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What is Garlic?
Garlic is one of the most valuable and versatile foods on the planet. Garlic, Latin name Allium sativum, belongs to the onion family Alliaceae including shallots, and leek. Garlic has been used throughout recorded history for both medicinal and culinary purposes. The garlic bulb is divided into sections called cloves.
Elephant garlic or Russian garlic is a variant of the species leek and not considered a true garlic. It has a tall, solid, flowering stalk and broad, flat leaves much like those of the leek, but forms a bulb consisting of very large, garlic like cloves.
Is Garlic Good for You?
Today garlic is a widely recognized health enhancing supplement. Garlic promotes the well-being of the heart and immune systems with antioxidant properties and helps maintain healthy blood circulation. One of garlic’s most potent health benefits includes the ability to enhance the body’s immune cell activity.
The active component in garlic is the sulfur compound called allicin. Allicin is the chemical produced when garlic is chopped, chewed, or bruised. Allicin is quite powerful as an antibiotic and a potent agent that helps the body to inhibit the ability of germs to grow and reproduce. In fact, it’s said that 1 milligram of allicin has a potency of 15 standard units of penicillin.
There are now over 12 studies published around the world that confirm that garlic can reduce cholesterol.
Recently researchers in Oxford and America have published some summaries of all the good data on garlic. Garlic is known to stimulate T-lymphocyte and macrophage action, promote interleukin-1 levels, and support natural killer cells. Strong activity of these key cells promotes healthy immune system function, and strengthens the body’s defenses.
History of Garlic
Garlic was rare in traditional English cuisine (though it is said to have been grown in England before 1548), and has been a much more common ingredient in Mediterranean Europe.
Garlic Facts
Garlic has germanium in it. Germanium is an anti-cancer agent, and garlic has more of it than any other herb. In lab tests, mice fed garlic showed no cancer development, whereas mice that weren’t fed garlic showed at least some. In fact, garlic has been shown to retard tumor growth in human subjects in some parts of the world.
Another benefit of garlic is it helps regulate the body’s blood pressure. So whether you have problems with low or high blood pressure, garlic can help equalize it.
Garlic helps strengthen your body’s defenses against allergies; helps loosen plaque from the artery walls; helps regulate your blood sugar levels; and is the best choice for killing and expelling parasites such as pin worms from the human body.
In addition to all these health benefits, garlic is packed with vitamins and nutrients. Some of these include protein, potassium, Vitamins A, B, B2 and C, Calcium, Zinc and many others.
In a 12-week, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, allicin powder was found to reduce the incidence of the common cold by over 50%.
Garlic and onions are toxic to cats and dogs.
Garlic can thin the blood similar to the effect of aspirin.
Drinking lemon juice or eating a few slices of lemon will stop bad garlic breath.
Garlic also promotes increased bile production to help reduce levels of fat in the liver. Garlic pills also help ward off coughs and colds.
Garlic and Your Heart.
The positive effect of garlic on your circulatory system is extremely well documented and it has been proved to:
Plus it stimulates the production of nitric oxide in the lining of blood vessel walls, a substance that helps them to relax.
As a result of these beneficial actions garlic helps to prevent arteriosclerosis and thereby reduces the risk of heart attack or stroke.
Two or three cloves a day have cut the risk of subsequent heart attacks in half in heart patients.
One reason for these beneficial effects may be garlic’s ability to reduce the amount of free radicals in the bloodstream. According to a study published in Life Sciences, a daily dose of 1 ml/kg body weight of garlic extract for a period of 6 months resulted in a significant reduction in oxidant (free radical) stress in the blood of arteriosclerosis patients. It’s positive effect on the circulatory system improves blood flow throughout the body so has even been hailed as a cure for impotence!
Garlic and Cancer
Current research has shown that a number of readily available foods such as garlic and onions that make up a healthy diet, actually have a major impact on cancer prevention. The protective effect of garlic seems to be greater than that of onions, even though onion consumption has been shown to reduce the risk of stomach cancer. These cancer fighting foods seem to have the ability to interfere with the development of cancerous tumors.
The October 2000 issue of the American Journal of Nutrition had a summary of a number epidemiologic studies which showed that people who consumed cooked or raw garlic on a regular basis compared to those that ate little or none had about half the risk of stomach cancer and one-third less risk of colorectal cancer.
This remarkable little bulb now tops the American National Cancer Institute’s list of potential cancer-preventative foods. It contains multiple anticancer compounds and antioxidants, more than 30 at the last count, which such powerful compounds as quercetin, diallyl sulphide,allin and ajoene. These have the ability to block cancer causing agents such as nitrosamine and aflatoxin which have been specifically linked to stomach, lung and liver cancer. Garlic’s ajoene and allicin have also been shown to retard cancer cells as a type of natural chemotherapy.
The Iowa Women’s Health Study discovered that women who included garlic in their daily diet had lower risks for colon cancer.
Meat cooked at high temperatures (well done to burnt) can produce carcinogenic (cancer producing) chemicals and research has recently discovered that when meat is cooked with garlic this effect is limited.
The ten best groups of anti-cancer foods include: berries and citrus fruits, cruciferous vegetables, garlic and onions, green tea, omega 3 essential fatty acids, olive oil, tomatoes, soy products, red wine and dark chocolate.
Garlic- and the Immune System.
Not surprisingly the presence of all these antioxidants in garlic have a very positive effect on the immune system in general and can therefore protect the body against all types of bacterial and viral attacks. Research has recently even shown it to have an inhibiting effect on MSRA which is currently reeking such havoc in hospitals.
Garlic also acts as a good cold medication, decongestant and expectorant. It is a surprisingly good source of vitamins C, B6 and the minerals selenium and manganese all of which have long been associated with immune system boosting as well as other benefits.
Garlic-Promotes Weight Control.
Garlic has a long history as a culinary spice and medicinal herb. Its Latin name comes from “al” which means burning, and “sativum” which means harvested. Its most widely used part is the head, which is used in cooking to give its distinct taste. Its head is made of 4 – 20 cloves.
Because of its distinct taste and aroma, it is a commonly used spice that is mixed with other herbs like ginger and onions in preparing various dishes. Depending on the flavor desired, the method of cooking it could either be mellow or intense. In Northern European cuisine for example, garlic is used in little amounts and is cooked for a long time to diminish its taste. Try and cook some roasted garlic for extra health benefits.
Do odorless garlic pills work?
The more popular version of garlic unfortunately tends to be the “odorless” pills and capsules found in health food stores. Odorless garlic as an antibiotic or general health promotion herb is useless if it doesn’t have its smell. Garlic oil and powder supplements are produced by distilling fresh garlic, and then diluting it with other substances. This process destroys the majority of allicin in garlic. Therefore, the supplements rely on the human stomach to convert some of the remaining garlic components into allicin. Although a few garlic powder supplements are able to generate some allicin within the stomach, the amount converted, if any is converted at all, is dependent upon optimal stomach conditions.
Growing Garlic at Home
Garlic can be grown all year round in mild climates. In cold climates, cloves can be planted in the ground about six weeks before the soil freezes, and harvested in late spring. Garlic plants can be grown close together and even in small pots indoors as long as you leave enough room for the bulbs to mature. Simply prepare a light soil mix and stick a garlic clove (the bigger the clove the better) in the ground for every bulb you want to dig up.
As garlic reaches maturity the leaves will turn brown in color then die away. This is the time to harvest your home grown garlic crop. If you harvest too early the cloves will be very small, too late and the bulb will have split.
Eat Garlic in Moderation
2 to 4 grams of fresh, minced garlic can be eaten each day. However, when eaten excessively, it can leave a distinct odor on the skin and breath, can cause heartburn, upset stomach and allergic reactions.
Garlic can also thin the blood so caution is advised to people with blood disorders, to those who will have surgery, and to those who will deliver a baby, about consuming it either fresh or in supplement form.
Side effects from taking garlic supplements include headache, fatigue, loss of appetite, muscle aches and dizziness.
Health-e-Solutions comment: The fact that garlic is able to help with so many seemingly unrelated problems also demonstrates how connected different diseases are likely to be. The medical establishment prefers to isolate diseases and target each with different drugs – just because they produce different symptoms and occur in different areas of the body. But the root causes of diseases that can appear very different are often the same. It’s all far more intertwined than we might think.
For garlic to be effective as a healing agent and general antibiotic, it needs to be raw. It should also be crushed and exposed to air for ten minutes before it’s consumed to fully activate its key germ-killing compound. Raw garlic doesn’t have to taste awful. A simple recipe is to juice four cloves of garlic, two tomatoes, and a lemon to make a delicious antibacterial and antiviral drink. If you don’t have a juicer, simply toss the ingredients into a blender and make a tomato and garlic soup.
The core of the Health-e-Solutions lifestyle uses food as natural means by which to master diabetes in the healthiest way possible. With the understanding that there is much more to be explored, we delve into a number of natural treatments we have researched and found to be sufficiently safe and effective. In this 117-page downloadable, printable e-publication called , we stay “close to home,” as it were, as we discuss additional treatment topics primarily having to do with food as medicine. They offer practical, innovative, natural remedies to improve health and diabetes control.
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