Culinary and medicinal, ginger has been sought, bought and sold around the globe, it used to travel great distances across ancient and treacherous spice routes, guarded by Arabs and ingested by kings.
Today ginger is cultivated for its widespread use to cure the body and alleviate symptoms of:
- nausea
- motion sickness
- colds & flu
- menstrual cramps & morning sickness
- gas & bloating
- headaches
- boost to the digestive system, ginger has cancer fighting properties and works like an anti-inflammatory.
Ginger is also attributed with:
- reducing rheumatoid arthritis pain, to lower cholesterol, boost healthy blood circulation and is, finally, a breath freshener.
Whether you sprinkle it, chew it, bathe in it, fry it, drink it, soup it or suck on it, ginger is good for you, and it’s very hard to overdose on it.
Cold Feet?
As someone who always has cold hands and feet, I am particularly interested in warming up and increasing my circulation, so when I heard about a ginger bath, it sounded like it would do the trick. It not only warmed up my hands and feet, but my entire body felt soothed as my pores absorbed ginger’s heat and healing components and I sweated, feeling a warm internal glow for hours afterwards.
Ginger bath - this is a cheap and effective detox and will rid your system of winter bugs, helping you sweat out any impurities.
- Run yourself a hot full bath - really hot, unless you are weak, and full enough to submerge in it
- Add between two and three tablespoons of fresh grated ginger, or several good drops of ginger essential oil, or, if none of those are to hand, some ground ginger from your spice cupboard
- Scrub your body with a dry-skin brush first if you can, it will remove any dead skin cells and open prepare your body for a good dunk.
- Soak for 20-30 minutes. Allow your skin's pores to open up to ginger's healing & heating properties.
- Breathe in the scent.
- Wrap-up in a warm towel and rest. You will sweat - maybe for 2 or 3 hours - this is a normal release of toxins
- Get a good night's sleep. Easy!
Hot ginger drink - sipping ginger tea throughout the day will alleviate colds, flu, travel and morning sickness.
- Chop or grate fresh ginger
- Add some boiling water and let it steep for 5 minutes before drinking. Keep the ginger in the cup/flask
- You can also add organic, locally sourced honey and lemon for that extra healthy boost
- NB - Do not drink ginger essential oil - only fresh ginger
Ginger smoothie - mix with other fruits or veg for an optimum healthy snack, breakfast or thirst quencher.
- Choose your other ingredients - apple? carrot? pomegranate? beetroot? banana? - these all work well with ginger
- Mix some orange juice, a spoonful of yogurt, fresh grated ginger and your other fruit/veg - blend to taste
- Sprinkle some chopped nuts - brazils or almonds are fantastic for healthy skin - blend again
- Make sure ginger is the predominant ingredient but add more fruit if you need - AVOID sugars or artificial sweetener
- Blend again and enjoy
Ginger sweets - suffer from motion sickness? Ginger is the ideal, non pharmaceutical cure.
- Ginger sweets are widely available from health food shops and online stores
- Suck them, chew them or leave them to melt under your tongue and you need never feel sick again
- Avoid sweets with artificial preservatives, sweeteners or heavy glucose content