Ginger root is a fantastic herb with so many potential health benefits and so many ways it can be used, which includes using ginger in smoothies.
There are so many ways to prepare the ginger for use in your smoothie recipes.
This includes raw ginger, cooked or dried ginger, shredded ginger, grated or whole ginger, pickled or fermented ginger and so many more.
Ginger makes up part of the zingiberaceae family, this is alongside the other culinary herbs turmeric, galangal and, of course, cardamom.
So now let’s look into the many benefits of ginger for you before we cover the variety of ways you can prepare ginger for your smoothies.
Table of Contents
Ginger traditionally
Ginger was used in different traditional cultures over many centuries.
Traditionally, and also verified in modern studies, ginger was used to prevent and treat nausea.
In fact, the anti-nausea medication Travacalm you see in many shops and supermarkets is based on using ginger in this way.
Ginger is known to be a warming herb that helps to increase circulation.
Taking these benefits into account, this would make ginger a perfect addition to winter smoothies, especially when things start to cool and slow down.
On top of that, through the ages it was used to improve digestion and also to help decrease stomach pain.
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The modern uses of ginger
Now, let’s see what modern science has to say about the potential benefits of this great and ancient herb.
Antioxidant and anti-inflammatory
Beyond nausea, Ginger is perhaps best known in the nutrition and herbal world as an antioxidant and anti-inflammatory herb.
Protects the stomach
The traditional herbalists were right, ginger could help with stomach pain, by reducing the formation of ulcers.
This is due to its anti-inflammatory effects.
On top of this, ginger was also able to positively effect gut motility.
Gut motility is the time it takes your stomach to digest and empty its contents to make its way to the intestine.
Joint and muscle pain
The athletes among us may have heard of this one before.
As ginger can increase circulation and act as an anti-inflammatory, it can help also to reduce the amount of post-exercise pain experienced.
This is why you sometimes see ginger included in many muscle rub gels!
Blood sugar normalising
Another fantastic effect of this wonder herb, especially in today’s day and age when 2 million Australians are classified as having pre-diabetes and 1.2 million are diagnosed diabetics.
A small study found that ginger improved fasting blood sugar and the long term measure of blood sugar HbA1c in type II diabetics, both positive effects.
Preparation and how to use ginger
There are so many ways to use ginger in your smoothies other than just cutting it up and throwing it into your blender.
A quick word on the preparation of ginger root
Mature ginger usually has a really tough skin and you can eat this skin, but you may prefer to peel the ginger before eating it.
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If you’re using young ginger on the other hand, you generally wouldn’t have this problem
Another tip here to watch out for too, after peeling, ginger spoils much quicker, decreasing the shelf life.
It is therefore best to only peel the part that you want to use, but sometimes this isn’t always convenient though.
How to use ginger in your smoothies
- Peel (or not) and chop, throw in your blender with the rest of your ingredients and enjoy
- Grate it into your smoothie after blending
- Too much work or too short on time? Opt for powdered ginger and just add a dash into your smoothies. Eating ginger this way has less of the beneficial compounds such as the gingerols, and is also a little less flavoursome
- Juice the ginger and add it to your smoothies
- Prepare some ginger tea and use the tea as the base for your smoothie. It may not be everybody’s cup of tea, but then again it might be yours.]
Be sure to apply this food gingerly, as too much can really overpower the taste of your smoothie.
It is best to start with adding a lot less ginger and work your way up to a level you’re happy with.
A few more ginger questions
Now we have a few ginger questions to get you thinking before you make you create your next frozen smoothie.
Are you going to start to add ginger into your smoothie recipes?
How are you going to add the ginger?
Are you going to use ginger tea, whole, grated, juiced, powdered or some other way?
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Whatever you choose, can you let us know how you prepare your ginger for smoothies by tagging us on Instagram or Facebook.
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Source: https://supercubes.com.au/blogs/cubes/how-to-prepare-ginger-root-for-smoothies
