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Many decide to greet important visitors with gifts of wine, flowers, or other such pleasantries. If you’re Queen Elizabeth I, though, you give your special guests a ginger cookie made exactly in their likeness. A weird gift, for sure, but we have the Queen of England to thank for introducing the world to the modern day gingerbread man (1).

The year is 1575 and The Renaissance, a period of unmatched cultural, political, and economic innovation, is underway in Europe. The most important technological advances from the period include the printing press, modern toilet, microscope, and, of course, the gingerbread man. I’m sure the queen was unaware, but by gifting these cookies to the dignitaries that arrived at her palace she was offering them one of the true superfoods of their time and ours, ginger.

The term “superfood” has become a nebulous term, overused by everyone from spiritual healers to instagram health gurus. Used for thousands of years as a treatment for the common cold, nausea, and nearly every other ailment you can imagine, ginger is one of the few superfoods that truly deserves to wear this name with pride (2).

Despite its extensive history, few are aware of the significant, evidence-based health benefits of ginger consumption. Today I’m going to share with you 4 reasons that ginger deserves to be a year-round staple in your kitchen, not just a spice that you toss out as soon as the last gingerbread man in your cookie jar has met its demise.

1. Reduce Inflammation and Oxidative Stress

Gingerol, one of the primary bioactive compounds in ginger, has powerful antioxidant and anti inflammatory properties (3, 4, 5). The anti inflammatory power of ginger has been shown to be strong enough to decrease allergy symptoms (6) and reduce soreness by up to 25% after strenuous exercise (7).

This study even found that ginger was as effective as ibuprofen at reducing pain after oral surgery (8). Additionally, the antioxidants in ginger may even contribute to improved cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and metabolic health and reduce risk of cancer (more on that in part 2) (9, 10, 11).

2. Reduce Blood Sugar

This recent study of 41 Type 2 Diabetics showed that ginger intake reduced fasting blood sugar by 12%, hemoglobin A1C (a measure of average blood sugar levels over a three month period), by 10%, as well as apolipoprotein B, a protein associated with increased risk of heart disease (12). Other studies have found similar blood sugar reduction effects (13, 14, 15, 16). While this 2019 review found that ginger intake had no effect on fasting blood sugar, it did find that it significantly reduce Hemoglobin A1C in Type 2 Diabetics (17).

How does ginger reduce blood sugar? Researchers aren’t exactly sure, but they have a few ideas:

Increased Glucose Uptake - It appears that 6-Paradol and 6-Shogoal, two compounds in ginger, directly stimulate glucose uptake in the cells and reduce blood sugar levels in mice (18, 19).
Increased GLUT4 - Gingerol can increase expression of GLUT4, a protein that shuttles glucose out of the blood (reducing blood glucose levels) and into the cells (20).
Upregulation of Adiponectin - Gingerol has been shown to prevent the downregulation of adiponectin, a hormone that protects against insulin resistance and Diabetes (21, 22). Thus, increased levels of adiponectin may decrease blood sugar levels as a result of increased insulin sensitivity (23).
Regardless of the mechanism(s), it is clear that the potential of ginger consumption to assist in blood sugar management is very promising.

3. Decrease Joint Pain

As ginger consumption has been shown to reduce inflammation, it follows that it may also reduce pain for those suffering from osteoarthritis, a disease that can increase inflammation in the joints (24). This meta-analysis of 593 patients found that ginger intake significantly decreased joint pain and reduced markers of disability (25).

This study of 247 knee OA patients found that ginger extract reduced knee pain, improved function, and decreased need for NSAID use (though the people in the ginger group did experience higher levels of heartburn than the control group) (26). And this study showed that ginger reduced pain more than placebo but less than Ibuprofen (27).

Though ginger may not have as strong an effect as NSAIDs, the research certainly indicates that it has powerful pain reduction effects and you may want to consider adding it to your diet if you suffer from chronic joint pain (28, 29).

4. May Accelerate Weight Loss

As weight gain comes down to energy balance (energy in - energy out), I am skeptical about the effect of supplements on weight loss. That being said, it has been found that properties in ginger can affect the two sides of the equation (i.e. increasing “energy out” or decreasing “energy in”) and thus aid weight loss and improve body composition.

While it’s always important to keep in mind that humans are not mice, multiple studies have found that mice fed ginger have significantly lower body weight, and increased energy expenditure, compared to mice that are not fed ginger (30, 31, 32, 33). Interestingly enough, much of these findings hold up in human trials.

This 2019 review found that ginger supplementation reduced body weight and waist to hip ratio (34), while this 2015 study found that 2g of ginger/day improved weight loss and reduced serum insulin and HOMA-IR, a marker of insulin resistance (35). Finally, this pilot study found that ginger had an indirect effect on weight loss by increasing feelings of fullness and showed that it increased the thermic effect of food (amount of calories it takes to digest food consumed) after a meal by an average of 43 calories compared to water (36).

When it comes to weight loss, overall caloric intake and exercise take precedent over food composition and supplements, but it appears that ginger consumption may positively influence body composition and help us reach our fitness goals more quickly.

Wrap Up

Well, are you convinced that ginger deserves a prime spot in your spice rack? If not, don’t worry - there are plenty more benefits where these came from! Be sure to check out my next article on ginger (yes, it has so many amazing properties that I couldn’t fit them all into one post!) - Reduce Risk of Cancer + Boost Brain Health - More Reasons to Eat More Ginger, in a few weeks.

Sources:

4 Reasons To Eat Ginger All Year Long

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