For a few reasons, I store in my fridge, when I have a fridge, nearly always a chunk of raw ginger root to gnaw on, then swallow the juice and spit the fibrous husk out — an invigorating, only slightly torturous experience that really opens up the sinus cavities and makes one feel alive.
I usually don’t devote any thought to chewing ginger, as it’s well-developed habit at this point.
But I considered exploring the topic after I arrived in Bangkok after some time away and began to include heavily in my diet street food that is absolutely littered with monosodium glutamate (MSG).
Despite the reams of scientific literature pointing to MSG being a neurotoxin, Thai vendors buy the stuff by the kilo and dump it into basically everything because they believe it tastes aroi (good).
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Of course, one can always politely request that they nix the MSG (“mai sai pong choo-lot, khrup”).
They’ll nod and smile to save face and very probably toss it in anyway in typical Thai fashion.
The odds of avoiding MSG may increase marginally if you tell them you have an allergy just because they don’t want an anaphylactic farang on their hands, along with all the cop interviews and local media stories that come along.
But only marginally.
It turns out, though, that ginger exerts wildly impressive neuroprotective effects against the ravages of MSG by reducing immune system-mediated inflammation.
Via Journal of Food Biochemistry (emphasis added):
“The chronic administration of monosodium glutamate (MSG) as a flavor enhancer has been suggested to produce toxicity, inflammation, and pre-malignant changes in organs. Ginger has protective effects, with potent anti-inflammatory and anti-fibrotic activity against MSG administration. This study is the first to report that ginger modulated the inflammatory and fibrotic effects of MSG and improved immunological indices reflecting the involvement of inflammatory and fibrotic markers and polysaccharide content in the activation of macrophages. These findings support the further use of ginger as a supplement for food enhancement and as an anti-fibrotic, anti-inflammatory, and therapeutic agent in pharmaceutical therapies against autoimmune and inflammatory diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and ulcerative colitis, as well as MSG-associated inflammatory diseases.”
Unlike the jibby-jab, there is real scientific evidence, not mythology manufactured by Pfizer — which can’t patent ginger (yet) and therefore has no interest in using its scientist prostitutes to produce beneficial findings via rigged trials — that ginger might actually do something for the COVID-infected to reduce hospital stays.
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Via Nutrition & Metabolism (emphasis added):
“This is the first clinical trial focusing on the effect of the ginger supplement on the clinical manifestation, evaluated as the length of hospital stays, of hospitalized individuals with COVID-19. A significant improvement in hospitalization time was observed in response to the ginger supplement. One possible explanation for the observed beneficial effect of the ginger supplement on the length of stay in study participants could be the ginger-derived exosomal micro-RNA, which has been demonstrated to inhibit lung inflammation caused by COVID-19 in both in vitro and in vivo studies.”
Gingerols, so named because these compounds are uniquely found in ginger root, specifically, exert these anti-inflammatory effects.
Via Herbal Medicine: Biomolecular and Clinical Aspects (emphasis added):
“Ginger is not only an extremely popular dietary condiment used for flavoring food but also an herb that has been used for thousands of years as a medicinal herb to treat a variety of ailments. Chemical and metabolic analyses have revealed that ginger comprises hundreds of compounds and metabolites. The most extensively studied bioactive components include gingerols and shogaols, especially [6]-gingerol and [6]-shogaol, respectively….
Research data indicate that ginger and its constituents accumulate in the gastrointestinal tract, which supports the many observations of ginger’s effectiveness as an antinausea agent and as a possible colon cancer-preventing compound. Ginger acts as a potent antioxidant in vitro and ex vivo, but the data are not obvious for in vivo application and specific targets and mechanisms are lacking. Ginger appears to exert anti-inflammatory effects by suppressing COX-2 with subsequent inhibition of prostaglandin and leukotriene biosynthesis. On the other hand, the data supporting the effectiveness of ginger in alleviating pain and swelling associated with arthritis are somewhat conflicting. The most common use of ginger is to alleviate the vomiting and nausea associated with pregnancy, chemotherapy, and some types of surgery. The clinical data undoubtedly indicate that ginger is at least as effective, and may be better, than vitamin B6 in treating these symptoms. Again, mechanisms are lacking, but no reports indicate that ginger has any adverse side effects or that it can worsen illness in pregnant women or patients. Interest in ginger as an anticancer agent has markedly increased over the last few years and a direct protein target has been identified in colon cancer. Ginger also appears to reduce cholesterol and improve lipid metabolism*, thereby helping to decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.”
*As I have explored prior, the allegedly existential health threat posed by high cholesterol appears more and more conclusively every year to be pharmaceutical industry mythology, especially the direct correlation between high LDL levels and heart attack risk.
But improved lipid metabolism sounds great.
And so does not going to a hospital or any mainline health facility whatsoever for COVID-19, or dying from delicious Thai street MSG.
Ben Bartee is an independent Bangkok-based American journalist with opposable thumbs.
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