Kitchen Cures

By Rachel Johnson, Ph.D, M.P.H., R.D., September/October 2009

5 home remedies for common ailments—do they work?

READER'S COMMENT:

"I agree w/ the ginger for nausea, but ginger ale soda is NOT the way to get it. Ginger ale soda does NOT usually even contain "real" ginger, but flavoring. Go to a local Jamaican/Caribbean market or restaurant and get Ginger Beer (...

"Let food be your medicine, and your medicine be food."

I’m happy to know that when I turn to ginger for motion sickness or cranberry juice to prevent UTIs, I’ve got some scientific evidence standing behind me. But even in the absence of rigid scientific proof, I’m not opposed to trying the occasional food cure, if it sounds sensible and uses real foods in reasonable amounts. As the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates said, “Let food be your medicine, and your medicine be food.”

Rachel K. Johnson, an EatingWell Advisory Board member, is a professor and associate provost at the University of Vermont.