Non-alcoholic ginger beer has some genuine health perks, mostly from ginger itself, but the high sugar content in most brands undercuts those benefits significantly. A single bottle can contain nearly as much sugar as a can of cola, which makes it more of an occasional treat than a health drink.
Whether ginger beer is “good for you” depends entirely on the brand you choose and how much you drink. Here’s what matters.
The Sugar Problem Is Real
The biggest strike against most ginger beers is sugar. Bundaberg Original packs 39.8 grams of sugar per bottle. Fever-Tree Premium contains 31 grams. For context, a 12-ounce can of Coca-Cola has about 39 grams. So the most popular ginger beers are essentially in the same ballpark as regular soda when it comes to added sugar.
Some brands sweeten with cane sugar, others with high fructose corn syrup. Fever-Tree uses cane sugar and real ginger, keeping the ingredient list short. Goslings has gone back and forth, with recent cans listing high fructose corn syrup as the second ingredient after carbonated water. Trader Joe’s and smaller craft brands like Dickie’s tend to use cane sugar. While cane sugar and corn syrup affect your body similarly in terms of calories and blood sugar spikes, a shorter ingredient list usually means fewer additives overall.
Diet versions exist. Bundaberg Diet drops the sugar to just 4.5 grams per bottle, which is a dramatic difference. If you’re drinking ginger beer regularly, this swap alone changes the health equation.
Ginger’s Benefits Are Backed by Evidence
The ginger in ginger beer is the reason people associate it with health benefits, and the science on ginger is solid. The active compounds in ginger root have well-documented anti-nausea effects. Clinical trials have shown that roughly 1 gram of ginger per day reduces nausea severity in both pregnant women and people undergoing chemotherapy, with statistically significant improvements in quality of life and fatigue.
Ginger also supports digestion more broadly. It helps food move through your stomach faster, which can ease bloating and that uncomfortable “too full” feeling after meals. This is why ginger tea and ginger-based drinks have been used for stomach trouble across cultures for centuries.
The catch: most commercial ginger beers contain far less actual ginger than you’d get from a therapeutic dose. A true brewed ginger beer, made by fermenting real ginger root over several days, will contain more ginger compounds than a mass-market brand that simply adds ginger flavoring to carbonated sugar water. Bundaberg, for example, brews each batch over three days using real Queensland ginger. Many ginger ales, by contrast, are just carbonated water flavored with ginger syrup and contain minimal actual ginger.
Brewed vs. Flavored: A Key Distinction
Not all ginger beers are created equal, and the manufacturing process matters. A traditionally brewed ginger beer starts with real ginger root and undergoes a fermentation process similar to beer brewing, which extracts more of the beneficial compounds from the ginger. Ginger ale, on the other hand, is typically just carbonated water with ginger-flavored syrup added after the fact.
If you’re choosing ginger beer partly for the ginger benefits, look at the ingredients. Real ginger or ginger root extract should appear near the top of the list. If “natural flavors” is the only ginger-related ingredient, you’re basically drinking flavored soda.
Watch Out for Your Teeth
Ginger beer is acidic, and that acidity is hard on tooth enamel. A study measuring the pH of 177 non-alcoholic beverages in Australia found that ginger beers ranged from a pH of 2.78 to 3.33. Anything below pH 3 is classified as “extremely erosive” to enamel, and several popular brands fell into that category. Bundaberg Diet came in at 2.99, and store-brand ginger beers tested even lower.
To put that in perspective, tooth enamel begins dissolving at a pH of about 5.5, and the rate of dissolution increases dramatically as pH drops. Sipping ginger beer slowly throughout the day is particularly damaging because it keeps your mouth in an acidic state for longer. If you do drink it, having it with a meal and rinsing with water afterward helps reduce the contact time between the acid and your teeth.
How Much Ginger Is Too Much
From the ginger side, you’re unlikely to overdo it with ginger beer alone. The UK’s Committee on Toxicity notes that very large doses of ginger, around 6 grams in one sitting, can irritate the stomach lining. Ginger also has mild blood-thinning properties. But commercial ginger beer contains far less ginger per serving than these thresholds, so the real health concern with overconsumption is the sugar and acid, not the ginger itself.
The Bottom Line on Ginger Beer
A brewed, low-sugar ginger beer made with real ginger is a reasonable choice if you’re looking for something more interesting than water and want mild digestive benefits. It’s a clear step up from regular soda in terms of ingredient quality, especially from brands that use real ginger root and cane sugar with no artificial additives.
But a full-sugar ginger beer consumed daily is not meaningfully healthier than any other sugary soft drink. The ginger benefits are real but modest, and they don’t cancel out 30 to 40 grams of added sugar per bottle. Your best bet is to choose a diet or low-sugar version from a brand that brews with real ginger, drink it in moderation, and treat the full-sugar versions as an occasional indulgence rather than a health food.