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How to Make Ginger Soda – Delicious Medicine for Your Body
The “ginger bug” has grown in popularity over the years and is a fantastic way to make soda for your family. You don’t need a starter culture or even kefir whey. A ginger bug is a mixture of sugar, ginger, and water that captures wild yeasts and beneficial bacteria. Let it ferment for a few days and you’ve made your own ginger bug! This can then be used to make a probiotic and fizzy soda like ginger ale! The benefits of ginger are vast and ginger can work like medicine in the body. Make sure you use organic ginger root it works better!
Health benefits of Ginger
Ginger's Amazing Qualities
Ginger has been shown to help reduce blood sugar levels and help regulate insulin response in people with diabetes.
A study published in the Iranian Journal of Pharmaceutical Research found that those with type 2 diabetes who consumed ginger daily for twelve weeks experienced reduced levels of fasting blood sugar. [1]
One more study, published in the International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition in 2014, reported that ginger taken daily for eight weeks helped reduce insulin sensitivity and fasting blood sugar levels in type 2 diabetics. [2]
Ginger is nature's medicine!
Digestion and Stomach Distress
Ginger has been proven to improve digestion and it has also been proven to be very effective at reducing inflammation.1 Ginger and its metabolites appear to accumulate in the gastrointestinal tract, and this is one of the reasons we can observe ginger exerting many of its effects in digestion and nausea. Ginger may aid digestion by increasing muscle tone around the intestines and reducing inflammation. This will help the food to move down through the digestive tract with greater ease and efficiency.
Ginger For Nausea, Motion Sickness, And Chemotherapy
I have personally used ginger for motion sickness. I actually found it in a drugstore listed as "Natural Dramamine" and the only ingredient was 1000 mg of ginger root. It worked for me and it worked fast! It has also worked on upset stomachs and nausea in friends and families. In a large study done on 543 cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy,1 ginger was used to reduce nausea for patients undergoing chemotherapy, and as little as one-quarter of a teaspoon of ginger cut symptoms of nausea by at least 40%.
Help For Asthma
There have been several studies done on Ginger and those suffering from asthma. Researchers have been helping those with asthma by adding ginger compounds to isoproterenol, a type of asthma medication.2,3,4,5,
Ginger and its bioactive component help to alleviate asthma symptoms by acutely relaxing the airway. Because ginger enhances bronchodilation and is anti-inflammatory, these components of ginger relax airway smooth muscles, (ASM) thereby opening the airways of those who suffer from asthma.
Menstrual Cramps
Ginger has also been found to be as effective as Ibuprofen in relieving pain from menstrual cramps.[6] I have used it often for this reason and it’s one of the greatest blessings to have something so natural work so well. The cause of menstrual cramps is thought to be due to increased production of prostaglandins in the endometrium (lining of the uterus). The anti-inflammatory properties of ginger can lead to a reduction in prostaglandins without the unhealthy aspects of taking drugs. I also found having ginger regularly before menses starts will often eliminate the possibility of cramps altogether.
How to Make A Ginger Bug
Ginger Bug Soda
Listen To My Podcast
Explore the many reasons why you should have ginger every day. It’s a powerful tool for allergy season and for reducing inflammation. I can show you how I include this powerful food in my everyday life, and why it can make such a difference for you too.
References:
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4277626/
- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.3109/09637486.2014.880671
- http://www.cancernetwork.com/blog/ginger-preventing-chemo-induced-nausea-what-evidence
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23962082/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31800263/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25420680/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23065130/
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19216660/
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