Ginger is beautiful. Ginger is special. Ginger radiates with health benefits. Ginger possesses chemicals that are magical for our bodies. If anyone in your life has ever proclaimed that magic did not exist, he or she was not educated about the health-promoting compounds in ginger. Let’s take a gander at why I am so excited to share with you why including dashes of ginger in your diet is a very wise idea.
Inflammation is our nefarious health enemy. Inflammation is associated with pain, a weakened immune system, chronic disease and obesity. Ginger contains unique anti-inflammatory compounds that are black belts at combating inflammation.
These anti-inflammatory compounds are known as gingerols and as the name suggests, they are unique to ginger. Gingerols have been shown to fight motion sickness as if they’ve been training for this job relentlessly. If dizziness, nausea, vomiting or cold sweating are symptoms you are familiar with in particular situations, ginger can be a handy friend of yours when you find yourself face to face with any of these nauseating symptoms.
In fact, ginger has been shown to fight seasickness far more effectively than Dramamine, a frequently use over-the-counter and prescription drug for motion sickness. And that horrible nausea and vomiting common among pregnant women? Ginger has been found to be a safe and effective remedy for that! Check this out:
A review of six studies with a total of 675 participants found that ginger has the ability to relieve severe cases of nausea and vomiting among pregnant women without any side effects, as opposed to medications, which frequently come with their own risks.
Gingerols have also been shown to battle arthritis, muscular discomfort, and the associated pain and/or swelling that often accompanies these conditions. Basically, ginger is AWESOME.
Why are gingerols so blissfully effective at battling these conditions? Studies have shown that gingerols provide substancial protection from free-radical damage and can inhibit the production of nitric oxide, a highly reactive nitrogen molecule that quickly forms a dangerous free-radical called peroxynitrite. Gingerols can also abolish pro-inflammatory compounds such as cytokines and chemokins that weaken our immune systems.
Okay now that you are aware of some quite remarkable properties of ginger, I want to share with you this absolutely fantastic cookie recipe I made yesterday. My taste buds have reported back to me that this is one of my better recipes. There is something about the coconut butter, molasses and ginger combination that makes these cookies rather extraordinary. They are gluten-free and as always, sugar-free. I love my date sugar, yooooo.
Rest assure, if you don’t possess spelt flour, oat flour, whole-wheat flour or even quinoa flour can be substituted. I do recommend using almond flour for this recipe because almonds are so good for us and it’s so terribly easy to prepare your own almond flour by simply grinding up almonds in a blender or coffee grinder. You can also purchase almond flour online or in most health food stores. The same applies for date sugar. It is ground up dried dates. That’s it!!
Now here’s the recipe…..
FYI: That’s almond flour I sprinkled on top of the cookies even though it looks like powdered sugar! Don’t worry, these cookies are plenty sweet without the use of any refined sugar.
Chewy Coconut Ginger Cookies Ingredients (makes 8-10 cookies):
1 cup almond flour
1 cup spelt flour (0r oat flour if you prefer gluten-free version)
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 and ½ cups date sugar
1 teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ cup molasses
½ cup coconut butter*
½ cup nondairy milk (I used So Delicious almond milk) but you can make your own nondairy milk!
*You can purchase coconut butter in most health food stores or you can learn to make your own by clicking HERE.
Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or tin foil and lightly grease paper/foil.
2) In a medium bowl, mix tougher almond flour, spelt flour, baking powder, date sugar, ginger, nutmeg and cloves.
3) Once the dry ingredients are mixed, in a separate bowl combine the molasses, coconut butter and nondairy milk either with a hand mixer or large spatula. Once mixed, slowly pour the wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry ingredients and continue to mix until the wet and dry ingredients are fully combined. The dough will be a bit dense, so you will need to mix it with your (clear) hands. Knead the dough with your hands and form it into one large ball of dough.
4) Using a large spoon scoop about three tablespoons worth of batter into your hands and roll it into a ball. Flatten the ball to create a cookie and place the cookie onto the baking sheet. Repeat this step until all of the cookies are formed.
5) Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes. They should cool off after about 15-20 minutes and will be ready for eating!
References:
1) Borrelli F, Capasso R, Aviello G, Pittler MH, Izzo AA. Effectiveness and safety of ginger in the treatment of pregnancy-induced nausea and vomiting. Obstet Gynecol. 2005 Apr;105(4):849-56. 2005. PMID:15802416.
2) Ensminger AH, Ensminger, ME, Kondale JE, Robson JRK. Foods & Nutriton Encyclopedia. Pegus Press, Clovis, California. 1983.
3) Ensminger AH, Esminger M. K. J. e. al. Food for Health: A Nutrition Encyclopedia. Clovis, California: Pegus Press; 1986. 1986. PMID:15210
4) Ippoushi K, Azuma K, Ito H, Horie H, Higashio H. [6]-Gingerol inhibits nitric oxide synthesis in activated J774.1 mouse macrophages and prevents peroxynitrite-induced oxidation and nitration reactions. Life Sci. 2003 Nov 14;73(26):3427-37.
5) Phan PV, Sohrabi A, Polotsky A, Hungerford DS, Lindmark L, Frondoza CG. Ginger extract components suppress induction of chemokine expression in human synoviocytes. J Altern Complement Med. 2005 Feb;11(1):149-54. 2005. PMID:15750374.
6) Srivastava KC, Mustafa T. Ginger (Zingiber officinale) in rheumatism and musculoskeletal disorders. Med Hypothesis 39(1992):342-8. 1992.
Peace, love and GINGER <3
Talia
