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A long time ago all colas were sold as medicine. I suspect that giving kids with a upset stomach cola is a faint cultural echo of those times, with each parent
by ashtonkem 5y ago
A long time ago all colas were sold as medicine. I suspect that giving kids with a upset stomach cola is a faint cultural echo of those times, with each parent teaching their kids that soda is a cure for upset stomachs even though they took out the cocaine that might do something a century ago. Interestingly in my house the drink used for this was ginger ale.
That being said, the placebo effect is strong. When I was a little kid, I was only allowed to move from bed to the couch once I’d turned the corner on my illness but wasn’t yet ready to go back to school. To this day I move to the couch when sick, and it makes me feel better even though the only plausible mechanism is my own head. I bet a lot of colas given for upset stomachs are in the same category.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y agoGinger actually does have noted positive effects on nausea and stomach upset, so ginger ale could presumably help.
- Auracle 5y agoThe common ginger ale brands contain no ginger.
- smegger001 5y agothats why i brew my own lacto fermented ginger beer/ale from scratch. the flavor is way better than anything in the store. I particularly like brewing ginger ale/ginger beers with molasses. it taste like gingersnaps.
- AnIdiotOnTheNet 5y agoAre you sure about that? What do you consider the common brands? The one that most immediately comes to mind for me is Canada Dry, which does contain ginger extract.
- ashtonkem 5y agoOut of curiosity I checked, and Canada Dry is about 2% ginger extract. I’m not sure what the ideal percentage of ginger should be, but that seems kind of low. Given that they’ve been sued over this before, I suspect that this might be just enough extract to cover their behinds. My go to brand, Seagram’s, contains “natural flavors”. Content and concentration unspecified.
- Auracle 5y agoThe ginger extract is in the "less than 2% of" category. I found this: "They do buy actual ginger, but then what they do is they boil it in ethanol, and that essentially destroys any nutritional or medicinal benefits," Mark Canofari said, adding that Canada Dry uses a ginger concentrate. "One drop fills 70 cans [...] and a drop is .05 ml. So that's how little, even of the concentrate, is actually in one drink." https://www.foodandwine.com/news/ginger-ale-canada-dry-medicine-settlement https://www.foodandwine.com/news/ginger-ale-canada-dry-medic...