Trade Your Sheep for Ginger
Abundant Remedies
Head to Toe Remedy
Aromatic, pungent, therapeutic, and flavorful — ginger’s claim to fame is but natural.
An old Indian folk song sums it up perfectly: “Ginger’s curative properties have no restrictions, one cannot say that it can only cure this and not that. From a migraine or a blocked nose right down to aching feet and sprains, you could never go wrong with a bit of ginger.”
This spice has been used for thousands of years to treat many ailments and one pound of it was once worth the price of a sheep.
Digestive Spice
The brown knobby-shaped root of ginger is used as a spice in many Asian countries and is becoming indispensable in several western cuisines as well. But this condiment shouldn’t be limited to just making food taste better. It’s quite effective in making you feel better.
Not only does it aid digestion, ginger also gets rid of such nasty stomach disorders such as constipation, diarrhea, bloating and flatulence. My father introduced me to ginger tea for diarrhea at an early age, and it’s never failed me. There is even evidence it can reduce food cravings by helping to maintain consistent blood sugar levels.
Because ginger works its wonders in the stomach it is considered to be a great alternative to all those allopathic tablets that are meant to ward off nausea, dizziness and to some extent even altitude sickness.
Ginger’s Arsenal
Closely related to turmeric, ginger owes its awesome powers to chemicals called volatile oils, especially zingerone, gingerols and shogaols. These oils stimulate your body’s production of saliva and digestive juices that counteract stomach acids, which may be causing cramps, nausea, or other disorders. As a decongestant, ginger is best administered in hot soups.
7 Ways to Use Ginger
Get your daily dose of ginger by munching on some gingerbread or sipping some ginger soda, tea, or soup. For those with painful ailments, here is what you can do:
- Backaches: Apply ginger paste on the area, followed by eucalyptus oil
- Muscle pain: Massage a few drops of ginger oil that has been mixed with almond oil
- Headaches: Heat up a little ginger paste and apply it on the forehead. Be warned, the skin will burn a little
- Sore throats: Chew a small piece of ginger slowly or crush it and add a spoonful of honey to it
- Flatulence: Make a paste of ginger and asafoetida to apply on the navel
- Motion sickness: Eat some ginger about 3-4 hours before you leave home and at regular four hour intervals as needed (if you can handle the spicy flavor)
- Earaches: A few drops of ginger juice in the affected ear
Cautions: Studies warn that those with gallbladder stones should not eat ginger and those undergoing chemotherapy should not take ginger on an empty stomach. Heartburn is inevitable if you eat too much ginger.
We should all be thankful this useful spice is now much cheaper than a sheep. The last time I checked it was even cheaper than a coffee at Starbucks.
Photo credit: JimReeves
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