jaggery mixed with ghee or oil. It cures back pain, flatulence, sciatica, and intestinal diseases.
  • Mix ginger juice or matung juice in oil and ghee and drink after giving the projection of chukra and jaggery. It cures back pain, flatulence, sciatica, and intestinal diseases.

12. Used in Syncope

Mix ginger and jaggery in equal quantity and eat it with Triphala powder every morning for 7 days. Along with this, take Triphala with honey at night. Along with this follow the diet. It is beneficial in diseases like lethargy, fainting, jaundice, and mania.

13. In fever

  • Giving ginger juice (1-2 drops) through the nose ends fainting in fever.
  • Cook dry ginger, absinthe, nutgrass, and cordifolia (Guduchi) and consume 5 grams each. It cures fever, excessive thirst, and loss of appetite.

14. Fighting respiratory disease

Ginger provides many health benefits related to our lungs. Because of its anti-inflammatory qualities, ginger causes bronchodilation in asthmatic patients which helps in getting rid of asthma attacks.

Research and studies on various animals including humans have demonstrated the bronchodilatory effects of ginger. Ginger also breaks down the thick mucus and helps to expel out the mucus.

Ginger efficiently reduced lung damage and protected the lungs from severe damage due to hyperoxia and inflammation.

  • Mix honey in 2 spoons of ginger juice and take it in the morning and evening. It is beneficial in respiratory diseases.
  • Asthma and respiratory diseases are cured by taking one gram of ginger juice with one spoon of water in the morning and evening.
  • All types of respiratory diseases, cough, cold, and anorexia are cured by eating ginger juice mixed with honey.
  • Mix musk in ginger juice and take, it cures respiratory diseases.
  • Make a powder by grinding long pepper (Piper longum), rock salt and mixing ginger juice in it, and consuming it at bedtime. It cures asthma, cough, and phlegm.
  • Mixing 6 grams of ginger juice and 6 grams of honey in the ashes of about 1 gram of zinc, giving it to the patient ends asthma and cough.
  • Taking ginger juice with honey cures old age asthma.

15. Influenza treatment

Mix 6 grams of honey in 6 ml ginger juice and take it 3-4 times a day. It cures influenza disease.

16. Prevents heart diseases

Ginger works as a blood-thinning agent by lowering cholesterol levels, Which helps control blood pressure and prevent heart attack.

In a study, it is found that people who took ginger pills daily saw decreased levels of triglycerides, total cholesterol level, and bad cholesterol (known as low-density lipoprotein or LDL) after 45 days, as compared to people who were given a placebo. However, more research is needed to definitively say that you can take ginger to lower cholesterol.

17. Cures migraine

Have you ever experienced a headache so strong that no medicine can help? It’s a migraine, ginger makes you feel better in migraine problems.

Ginger has analgesic properties. This pain-relieving property is helpful in the problem of migraine. In research, it is believed that ginger juice can work to control the acute pain of migraine and provide relief. In such a situation, it can be said that the consumption of ginger can prove beneficial for migraine sufferers.

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18. Helps in osteoarthritis

Taking ginger can reduce pain in some people related to osteoarthritis.

19. Prevents diabetes

Nowadays diabetes is not limited to a specific group of people and age, today it becomes a lifestyle disease. What if you can prevent it by just adding a delicious spice to your diet.

Ginger can help prevent diabetes and also help people who already have diabetes. If you take ginger with balance in the diet, then it will definitely prove to be effective.

Research done on ginger by the Iranian Journal of Pharmaceutical Research has found ginger to be effective in patients with diabetes. It is found in research that along with controlling the amount of increased blood sugar, it can also work to increase the activity of insulin.

How much ginger is enough?

It has often been seen that people use ginger to make a strong taste of tea and tasty food. If the weather is cold, then its use increases even more.

Everyone likes to drink ginger tea in winter, but do you know that excessive consumption of ginger tea can be harmful to the body.

Health specialists and nutritionists recommend eating ginger only up to 5 grams, so proper quantity is safe and beneficial for your health.

It is safe to take it every day but not more than 5 grams a day. A person should consume only 5 grams of ginger in a whole day because consuming more than this can have a negative effect on your health.

If you like to drink ginger tea, then half a teaspoon of ginger is enough in a cup of tea. Consuming ginger in excess of this can reduce the level of blood sugar and can also cause problems like burning in the stomach.

Risk factors

If you also take ginger daily, then be cautious because taking ginger in higher doses than the daily intake limit may cause various complications and increase the risk of side effects.

According to doctors, excessive consumption of ginger can cause problems like

  • Reduces blood sugar level
  • Heartburn
  • Acidity
  • Gas
  • Bleeding disorder like heavy bleeding during periods
  • Gall stones
  • Eye irritation
  • High blood pressure (BP)
  • Insomnia (less sleep)

Its consumption in low BP is harmful to health, ginger also has the property of thinning the blood.

FAQs

Q. What are the health benefits of honey and ginger tea?

A. Ginger tea is probably most well-known for its potential to soothe digestive issues (in particular for helping ease nausea, increasing appetite), is anti-inflammatory, may help reduce blood pressure, may aid weight loss, ease headaches and migraines, it is full of antioxidants so also reduces stress. It may help to ease digestive discomfort.

Q. Is eating raw ginger more beneficial?

A. The benefits of eating raw ginger can be achieved in case of loss of appetite. In such a situation, it is advisable to eat raw ginger pieces by adding salt.

Q. Is drinking ginger water beneficial?

A. It is recommended to drink ginger water on an empty stomach in the morning which helps to get rid of digestion-related disorders.

Q. Is it more beneficial to eat ginger on an empty stomach?

A. To make the skin spotless and glowing, experts recommend taking a piece of ginger with lukewarm water on an empty stomach. However, no scientific evidence is available related to this to date.

Q. Can ginger and cumin be taken together?

A. Several spices are used to make ginger pickles, including cumin. At the same time, some people also use cumin in making tea. In such a situation, it can be said that ginger can be consumed with cumin.

Q. Can ginger and honey be taken together?

A. You can take ginger and honey together by making juice, cold infusions, or other recipes. Ginger and honey are more effective together than ginger alone. Mixing honey with ginger also helps ginger to taste better.

Q. Can ginger and jaggery be taken together?

A. Yes, of course, jaggery is also used instead of sugar in making ginger chutney or you can take it as a whole. It also helps to taste good.

References:

  1. Gastroprotective effects of ginger
  2. Anti-Oxidative and anti-Inflammatory effects of ginger
  3. Prevents lungs related disorders
  4. Effects of ginger on cholesterol level
  5. Effects of taking ginger in patients with diabetes

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