Is Ginger Beer Good for an Upset Stomach?

Ginger has genuine evidence behind it as a nausea remedy, but ginger beer is a poor way to deliver it. Most commercial ginger beers contain very little actual ginger, and the other ingredients in the bottle, particularly sugar and carbonation, can actively irritate an already unhappy stomach. If you are reaching for a ginger beer because your stomach hurts, you are banking on a real medicinal property of ginger while packaging it in a format that works against you.

What Ginger Actually Does to Your Gut

Ginger’s anti-nausea reputation is not folk wisdom running on fumes. The root contains a family of compounds called gingerols and shogaols that interact with receptors in the gut lining involved in triggering nausea and vomiting. Specifically, lab studies show that 6-gingerol and 6-shogaol block serotonin 5-HT3 receptors on gut neurons in a non-competitive way, meaning they dampen the receptor’s maximum response to serotonin rather than simply competing with it for a binding site.¹ These same 5-HT3 receptors are the target of ondansetron, one of the most widely prescribed anti-nausea drugs in hospitals. Gingerols also weakly inhibit muscarinic M3 receptors, which play a role in gut contraction and the sensation of queasiness.²

Beyond calming nausea signals, ginger speeds up the rate at which your stomach empties its contents into the small intestine. In healthy volunteers, taking ginger capsules roughly halved gastric emptying time compared to a placebo, cutting it from about 27 minutes to about 13 minutes.³ A similar acceleration appeared in people with functional dyspepsia, a chronic condition involving bloating and discomfort after meals.⁴ If your upset stomach involves that heavy, food-sitting-like-a-brick feeling, faster gastric emptying is exactly the kind of relief you want.

The Clinical Evidence for Ginger and Nausea

Studies on ginger for nausea have mostly used capsules or standardized extracts, not beverages. Still, the results across several types of nausea are encouraging enough to explain why people associate ginger with stomach relief.

The strongest evidence comes from pregnancy-related nausea. A meta-analysis of twelve randomized controlled trials involving nearly 1,300 pregnant women found that ginger significantly improved nausea symptoms compared to placebo, with sub-analyses suggesting that daily doses below 1,500 mg worked best for nausea relief.⁵ Another systematic review confirmed that ginger was more effective than placebo at reducing both the frequency of vomiting and the intensity of nausea, with side effects being mild and infrequent.⁶ A larger meta-analysis of complementary therapies also found ginger outperformed placebo on nausea scores, though its anti-vomiting effect was comparable to placebo.⁷

For motion sickness, ginger taken before exposure to nauseating stimuli reduced nausea and the abnormal stomach rhythms that accompany it, and also shortened recovery time once the stimulus stopped.⁸ A large clinical evaluation of a ginger extract for motion sickness found statistically significant reductions in symptom scores across repeated trips, with roughly a quarter to a third of participants showing clinically meaningful improvement.⁹

Chemotherapy-induced nausea presents a tougher challenge, but ginger shows promise there too. One systematic review found that ginger supplementation at doses up to a gram per day, taken for more than four days, reduced the odds of acute vomiting during chemotherapy by about 70% compared to controls.¹⁰ Another meta-analysis found that adding ginger capsules to standard anti-nausea drugs significantly reduced severe acute nausea and high-grade vomiting in cancer patients.¹¹

The evidence is not unanimous. One controlled trial using a balanced placebo design found no measurable effect of ginger on experimentally induced nausea, and no interaction between actually receiving ginger and being told you received it.¹² That study is a useful reality check: ginger is not a powerful drug, and the placebo component of feeling better after taking a “natural remedy” probably accounts for some of what people experience. But the weight of the meta-analytic evidence across pregnancy, motion sickness, and chemotherapy supports a genuine, if modest, pharmacological effect.

Why Ginger Beer Is Not the Same as Ginger

Here is the central problem. The clinical trials showing benefit use standardized ginger powder, extracts, or capsules containing known quantities of gingerols and shogaols, typically in the range of 250 mg to 1,500 mg of ginger per day. A bottle of commercial ginger beer is a different product entirely. Most brands are flavored carbonated soft drinks that use small amounts of ginger flavoring or extract, nowhere near the concentrations studied in trials. Some premium or craft brands use real ginger root, but even these rarely disclose how much ginger is in a serving, and the amount present after processing and dilution is almost certainly well below therapeutic thresholds.

Traditionally fermented ginger beer, the kind brewed at home with a ginger “bug” culture, contains more actual ginger. But commercially, that style has largely been replaced by manufactured versions that are closer to soda than to a ginger preparation. The label “ginger beer” tells you almost nothing about whether the bottle in your hand contains enough of the active compounds to matter.

The Carbonation Problem

Most ginger beers are heavily carbonated, and that fizz can make stomach trouble worse rather than better. Carbon dioxide gas distends the stomach, and studies show that carbonated beverages cause a sustained drop of 30 to 50 percent in lower esophageal sphincter pressure, the muscular barrier that keeps stomach acid from washing back up into the esophagus.¹³ In more than half the subjects in that study, the drop was large enough that the sphincter reached a level normally considered diagnostic of incompetence. Tap water, by comparison, caused no reduction at all.

A separate study confirmed that a carbonated beverage lowered sphincter pressure from a median of about 40.5 mmHg at baseline to 18.5 mmHg, and also more than tripled the frequency of transient relaxations of the sphincter, which are the events that allow acid reflux episodes.¹⁴ A systematic review of the evidence concluded that carbonated beverages may lead to a transient reduction in lower esophageal sphincter pressure.¹⁵

If your upset stomach involves acid reflux, heartburn, or any kind of burning sensation, carbonation is actively counterproductive. If it involves bloating, the added gas is the last thing you need. The situations where fizzy drinks might feel soothing, a vague sense of queasiness where a belch brings some temporary relief, are a narrow subset of what people mean by “upset stomach.”

Sugar Makes It Worse

Most commercial ginger beers are loaded with sugar. A typical bottle can contain 30 to 50 grams per serving, comparable to a regular cola. When your digestive system is already struggling, dumping a bolus of sugar into it creates additional problems. High-sugar drinks are hyperosmolar, meaning they draw water into the intestinal lumen by osmosis. In the context of gastroenteritis or diarrhea, this effect can actually make fluid loss worse. Pediatric gastroenteritis guidelines specifically discourage carbonated drinks and sweetened beverages because their high carbohydrate content, low electrolyte content, and high osmolarity can provoke osmotic diarrhea.¹⁶

Some “diet” or “sugar-free” ginger beers replace sugar with sugar alcohols like sorbitol or xylitol. These solve the calorie problem but introduce their own issue: sugar alcohols are notorious for causing gas, bloating, and osmotic diarrhea, especially in people not accustomed to them.¹⁷ If your stomach is already upset, these are exactly the kinds of poorly absorbed carbohydrates that will make you feel worse.

Alcoholic Ginger Beer Adds Another Layer

Some ginger beers are genuinely alcoholic, either through traditional fermentation or by blending ginger flavoring with an alcohol base. Alcohol content in fermented ginger beers varies widely, from trace amounts in home-brewed versions to several percent in commercial alcoholic varieties. Even modest amounts of alcohol interfere with gastric acid secretion and disrupt the normal muscular activity of the stomach wall.¹⁸ If you are already nauseous, alcohol is going to compound the problem. Check the label before assuming your ginger beer is a soft drink.

What Actually Works Better

If you want the benefits of ginger for an upset stomach, the most reliable approach is ginger in a form where you know how much you are getting and where the delivery vehicle is not working against you. Ginger capsules containing standardized extract are the format used in most clinical trials. Research suggests a daily dose under 1,500 mg, taken in divided portions, is the range associated with nausea relief.¹⁹

If capsules feel too medicinal, ginger tea made from fresh grated ginger root is a reasonable alternative. A thumb-sized piece of ginger steeped in hot water delivers a meaningful dose of gingerols without the sugar, carbonation, or mystery ingredients of a bottled product. You can control the sweetness and keep it minimal. Candied ginger is another option, though the sugar coating brings its own concerns if your issue is diarrhea rather than nausea alone.

For rehydration during a stomach bug, the proven choice is an oral rehydration solution with balanced electrolytes and glucose, not a soft drink. The instinct to reach for something fizzy and gingery when you feel sick is understandable, but it conflates two different goals: managing nausea and replacing lost fluids. A ginger capsule plus an oral rehydration drink addresses both goals better than ginger beer addresses either one.

Safety Considerations Worth Knowing

Ginger is broadly considered safe at the doses studied. In pregnancy trials, side effects were mild and infrequent, and ginger did not increase the risk of spontaneous abortion compared to either placebo or vitamin B6.⁵ That said, ginger is a potent inhibitor of thromboxane synthetase, an enzyme involved in blood clotting. This means it can theoretically prolong bleeding time and interact with blood-thinning medications like warfarin.²⁰ If you take anticoagulants, talk to your doctor before making ginger a regular part of your routine.

Some people also find that ginger causes heartburn, especially at higher doses. This is ironic for something used to settle the stomach, but ginger’s stimulation of gastric motility can backfire if you are prone to reflux. Starting with a lower dose and seeing how your body responds is a sensible approach.

The Expectation Effect

Part of why ginger beer “works” for some people is likely the power of expectation. The balanced placebo study mentioned earlier found that neither actually receiving ginger nor being told you received it made a significant difference to nausea outcomes in a lab setting.¹² That result does not wipe out the meta-analytic evidence, but it does suggest that in everyday life, the ritual of sipping something gingery when you feel sick, the familiar flavor, the association with feeling better, probably does some of the heavy lifting. There is nothing wrong with that. Placebo effects on nausea are real and clinically meaningful. But if the fizz and the sugar are making other aspects of your stomach trouble worse, the expectation benefit is an expensive trade.

If you want the psychological comfort of a ginger drink without the downsides, flat ginger tea with minimal sweetener gives you the taste and the aroma without introducing carbonation, excess sugar, or mystery ginger-flavoring quantities into an already irritated system. Your stomach will thank you for the downgrade from beer to tea.