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by Annette Bromley

GINGER: THE SPICE FOR YOUR LIFE

Remember the story of "The Gingerbread Boy"
when you were a kid. That little cookie guy was in good shape, healthy, alert and very clever. He had a lot of zip, zest and zing. The reason may have been all that ginger he was made out of. Then again maybe it was just a story but this thought isn't all that far fetched.

Ginger, the spice for your life; commonly considered a spice, one of the spices, seasonings that are regularly found on your kitchen spice rack is actually a rhizome, a part of the stem of the ginger plant that grows just beneath the surface of the ground and sends out the roots and shoots of the plant to nourish and support it. It is edible and very good for you.

William Shakespeare once said, "Had I but a penny in the world, thou shouldst have it for gingerbread." He knew the value of ginger and he probably really liked it, enjoyed the flavor, and liked it as a seasoning in the foods he ate. The ancients believed that ginger was a cure-all for just about anything that might ail you and today science is proving that they were right, at least to a very high degree.

The rhizome of the ginger plant is a bulblike growth that is odd in shape in that it commonly has four branches or limbs and a knob like protrusion that the ancient ones thought resembled man; two arms, two legs and a head and they believed that when eaten, ginger protected the whole body, somehow magically.
It was common practice for these ancients to carry ginger with them wherever they went to protect them, heal them and bring them good fortunesuperstition, yes, but again not all that far fetched a conclusion on their part. They were actually onto something that was indeed factual. Research has proven this to be so and has long since promoted the use of ginger as being very healthy and good for you.

I remember as a child and repeating the practice with my own children, that the minute one of us appeared to be getting ill out came the bottle of ginger ale, ginger tea was made and served to us and there was a tonic that we took during the cold winter months and early spring that contained a goodly amount of ginger to help us ward off colds and flu and any other illness that hangs around that time of year. I didn't know it then but apparently it worked because we were seldom sick.
Grandma knew what she was doing.
She knew about a lot of things that folks considered folk medicine and old wives tales that have since been proven to be true. That is the way it

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