INGREDIENTS

Ginger Root: What It Actually Does in Your Body

By Valerie Wright  *  Updated: April 16th, 2026

Ginger root contains compounds called gingerols that help your stomach empty faster, quiet down inflammatory signaling, and may support blood sugar balance in people with type 2 diabetes. The effects depend on form, dose, and how much heat the ginger has been exposed to.

What Gingerols and Shogaols Actually Are

The pungent bite in fresh ginger comes from a family of compounds called gingerols. The most studied is 6-gingerol, which makes up the largest share of active compounds in raw ginger root.¹


When ginger is dried, heated, or cooked, 6-gingerol loses a water molecule and converts into a related compound called 6-shogaol. This matters because the two behave differently in your body. Comparative studies show 6-shogaol has stronger anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects than 6-gingerol, likely because its chemical structure makes it more reactive with the molecules that drive inflammation.²


Fresh ginger contains very little shogaol. Drying can increase shogaol content from roughly 0.09 mg/g in fresh root to 0.2 to 0.4 mg/g in dried ginger.³ So the form of ginger you consume changes which compounds you're actually getting.

How Ginger Affects Digestion

Ginger's best-supported effect in humans is on how fast your stomach moves food along. In a double-blind study of 24 healthy volunteers, 1,200 mg of ginger capsules cut the time it took for the stomach to empty by roughly half compared to placebo (13.1 minutes vs. 26.7 minutes) and increased the frequency of stomach contractions.⁴


A follow-up study in 11 patients with chronic indigestion found a similar pattern. The stomach emptied faster after ginger (12.3 minutes vs. 16.1 minutes), with a trend toward more frequent stomach contractions.⁵


The exact mechanism is still being studied. Neither trial found changes in the gut hormones that typically regulate stomach movement. Researchers suspect ginger acts directly on smooth muscle or on serotonin receptors in the gut, since both gingerols and shogaols block a specific serotonin receptor involved in nausea signaling.¹


In practical terms, this means ginger may help food move through the stomach more efficiently. For people who feel heavy or bloated after meals, that's a meaningful effect. But the studies are small (11 to 24 people), and the doses used (1,200 mg as capsules) are higher than what most people get from fresh ginger in cooking.

Ginger and Nausea: What the Evidence Actually Shows

Ginger's anti-nausea reputation has the most clinical data behind it, but the results are more nuanced than most wellness content suggests.


For pregnancy-related nausea, a review of 12 randomized trials involving 1,278 women found ginger significantly improved nausea symptoms compared to placebo, but did not significantly reduce actual vomiting episodes.⁶ Lower daily doses (under 1,500 mg) appeared to work better.


For chemotherapy-related nausea, the evidence is mixed. A 2022 review of 23 trials found ginger showed a trend toward reducing vomiting, but the overall difference wasn't statistically significant. One finding stood out: doses of 1 g or less per day, taken for more than four days, reduced acute vomiting by 70% compared to control groups.⁷


A 2024 trial of 103 chemotherapy patients found that adding ginger to standard anti-nausea medication improved quality of life, reduced delayed nausea, and lowered fatigue.⁸

 

"Ginger significantly improved the symptoms of nausea when compared to placebo." ⁶

 

The takeaway: ginger appears to help with the feeling of nausea more reliably than it prevents vomiting. It works best at moderate doses (500 to 1,500 mg daily) and seems more effective when taken consistently over several days rather than as a one-time fix.

How Ginger Calms Inflammation

Ginger's ability to reduce inflammation is well-documented in lab research, with growing support from human trials. The primary mechanism: ginger compounds interfere with the same inflammatory messaging system that drugs like ibuprofen target.²


6-Shogaol in particular has been shown to reduce immune cell buildup in inflamed tissue, decrease swelling, and lower the production of compounds that amplify pain and inflammation.² In one lab study using human blood vessel cells, shogaol completely stopped immune cells from sticking to vessel walls under conditions mimicking blood flow. At the same concentration, gingerol had no effect.⁹


In human studies, a pooled analysis of multiple trials found that ginger supplementation significantly reduced a blood marker of bodywide inflammation that doctors use to assess chronic disease risk.¹⁰ The effects were strongest in people with type 2 diabetes.


The honest limitation: most of the detailed mechanism work comes from cell and animal studies. The human trials use supplemental doses (typically 1 to 3 g/day of dried ginger powder), which deliver more concentrated compounds than you'd get from a piece of fresh ginger. Whether the amounts in a blended drink or stir-fry produce the same effect at the cellular level is still an open question.

How Processing Changes What You Get

The form of ginger determines which compounds dominate and how your body responds.

Form Dominant Compounds Fiber Retained Best For
Fresh raw root 6-Gingerol (highest) Yes (~2 g/100 g) Gastric motility, whole-food nutrition
Dried powder 6-Shogaol (converted by heat) Minimal Anti-inflammatory potency, concentrated dosing
Juice or extract Mixed gingerols (variable) No Fast absorption, flavoring
Blended (whole root) 6-Gingerol (preserved, minimal heat) Yes (full plant matrix) Daily intake with fiber, sustained digestion

Fresh ginger root retains most of its gingerol content and provides about 2 g of dietary fiber per 100 g. It also holds onto water-soluble vitamins and minerals (notably potassium and manganese) that break down with aggressive processing.


Dried ginger powder concentrates calories (335 kcal per 100 g vs. 80 kcal for fresh) and converts a large share of gingerols into shogaols through heat exposure. That makes dried ginger a more potent source of anti-inflammatory compounds, but it loses the fiber and most of the water content.


Ginger juice or extract pulls out the soluble compounds but strips away the plant material entirely. This can speed up absorption but eliminates the fiber that supports blood sugar balance and digestive regularity.


Blended ginger, where the whole root is processed with liquid and nothing is removed, preserves the fiber, the gingerols (since blending generates less heat than drying), and the full mineral profile. The tradeoff is a milder pungency compared to concentrated extracts.

Blood Sugar: Promising but Early

Ginger's effects on blood sugar have attracted significant research interest, particularly in people with type 2 diabetes. A 2018 pooled analysis of 10 trials (490 participants) found that ginger supplementation significantly reduced fasting blood sugar by about 21 mg/dL and lowered a key marker of long-term blood sugar control by 1.0 percentage point in diabetic patients.¹⁰


Those numbers sound impressive, but context matters. A 2024 analysis was more conservative, finding no significant overall effect on fasting blood sugar or long-term blood sugar markers.¹¹ The discrepancy likely reflects differences in which studies were included and how strictly they were filtered.


The honest read: ginger supplementation shows a signal for blood sugar improvement in people who already have elevated levels. In people with normal blood sugar, the effect appears negligible. And the doses studied (1,600 to 4,000 mg daily of ginger powder) are well above what you'd get from a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger in your morning routine.

Who It Works For (and Who Should Be Careful)

Ginger is well-tolerated by most people at culinary and moderate supplemental doses. Clinical trials consistently report minimal side effects. The most common complaints are mild heartburn, burping, and stomach discomfort, usually at higher doses.


People who may benefit most from regular ginger intake: those dealing with occasional nausea, sluggish digestion, or post-meal bloating. The effect on stomach emptying is the most reproducible finding in healthy adults.


People who should approach ginger cautiously: those on blood-thinning medications (ginger has mild blood-thinning properties), anyone scheduled for surgery (stop supplemental doses 1 to 2 weeks before), and people taking diabetes medications (the blood sugar effects could stack).


Pregnant women can use ginger for nausea at doses up to 1,500 mg/day based on the available trial data, but should check with their healthcare provider about form and duration.

Why We Use Ginger Root in Our Blends

Sunrise Blends includes raw ginger root in our HeartBeets Grab-N-Go line because it pairs well with turmeric and peppercorn for absorption and because the digestive benefits support the whole-food fiber that makes our blends different from juices and powders.


Both Berry Breeze and Ginger Kick contain 8 g of fresh turmeric alongside ginger root, avocado oil, and peppercorns. The ginger contributes its gingerols in whole-food form, with the fiber and plant material intact, because we blend rather than extract.


We don't make therapeutic claims about the ginger in our products. The amounts are dietary, not supplemental. But consistent daily intake of whole-food ginger, as part of a fiber-rich routine, fits the evidence patterns described above.

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Sources cited in this article:

  1. Semwal RB, Semwal DK, Combrinck S, Viljoen AM. Gingerols and shogaols: Important nutraceutical principles from ginger. Phytochemistry. 2015;117:554-568.
  2. Ballester P, Cerdá B, Arcusa R, et al. Benefits of Ginger and Its Constituent 6-Shogaol in Inhibiting Inflammatory Processes. Pharmaceuticals. 2021;14(6):495.
  3. Kou X, et al. Review of the anticancer properties of 6-shogaol. Food Science & Nutrition. 2024;12(5):3085-3102.
  4. Wu KL, Rayner CK, Chuah SK, et al. Effects of ginger on gastric emptying and motility in healthy humans. European Journal of Gastroenterology & Hepatology. 2008;20(5):436-440.
  5. Hu ML, Rayner CK, Wu KL, et al. Effect of ginger on gastric motility and symptoms of functional dyspepsia. World Journal of Gastroenterology. 2011;17(1):105-110.
  6. Viljoen E, Visser J, Koen N, Musekiwa A. A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effect and safety of ginger in the treatment of pregnancy-associated nausea and vomiting. Nutrition Journal. 2014;13:20.
  7. Effects of Ginger Intake on Chemotherapy-Induced Nausea and Vomiting: A Systematic Review of Randomized Clinical Trials. Nutrients. 2022;14(23):4982.
  8. Crichton M, Marshall S, Isenring E, et al. Effect of a Standardized Ginger Root Powder Regimen on Chemotherapy-Induced Nausea and Vomiting. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. 2024;124(3):313-330.
  9. Luettig J, Rosenthal R, Lee IM, et al. Ginger Constituent 6-Shogaol Inhibits Inflammation- and Angiogenesis-Related Cell Functions in Primary Human Endothelial Cells. Frontiers in Pharmacology. 2022;13:844767.
  10. Zhu J, Chen H, Song Z, et al. Effects of Ginger on Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Components of the Metabolic Syndrome: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials. Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine. 2018;2018:5692962.
  11. Schumacher JC, Mueller V, Sousa C, et al. The effect of oral supplementation of ginger on glycemic control of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Clinical Nutrition ESPEN. 2024;63:615-622.

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