Ginger(snaps)!

Hello there, it is another beautiful fall morning here in the Pacific Northwest and I am seriously taking advantage of this whole fall situation. My house is filled with rosemary essential oil, pumpkin chili and delicious REAL gingersnap cookies. I find myself whipping up fall recipes on the daily and I get so excited to share all of them with you. That would be 3 recipes a day and that’s crazy talk, so I will touch up on the latter of those above: the gingersnap cookies.

Let’s focus on the first word there, I know I know, I am asking you to divert your attention from the word cookie, we can get through this together. Anyways, I know you have all probably heard the talk of the year, ginger. “It’s good for you.” “It helps you lose weight.” “You should put in in your tea.” These are statements that I often hear floating around. It’s good that people are talking about this superfood but I want you to be able to debunk the myths and to affirm the truths! Let’s get started.

Ginger sliced into small coins. It's a beauty.

Ginger is a root that is a vibrant yellow on the inside with a sandy beige skin on the outside. The yellow flesh has a hair-like texture and is sweet and spicy to the taste. The skin is a bit thick and harder than the flesh; this acts as a natural protection to the delicate flesh. You can find large bunches of ginger or small “fingers” or knobs. When you are shopping, look for the shiny and firm ginger. When you see wrinkled or cracked ginger that means that it has lots a majority of its flavor & that’s just sad. Now, if you live in a cool place like Asia orrrr you live somewhere with an Asian market, you can find young ginger. This doesn’t need to be peeled.

Okay okay, you’re like “wait so why should I buy this weird knob of roots?”, let me just tell you. Ginger contains a crazy potent antioxidant called gingerol (original huh?) that acts as an anti-inflammatory agent. This active compound also helps to sooth an upset stomach (remember this one mom’s). Anti-inflammatory action is not where it stops though. Ginger has been shown to fight blood clots, relax your gut muscles (time to poop!), aid in metabolism and digestion and act as a powerful antibiotic[1]. Take note that those are only a few of the many benefits of ginger. If you aren’t convinced, I am going to emphasize a little something really quick.

Most foods today are contaminated with chemicals.

85% of Americans, yes Americans, not kids from African countries, fail to meet the requirements laid out by the USDA for minerals and vitamins. Mind you, the USDA has low recommendations so this must mean that close to 100% of us aren’t consuming the true amounts of vitamins and minerals that we need. The problem is not that we aren’t eating enough (even some of us aren’t) but that we are eating too much of the wrong foods. We are assimilating what we eat and most commonly, we aren’t even properly digesting it. So, what was this point of this relevant rabbit trail? GINGER! Remember, that fun little root we were talking about a few minutes ago. Ginger has the ability to aid in digestion and metabolism. By regularly consuming ginger we can increase our digestion and have happier stomachs!

Now that was a lot of new information so let’s do a little recap.

when shopping for ginger look for the following: organic, smooth, shiny and firm
when you or someone you know has a belly ache, turn to ginger! (recipes below)
ginger will increase the digestion and metabolism of our foods.
When in doubt, choose ginger.
head over to this awesome website I came upon. they talk all about ginger!

Recipe Ideas

bake your normal chicken recipe & add some freshly grated ginger and nutritional yeast.
mix together freshly grated ginger, coconut aminos and little honey for a great stir-fry sauce
slice ginger into coins & steep with lemon and honey in filtered water for a detoxifying tea
add 1” knob of ginger to your green smoothie bowl (use a high powered blender)