Ginger root is a delicious herb that has powerful medicinal properties. Fresh ginger root, dried ginger, and ground ginger powder all have anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, and anti-spasmodic uses in natural medicine. You can eat raw ginger or drink ginger tea to help prevent and treat nausea, improve your cardiovascular health, and boost your brain function.
You can get the many health benefits of ginger root if you add fresh, minced, grated or ground ginger to your diet. You can use fresh or ground ginger to make a therapeutic ginger tea. Or, you can chew on fresh ginger to help relieve nausea. Also, adding ginger to your cooking doesn’t destroy many of its therapeutic properties.
In this article, I will look at what science says about the true health benefits of ginger. You will also find out how to make your own ginger tea at home that you can enjoy at any time of the day.
Fresh Ginger vs. Ground Ginger (Powder Form of Ginger)
To benefit from the medicinal value of ginger (botanical name is Zingiber officinale), it is important to know which the best kind of ginger to use is. The good news is that both fresh ginger and ground ginger powder have many health benefits.
Research has discovered that fresh ginger contains many anti-inflammatory properties and antioxidants called gingerols and shogaols. Gingerol compounds are more prevalent in fresh ginger. Gingerols have been linked to reducing obesity, treating diabetes, and they also have anticancer properties. (1, 2)
Drying ginger and making ginger powder changes the chemical makeup of ginger. Dehydrating ginger causes an increase in the amount of shogaols in ginger powder. Research suggests that shogaols are more potent than gingerols in treating and preventing many health conditions. (1)
Interestingly, the Journal of Chromatography Breported that the antioxidant activity of ground ginger is over 5-fold higher than fresh ginger. (3)
Studies have also shown that boiling or roasting ginger for between 2 and 6 minutes actually increases the antioxidant potential of ginger. (4) This is something I’ve already mentioned when I wrote about the benefits of cooked and dried ginger.
Both fresh ginger root and ginger powder have powerful medicinal compounds that have antioxidant properties. Some researchers say that dried ginger powder can be a more cost-effective way to get the medicinal benefits of ginger with the advantage that it doesn’t go off. (5)
So, you should not be overly concerned about the difference between using fresh or ground ginger for its health benefits.
Ginger Nutrition Facts
Ginger root is good for you because it contains vitamins and minerals as well as antioxidants.
The nutritional value of 100 g fresh, raw ginger root is the following: (6)
- 80 calories
- 17.7 g carbohydrates
- 1.82 g protein
- 2 g fiber
- 1.7 g sugar
- 16 mg calcium
- 43 mg magnesium
- 415 mg potassium
- 13 mg zinc
- 5 mg vitamin C
The book Herbal Medicine says that ginger has over 115 therapeutic compounds. Gingerols and shogaols in ginger have antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-nausea, and anticancer properties. Ginger root and ground ginger can also help prevent cardiovascular disease. (1)
Benefits of Ginger and Ginger Tea
Let’s look in more detail at the many health benefits of ginger tea, consuming fresh ginger root, or taking powdered ginger capsules.
Ginger is Anti-Inflammatory and Can Help Manage Arthritis Symptoms
Reducing inflammation is an important health benefit of taking ginger root or drinking ginger tea.
6-Gingerol is one of the main anti-inflammatory components in ginger. Research has suggested that gingerol helps to inhibit substances and enzymes that cause inflammation. (7)
Ginger extracts can be beneficial to reduce inflammatory pain caused by osteoarthritis. One study found that people with osteoarthritis who took ginger extract experienced a reduction in inflammatory pain. When compared to the anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac, scientists noted that ginger was just as effective but had less gastrointestinal side effects like heartburn. (8)
Research into the effects of gingerol and shogaol compounds in ginger has found that consuming ginger can help relieve joint inflammation in rheumatoid arthritis. Scientists found that ginger taken orally has a similar effect to NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) like ibuprofen in reducing pain and inflammation. (9)
If you suffer from forms of arthritis, ginger root capsules can help to reduce your symptoms. You can also add grated ginger to your diet by adding it to salads, using in a stir-fry or adding it to hot water to make an anti inflammatory ginger tea.
Find out about other foods that can reduce inflammation and may reduce arthritis pain.
Courtesy by: healthyandnaturalworld
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.