Is Ginger Ale Good for Nausea? Here’s What Experts Say.

Caroline Tien
·6 min read

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When you’re feeling queasy, you might head to your fridge for a can of ginger ale with the hope that the fizzy drink can ease your nausea and soothe your upset stomach. And there’s good reason for that optimism: Unlike many other folk remedies, ginger has some solid science behind it and “has been used in a lot of different cultures for a very long time” to treat nausea, Dalina Soto, MA, RD, founder of Nutritiously Yours and Your Latina Nutritionist, tells SELF.

But what about ginger ale? Might a can of Schweppes, Canada Dry, or Seagram’s do the same for tummy turbulence? SELF spoke with several experts to find out.

What makes ginger effective for nausea and vomiting?

You might know ginger best as the knobby root-like part of the plant that can be sliced up to add a pungent note to your dinner, but it has many other functions as well. Like Soto said, the herb—which is native to the humid forests of Southeast Asia—has a millennia-long history as a medical treatment in countries like India and China. While it has historically been used to manage a wide range of issues, including arthritis, migraine, high blood pressure, and the common cold, it might be most famous for purportedly easing nausea and vomiting, regardless of whether the cause is surgery, chemotherapy, pregnancy, or motion sickness.

And research backs that up. A 2020 review published in Nutrients analyzed 109 clinical trials and concluded that a majority found ginger beneficial for nausea, vomiting, and other conditions. “Particularly in regards to nausea, you’re seeing some significant effects,” Taylor Wallace, PhD, a food scientist who holds positions at Tufts University and George Washington University, tells SELF.

So what’s behind that benefit? Two types of bioactive compounds are often credited: gingerols, which are primarily found in fresh ginger, and shogaols, which are most abundant in the dried stuff. Both bring an array of pharmacological perks, including antioxidant activity. What’s more, some research suggests they may act directly on receptors in your stomach, which might more directly explain their stomach-soothing properties, Thanh Thanh Nguyen, MS, RDN, a registered dietitian at Mendinground Nutrition, tells SELF. This can “affect what kind of hormones are released and how our digestive system feels overall," Nguyen says. (The compounds are also largely responsible for ginger’s characteristic “spicy-ish flavor,” she says.)

As for how much ginger you need to trigger these perks? The sweet spot appears to be between one and 1.5 grams—1,000 to 1,500 milligrams. And no, this is not a case where more is better: Taking greater than 6 g (6,000 mg) of ginger in a day can actually cause GI distress, including reflux, heartburn, and diarrhea.

So will drinking a commercial ginger ale help?

It likely depends on how much ginger and gingerol your drink contains, experts say.

The content obviously varies from brand to brand, but we were able to dig up some clues based on the nutrition information available online. According to the Canada Dry label, one 12-ounce can contains “less than 2% of ginger extract.” On the other hand, the Seagram’s nutrition label asserts it contains “ginger extract with other natural flavors,” but doesn’t provide any other info regarding the amount—and the terms “ginger” or “ginger extract” don’t appear on the Schweppes label. (SELF reached out to the parent companies of each brand on October 14 for more information; Keurig Dr Pepper, which owns Canada Dry and Schweppes, declined to provide any specifics about either formula, citing confidentiality reasons, and the Coca-Cola Company, which owns Seagram’s, didn’t respond before publication.)

Basically, most mainstream ginger ale brands are going to contain a “very, very minimal amount” of real ginger, Nguyen says. In other words, she explains, “the amount of active ingredients, of gingerols, within the ginger ale probably is not [sufficient] to bring about that relief” observed in studies. Soto puts it more bluntly: “When it comes to ginger ale itself, it doesn't have enough.”

But there’s another ginger ale component that could actually have a positive effect: the fizziness. If your nausea is caused by bloating or built-up gas, the bubbles in ginger ale (or any other soft drink) could help, according to Nguyen. “Some people find that having that carbonation helps them burp and then that alleviates the discomfort,” Nguyen explains. In fact, Soto is one of them. “I know from [my] experience being pregnant and literally throwing up multiple times a day that carbonation suits the stomach,” she says. Other people, however, might find that the bubbles only makes their nausea worse by increasing their already formidable gas load, so taking a chance is a toss-up.

Then, of course, there’s the good ol’ placebo effect. It’s possible that drinking ginger ale when you’re feeling sick to your stomach could offer some relief, even if the contents of the beverage have nothing to do with that outcome. If “you’re expecting to feel better because you're taking ginger and that’s supposed to help, just that thought [alone] can alleviate a lot of the discomfort and the nausea,” Nguyen says.

Say, for instance, your mom gave it to you when you were a kid and you felt comforted after drinking it. “Likely, as an adult, when you consume that, whether it’s ginger ale or Sprite or whatever, it takes you back and makes you feel better,” Dr. Wallace says.

So what should you do if you’re feeling nauseous or pukey?

If you like the taste of ginger but want an option that provides more punch, you can always opt for a product other than ginger ale, like ginger tea, ginger candy, a ginger chew, or a ginger lozenge. “These things are more helpful, just because you’re more likely to get more of that concentrated gingerol in there,” Nguyen says. Essentially, you’ll get more bang for your buck. And in the case of a hot drink like ginger tea, she adds, “a lot of people find the temperature—the warmth—really helps soothe the nausea as well.”

And if you’re craving that unique blend of spice and fizziness that only ginger ale can provide? That’s all right too—even if your drink doesn’t contain enough of the good stuff to officially make a difference. “I think it's important to understand that when you're sick you just want to be comforted, so you got to do what’s going to make you feel better,” Soto says. “And if that's ginger ale, that’s okay.”

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Originally Appeared on SELF

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