Interested in the effects of diet on your health? Here you will find articles in the category diet and food. With diet we include ingredients used in ordinary cooking, herbs, natural plants, beverages and other dishes.

Ginger reduces exercise-induced muscle pain.

Ginger - Natural painkiller

Ginger reduces exercise-induced muscle pain.

Ginger can reduce pain and reduce exercise-induced muscle pain. The pain-reducing effect is obtained by consuming raw or heat-treated ginger. This shows a study published by Black et al in the Journal of Pain in 2010.

 

Ginger - now also proven effect on humans

Ginger has previously shown anti-inflammatory effects in animal studies, but its effect on human muscle pain has previously been uncertain. It has also been suggested that heat treatment of ginger will make it extra pain relieving, but this is refuted in this study - as the effect was just as great when consuming raw or heat-treated ginger.

 

Studies

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of ginger intake over 11 days and its effect on reported muscle pain. The randomized, double-blind study was divided into 3 groups;

(1) Raw ginger

(2) Heat treated ginger

(3) Placebo

The participants in the first two groups ate 2 grams of ginger a day for 11 consecutive days. They also had to perform 18 eccentric exercises with the elbow flexors to stimulate an overload - which caused local pain and inflammation. Pain levels and several other variable factors (effort, prostaglandin level, arm volume, range of motion and isometric strength) were measured before and 3 days after the exercises.

 

Results from the study: Ginger is a natural painkiller

Both group 1 and group 2 achieved similar results when it came to pain relief in affected muscle compared to the placebo group. The conclusion was that ginger is a natural painkiller that can be beneficial to take daily. In the past, it has also been proven that Ginger can reduce brain damage by ischemic stroke. Positive findings have also been made when it comes to pain relief from arthritis pain.

 

Skeletal muscle - Photo Wikimedia

 

Ginger tea or thai curry

If you are not too fond of raw ginger, then we suggest that you make tea with ginger and lime - or possibly cut it into small pieces and add it to a good green Thai curry or similar.

We would love to hear from you in the comments section if you have any good suggestions for natural diet or recipes.

 

 

 

Green tea - a natural treatment for white, healthy teeth.

Green tea - a natural treatment for white, healthy teeth.

Green tea can give you white, healthy teeth. Tea drinking is not associated with beautiful white teethto popular opinion - but research shows that drinking green tea actually leads to healthier gums and less stains on the teeth. The study was conducted by Kushiyama et al in 2009, where they concluded the following in their results:

 

«The intake of green tea was inversely correlated with the mean PD, mean clinical AL, and BOP. In multivariate linear regression models, every one cup / day increment in green tea intake was associated with a 0.023-mm decrease in the mean PD (P <0.05), a 0.028-mm decrease in the mean clinical AL (P<0.05), and a 0.63% decrease in BOP (P <0.05), after adjusting for other confounding variables.«

 

PD (periodontal disease) means gum disease, and as we see, one cup a day led to a statistically significant effect onto decrease gum problems - and as we know, gum problems can lead to discoloration of the teeth, bleeding in the mouth and other adverse effects. These results thus led the researchers to conclude with the following:

 

«There was a modest inverse association between the intake of green tea and periodontal disease. »

 

In a recent study in 2013 (Lombardo et al), it was concluded that the active ingredients in grEye tea leads to less plaque coating, which in turn can consistently lead to less discoloration of the teeth.

 

We have previously referred to studies that show that grIsland tea prevents colds and flu. So if you do not drink green tea once in a while, we recommend that you try it out - or check out these green tea supplements below:

 

Green Tea Supplements - Photo Optimum

Green tea supplement - Photo Optimum

 

- The package contains premium green tea, and the brand involved sends to Norway. You can read more (or order) via the link here:

Higgins & Burke Tea, Green, 20 Count (click here!)

 

 

Sources:

- Kushiyama et al. Relationship Between Intake of Green Tea and Periodontal Disease. Journal of Periodontology, 2009; 80 (3): 372, http://www.joponline.org/doi/abs/10.1902/jop.2009.080510.

- TB Lombardo Bedran, K. Feghali, L. Zhao, DM Palomari Spolidorio and D. Grenier. (2013) Green tea extract and its major constituent, epigallocatechin-3-gallate, induce epithelial beta-defensin secretion and prevent beta-defensin degradation by Porphyromonas gingivalis. Journal of Periodontal Research, n / an / a.