Herbal Teas for Morning Sickness
If your morning sickness is severe, even the smell of food can be nauseating. Ginger tea is very good at alleviating this symptom. Ginger, sheng jiang (生薑) in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), stimulates digestive enzymes in the pancreas, as well as increasing bile flow. It's also preventative for constipation that a lot of pregnant women tend to get later in their pregnancy. Studies have also shown that constituents in ginger may bind to a certain serotonin receptor, improving anxiety, as well as reducing nausea. So next time you're experiencing nausea, try this:
Peel off the outer layer of ginger (the peel actually used for a different function in TCM) and grind it
Boil a cup of water and put one tablespoon of the ground ginger and add desired amount of honey to taste
If you're experiencing symptoms during summer, and it's too hot to drink warm tea, you can also try cold ginger ale. Simmer 1 cup of sugar, 1 cup of filtered water, 1 cup of chopped ginger and 2 teaspoons of powdered ginger for about half an hour and steep without heat for an hour to create a super concentrated ginger syrup. Then, take a spoonful of this syrup and pour some sparkling water over this to make your own ginger-ale! You can also add lemon, lime, orange, or whatever flavor you'd like.
Bamboo shoots are often found in many different types of Asian cooking. Not only is it delicious in a dish but it's been known in TCM to mitigate morning sickness and prevent miscarriage. Bamboo shavings, or zhu ru (竹茹) in TCM, is a well-known herb to stop vomiting and stop cough and expel phlegm. Either the shoot or the shavings can be used in tea form for nausea. Where can you get these, you might ask? Your local Asian grocery store. If you're in California, go to your nearest Ranch 99, HMart, or any large Asian grocery store of your choice.
Get a fresh bamboo shoot (preferably not the canned kind) and thoroughly wash it. Add about 1 ounce of clean bamboo shoots to 16 ounces of water and boil. Simmer until about half the water is evaporated. Then drink!
Quince, or mu gua (木瓜), is another popular herb that's commonly used to aid digestion. I often like to drink quince tea in the winter for sore throats or just if I'm feeling under the weather. The organic acids in quince fruit attribute to the tarty flavor of quince and these acids can accelerate metabolism and stimulate release of digestive enzymes, which can help eliminate nausea.
Take a medium sized quince and thinly slice it. Submerge the sliced quince in honey and marinate for at least an hour. Take a slice and place it in a tea cup and pour boiling water over it and seep for 5-10 minutes. Then voila~ your tea is ready.
If you sometimes find yourself lazy, as I often do these days, and want to just get ready-made quince tea, you can find it at one of your local Asian grocery stores I talked about earlier (Ranch 99 or HMart). It will look something like this:
