I’ve found myself telling other people about this fantastic book several times, so I thought I would make a blog entry about it.
Aside from being a delicious flavoring agent ginger is a cheap, ubiquitous, and powerful “drug”. Ginger has powerful antinflammatories. It is also completely safe for a person’s digestive tract. In fact, ginger is an old folk remedy for upset stomachs. Years ago I had several orthopedic problems and discovering the book pictured above kept me from using ibuprofen except for occasional very bad bouts of inflammation in my right knee. The antinflammatories in ginger aka “gingerols” are so effective pharmaceutical companies have investigated artificially extracting and concentrating gingerols for making new drugs.
Aside from being a safe antinflammatory, ginger is a mild stimulant that boosts circulation, ginger soothes the digestive tract, is great for colds and is therapeutic for a long list of conditions.
Did I mention that it is cheap and ubiquitous? 🙂
Best of all, the active ingredients in ginger survive cooking and processing. You don’t need to empty your wallet to buy super expensive organic ginger root and spend 20 minutes making an infusion. Taking a spoon full of powdered drug store spice rack ginger will work too. In fact, it will be more effective since it is dried and concentrated. Even ginger ale and ginger candy can be therapeutic if there is enough ginger used in the ingredients.
The book pictured above is written by an herbalist who extensively quotes scientific studies to show you in a readable as well as a credible way what an overlooked treasure ginger is.
