Garlic – The Benefits Don’t Stink!
No-one has really told me as such, but I’m sure I reek of garlic. My friends I think are sick of me recommending garlic as a remedy for any health problem. Got a cold? Have some garlic. Sore throat? Lots of garlic. Cold sore? Garlic! Lacking energy? Eat garlic! I have friends who go to the doctor at the drop of a hat and get antibiotics for a drippy nose. A drippy nose! I say eat garlic and go sleep it off. Obviously your body is telling you something… anyway this is not about quacks – its about garlic.
Garlic!
I love the smell of garlic. I put garlic in nearly all my food. I like mixing up a bit of cottage cheese, horseradish and crushed garlic for a tasty snack. Keeps all kinds of unwanted things away! Garlic (along with onion) is one of the most flavorsome natural foods that is easily available. But its not that cheap! If I buy locally grown garlic, it can cost about 75c a head! But if I buy a bag (10 heads) of Chinese garlic, that costs me about 30c. Go figure! One thing about the Chinese garlic is that has been fumigated with formaldehyde – which ain’t good news! But I figure the potency of garlic will outweigh the negative effects of formaldehyde so… I just can’t afford to buy locally grown garlic at the rate I consume it! Perhaps I should grow it…
Anyway, garlic! The benefits are numerous. Now my theories are just based on my experience. For coldsores, I’ve tried creams and pills to help heal them, but after years and years of coldsores and creams that make them WORSE, garlic is the only true remedy that kicks them every time. If I have a cold, I’ll up my garlic intake and feel better pretty quickly. But like I said, its just based on personal experience. So I did a bit of research and found out a whole lot of cool things about garlic.
1) Garlic lowers bad cholesterol. This is quite an amazing fact. How many natural things lower cholesterol? Well only really a combination of foods – like decreasing fatty foods and whatnot. So for this fact, I would consider garlic a wonder-drug!
2) Back in 1500BC, the Egyptians were using garlic to treat tumours. Wow – I find that pretty amazing. Garlic is an anti-cancer drug. Garlic attacks the cancer cells and boosts the immune system in order to help the body fight the cancer on its own.
3) Garlic is a natural antibiotic. I don’t know about you, but I hate antibiotics. They destroy the immune system. While they might attack the infections or whatever, they don’t do anything for your immune system. Now garlic is different! Yes it helps attack the infections, but at the same time it boosts the immune system. Benjamin Lau conducted a study on mice who had Candida – he injected the mice with a garlic solution and within 2 days they were free of Candida. Aaaamazing.
4) Skin problems. I’ve never tried it, but apparently rubbing garlic on zits a few times a day helps them disappear really quickly. Might try it! It also helps for infections and things like boils, acne, and other spots.
I could go on and on and on. There seem to be so many benefits of garlic – digestive system repair, blood pressure stabilization, reduced risk of heart disease, stroke, and a whole host of other awesome things. Now garlic can be taken either in powdered form, oil form, fresh – raw or cooked. When cooking, crush or press it, wait for 10 minutes, then add it to food. The waiting allows all the benefits to fully develop. I like to add a bit of garlic when sauteeing onions, and then a bit more right at the end of cooking for that extra kick. A lot of people don’t like the side effects of garlic – bad breath, smelly sweat etc – so crunching some raw parsley or fennel seeds could help this. Garlic is also a little bit hard to eat if you’re at work – but try and get everyone into it so everyone’s sense of smell is numbed! Apparently people in Korea and other Asian countries eat between 8-10 cloves of garlic a day. Thats insane! But hey if it keeps you healthy… I’m definitely going to keep cooking with garlic – and probably will try to include a whole lot more garlic into my diet – especially during the winter months when immune systems go way down. Try cooking with garlic – you might see a change in your health!
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Comment by Antonio
4 December 2008
Since 8 years ago I have been using garlic every morning for my breakfast, and I fill relly good. Before I started taking garlic, sometimes I used to have feintnes, and fill not very good.
The way I take it and i don’t event notice that i taking it, because as you know it’s a prety hot herb. In the morning I eat it for my frakfast including with cerials and something else. I make myself a whole wead toast and put on it about a spoon fool of olive oil, that is very good too. After I put elittle jam over the toast, (any kind is ok). then I cut in very small litle pieces 2 garlic clobs, and spread it all over the toast. Then you can it it by it self or acompany with a piece of fruit and you will not even notice it