How the Ginger in Ginger Ale Helps to Relieve Gastrointestinal Distress

Craig Benzine, also known as Wheezy Waiter, the host of the Mental Floss series “Big Questions” answers a viewers question as to whether or not ginger ale really helps to aid gastrointestinal disturbances and how it goes about doing it.

There are few things going on here that can affect your stomach – carbonation, ginger and then a combination of those two things in ginger ale. and whether or not any of these help is actually still being debated in the medical world. …A 2011 study examined 744 cancer patients who are receiving chemotherapy which typically makes people nauseous. Some were given a placebo and three others were given varying amounts of ginger. The study was a randomized double-blind, meaning neither the experimenters nor the patients knew which groups people belonged to. According to the results all doses of ginger significantly reduced acute nausea severity compared to placebo. …
Since ginger has been shown to help with stomach issues in some cases, try to find ginger ale with ginger root in the ingredients.

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.