Ginger, fresh (allam)
Part used: root
The fresh rhizome — knobbly, tan-skinned, pale yellow and juicy inside. Sharp, lemony, warming. In Telugu cooking it is crushed into pesarattu batter, ground into allam pachadi (the ginger chutney that belongs with pesarattu), fried into popu for some curries, and boiled into tea. Young ginger has thin skin and little fibre; older ginger is hotter and stringier — scrape rather than peel to lose less.
Storage
Unwashed in a paper bag in the fridge vegetable drawer, three weeks. Or bury a piece in a pot of soil on the windowsill — it keeps, and may grow. Frozen whole, it grates easily and lasts months.
Substitutes
Dried ginger powder (sonti) at a quarter of the weight gives heat but not the fresh lemony note. No true substitute in allam pachadi.
Benefits
- Well-studied· 3 sources
Ginger eases nausea, including the nausea of early pregnancy.
This is one of the few kitchen remedies with a body of human trials behind it. A 2014 systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised trials (Viljoen et al.) found that ginger significantly improved nausea in pregnancy compared with placebo, did not significantly reduce the number of vomiting episodes (though there was a trend), and did not increase the risk of miscarriage, heartburn or drowsiness. Daily doses under 1,500 mg seemed to work best. NCCIH agrees that ginger "may be helpful" for pregnancy nausea, and adds that the evidence for motion sickness is mostly negative and for chemotherapy nausea is inconclusive.
So: a cup of allam tea for a queasy morning has real support. Ginger for seasickness or after chemotherapy does not, yet. The trials used capsules, syrups and teas of a few grams a day — a strong ginger tea is in the same range.
This is shared knowledge from tradition and research, not medical advice. Talk to your doctor before using any food to treat a condition.