Does ginger make you burn more calories and feel less hungry?
Ginger consumption enhances the thermic effect of food and promotes feelings of satiety without affecting metabolic and hormonal parameters in overweight men: a pilot study.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Total ghrelin (the 'hunger hormone') was numerically higher after ginger, even though participants felt less hungry.
Common belief: lower ghrelin = less hunger. Here, hunger dropped while ghrelin rose—suggesting ginger may blunt ghrelin’s effect on the brain, not reduce its production.
Practical Takeaways
Add 2g (about 1/2 tsp) of powdered ginger to your morning tea or oatmeal if you want to feel slightly less hungry after breakfast.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Surprising Findings
Total ghrelin (the 'hunger hormone') was numerically higher after ginger, even though participants felt less hungry.
Common belief: lower ghrelin = less hunger. Here, hunger dropped while ghrelin rose—suggesting ginger may blunt ghrelin’s effect on the brain, not reduce its production.
Practical Takeaways
Add 2g (about 1/2 tsp) of powdered ginger to your morning tea or oatmeal if you want to feel slightly less hungry after breakfast.
Publication
Journal
Metabolism: clinical and experimental
Year
2012
Authors
Muhammad S. Mansour, Yu-Ming Ni, Amy L. Roberts, M. Kelleman, A. Roychoudhury, M. St-Onge
Related Content
Claims (6)
One dose of ginger didn’t change blood sugar, insulin, fat levels, or inflammation markers after a meal in overweight men.
Oral ingestion of ginger powder (2–3 g) increases 24-hour energy expenditure in humans compared to placebo.
Adding a teaspoon of powdered ginger to a hot drink with breakfast might help the body burn a little extra calories after eating, compared to just drinking hot water.
People who ate ginger with their breakfast felt less hungry and thought they could eat less afterward, compared to when they didn’t have ginger.
Ginger slightly raised a hunger hormone called ghrelin after eating, but this wasn’t strong enough to be certain, and it didn’t change the active form of the hormone.