Does Ginger Ale Really Help With Nausea and Digestion?
Ginger ale to tame your tummy? Read this before you sip.
Maybe you’re a nervous flier and ginger ale is your go-to drink order on every flight. Or perhaps ginger ale got you through that stomach-churning first trimester of pregnancy. Or you make your partner stock up every time you feel a stomach bug coming on. Ginger ale has a well-known reputation for soothing nausea and digestive issues, but is this based in rumor or reality?
It’s true that ginger has anti-inflammatory properties, says registered dietitian Sharon Richter, RD. And studies have found that ginger can help ease pregnancy nausea and postoperative nausea and vomiting. (Here are more powerful health benefits of ginger you should know about.)
But: There’s little real ginger in the fizzy carbonated version you buy by the liter. “Most popular brands of ginger ale beverages don’t have any real ginger,” says Richter. “What they do have is artificial flavors and sugar in the form of high fructose corn syrup.”
A better bet for soothing your stomach? Make ginger tea with fresh ginger.
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Does ginger ale help with digestion?
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So often, I hear that ginger
is gonna help with digestion.
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And people ask me,
what's the truth behind it?
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Ginger has an anti-inflammatory
property that helps the stomach.
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Research has shown that ginger may
help with pregnancy induced and
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postoperative nausea and vomiting.
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But most popular brands
of ginger ale beverages
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don't have any real ginger in them.
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What they have is artificial flavors,
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sugar, in the form of
high fructose corn syrup.
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A better bet for soothing your stomach,
make ginger tea with fresh ginger.
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Ginger: An Overview. Leawood, KS: American Academy of Family Physicians, 2007. (Accessed on December 19, 2017 athttp://www.aafp.org/afp/2007/0601/p1689.html)
Some phytochemical, pharmacological and toxicological properties of ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe): a review of recent research. Oman: College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, 2008. (Accessed on December 19, 2017 at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17950516)