Ginger’s Benefit of Lowering Glucose

 

    Ginger has been used in Asian cuisine for thousands of years. It has been liked not only for its flavor but also liked for its health benefits such as helping fight cold and flu.

 

    When family and friends asked me to help them find food strategies to manage hyperglycemia, which is a constant challenge for people with diabetes or prediabetes (Prediabetes is a  condition where blood sugar levels are higher than normal, but not high enough yet to be diagnosed as type 2 diabetes), I searched on PubMed. A few good review papers on glucose management surfaced and several foods were mentioned in those reviews. Ginger was one of the foods scientists had done studies on and found that it could help with glucose control.

 

    One review paper called ginger a traditional therapy for blood glucose control for people with diabetes. The authors searched PubMed and found 8 randomized studies using ginger as a dietary supplement. These studies included a total of 454 human subjects with diabetes. Combining all these study results, it was found that HbA1c, a measure for long-term glucose control, was significantly improved from the start to the endpoint in the ginger consumption group than that in the control group. The ginger supplementation was in the range of 1.6 to 4 g per day in these studies (1).

 

    Rats were fed high-fat and high-fructose diet to become pre-diabetic (a condition of obesity leading to diabetes), and they were either fed with or without ginger in the different treatment groups. After 8 months of the diet, the control rats showed insulin resistance that was measured by oral glucose tolerance test, hyperinsulinemia and hypertriglyceridemia, decreased insulin secretion in the pancreas, and increased lipid accumulation in the liver and oxidants in plasma. Ginger supplementation at 3% of the diet neutralized the high-fat high-fructose diet-induced glucose regulation impairment, dyslipidemia, and oxidative stress (2).

 

    Another study showed that 6-paradol, the major metabolite of 6-shogaol which was an active component of ginger, could significantly reduce blood glucose, cholesterol and body weight in high-fat diet-fed mice (3). At a dose of 500 mg/kg, raw ginger extract injection significantly lowered serum glucose, cholesterol and triacylglycerol levels in the ginger-treated diabetic rats compared with the control diabetic rats. The ginger treatment also resulted in a significant reduction in urine protein levels (4). Ginger exerted a protective effect against diabetes by modulating antioxidant enzymes and reducing lipid and protein oxidation in a dose-response manner in diabetic rats (5).

 

    A double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial was conducted on 20- to 60 -year-old patients with type 2 diabetes who did not receive insulin. Participants in the intervention and control groups were received 3 g of powdered ginger or placebo daily for 3 months (6). Comparison of the indices after 3 months showed that compared to those of the placebo group, the ginger group had significantly lowered serum glucose, HbA1c, insulin, insulin resistance, and oxidative stress markers such as malondialdehyde and C-reactive protein, as well as improved total antioxidant capacity.

 

    The extent of the differences in the changes (the end - the baseline) observed between the ginger and placebo groups were as follows: serum glucose (-19.41 ± 18.83 vs. 1.63 ± 4.28 mg/dL), HbA1c percentage (-0.77 ± 0.88 vs. 0.02 ± 0.16%), insulin (-1.46 ± 1.7 vs. 0.09 ± 0.34 μIU/mL), insulin resistance (-16.38 ± 19.2 vs. 0.68 ± 2.7), high-sensitive C-reactive protein (-2.78 ± 4.07 vs. 0.2 ± 0.77 mg/L), malondialdehyde (-0.85 ± 1.08 vs. 0.06 ± 0.08 µmol/L), and total antioxidant capacity (0.78 ± 0.71 vs. -0.04 ± 0.29 µIU/mL) (6).

 

    In a randomized double-blind placebo-controlled trial, 64 patients with type 2 diabetes were assigned to ginger or placebo groups (receiving 2 g per day). After 2 months, ginger supplementation significantly lowered the levels of insulin, LDL-cholesterol, triglyceride in comparison to those of the control group; while, there were no significant changes in fasting plasma glucose, total cholesterol, HDL-cholesterol and HbA1c (7).

 

    In another double-blinded placebo-controlled clinical trial, 70 type 2 diabetic patients were randomly given 1.6 gram ginger or placebo daily for 12 weeks. Ginger significantly reduced fasting plasma glucose, HbA1C, insulin, triglyceride, total cholesterol, and C-reactive protein compared with those of the placebo group. Ginger improved insulin sensitivity and lipid profile, and reduced C-reactive protein in type 2 diabetic patients (8).

 

    These scientific studies especially the double-blind placebo-controlled studies demonstrated that ginger at 1.6 to 3 gram per day dosing range could reduce plasma glucose and improve insulin sensitivity helping with glycemic control in diabetic humans. These findings showed that the 3-month supplementation of ginger lowered glucose, improved glycemic indices, insulin sensitivity, lipid profile and total antioxidant capacity in patients with type 2 diabetes (6-8). Therefore, ginger can be considered as an effective treatment for the prevention of diabetes complications.

 

    Fresh ginger is ~ 79% of water, so you may put that into the equation when you calculate how much ginger you may need for glucose control. You may learn about more health benefits of ginger: The Benefit of Ginger on Immune Function- Helping Fighting Flu and Viral Infection.

 

References:

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1. Huang FY, Deng T, Meng LX, Ma XL. Dietary ginger as a traditional therapy for blood sugar control in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Medicine (Baltimore). 2019. 98(13):e15054.

2. Saravanan N, Patil MA, Kumar PU, Suryanarayana P, Reddy. GB. Dietary ginger improves glucose dysregulation in a long-term high-fat high-fructose fed prediabetic rat model. Indian J Exp Biol. 2017. 55(3):142-50.

3. Wei CK, Tsai YH, Korinek M, Hung PH, El-Shazly M, Cheng YB, Wu YC, Hsieh TJ, Chang FR. 6-Paradol and 6-Shogaol, the Pungent Compounds of Ginger, Promote Glucose Utilization in Adipocytes and Myotubes, and 6-Paradol Reduces Blood Glucose in High-Fat Diet-Fed Mice. Int J Mol Sci. 2017. 18(1). pii: E168.

4. Al-Amin ZM1, Thomson M, Al-Qattan KK, Peltonen-Shalaby R, Ali M. Anti-diabetic and hypolipidaemic properties of ginger (Zingiber officinale) in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats. Br J Nutr. 2006. 96(4):660-6.

5. Kota N1, Panpatil VV, Kaleb R, Varanasi B, Polasa K. Dose-dependent effect in the inhibition of oxidative stress and anticlastogenic potential of ginger in STZ induced diabetic rats. Food Chem. 2012. 135(4):2954-9.

6. Shidfar F, Rajab A, Rahideh T, Khandouzi N, Hosseini S, Shidfar S. The effect of ginger (Zingiber officinale) on glycemic markers in patients with type 2 diabetes. J Complement Integr Med. 2015. 12(2):165-70.

7. Mahluji S1, Attari VE, Mobasseri M, Payahoo L, Ostadrahimi A, Golzari SE. Effects of ginger (Zingiber officinale) on plasma glucose level, HbA1c and insulin sensitivity in type 2 diabetic patients. Int J Food Sci Nutr. 2013. 64(6):682-6.

8. Arablou T1, Aryaeian N, Valizadeh M, Sharifi F, Hosseini A, Djalali M. The effect of ginger consumption on glycemic status, lipid profile and some inflammatory markers in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Int J Food Sci Nutr. 2014. 65(4):515-20.