31 Days of Raw: Day #15 - Garlic!

31 Days of Raw: Day #15
Garlic!

I have often joked that at least 80% of my recipes include garlic.  And perhaps the only ones that don’t are my desserts.  I adore garlic.  It’s a wonderful spice…gives every dish that oomph I’m always looking for, as well as being ridiculously healthy.  MEDICINALLY healthy!  That means, I use it as medicine as well as food.  What a multi-tasking little gem.  And it’s relatively inexpensive AND easy to grow!  In fact, if you want a crop of garlic, plant cloves outside this month. If you want garlic foliage for soups and salad dressings, plant individual cloves of garlic in little pots of soil on the windowsill. They will provide oniony shoots of cuttable garlic grass in a couple of weeks. Easy, fast, and pretty hard to kill (great if your green thumb is more like a green palm that kills with good intentions).

Garlic

High Blood Pressure:
Garlic is regarded as one of the most effective remedies to lower blood pressure. The pressure and tension are reduced because it has the power to ease the spasm of the small arteries. It also slows the pulse and modifies the heart rhythm, besides relieving the symptoms of dizziness, shortness of breath and the formation of gas within the digestive track As these days garlic capsules are available with the chemist shops, the average dosage of two to three capsules a day to be given to make a dent in the blood pressure.

Digestive System Disorders:
Garlic is one of the most beneficial foods for the digestive system. It exercises a beneficial effect on the lymph, aids in elimination of noxious waste matter in the body. It stimulates peristaltic action and the secretion of the digestive juices. Crushed cloves of garlic may be infused in water or milk and taken for all types of disorders of the digestion. It has an antiseptic effect and is an excellent remedy for infectious diseases and inflammations of the stomach and intestine. The oil of garlic is absorbed into the alimentary tract and is eliminated partly through the urine.  Garlic produces a very marked effects on the intestine. It is an excellent agent as a worm expeller. It has also a soothing effect on the various forms of diarrhea. Problems such as colitis, dysentery and many other intestinal upsets can be successfully treated with fresh garlic or garlic capsules One garlic capsule taken three times a day is usually sufficient to correct mild cases of diarrhea or dysentery. For more persistent cases, up to six capsules a day can be taken. Garlic has the ability to destroy harmful bacteria in the intestines without affecting the beneficial organisms which aid digestion.

Skin Disorders:
Garlic has also been used successfully for a variety of skin disorders Pimples disappear without scar when rubbed with raw garlic several times a day. Even very persistent form of acne, suffered by some adults, has also been healed with garlic. The external use of garlic helps to clear the skin of spots and pimple, and boils. The process is further helped by taking the garlic orally also, to purify the blood-steam so as to secure a long term clearance of the skin. A regular course of three garlic capsules per day should help to clear minor skin infections quickly.

Whooping Cough:
Garlic is an excellent remedy for whooping cough. Syrup of garlic Should be given in doses of five drops to a teaspoonful two or three times a day in this condition. It should be given more often if the coughing spells are frequent and violent.

Heart Health
The positive effect of garlic on your circulatory system is extremely well documented and it has been proved to lower blood pressure, decrease platelet aggregation, lower serum triglycerides and LDL-cholesterol ( the bad type) levels, increase serum HDL-cholesterol (the good type) and fibrinolysis (the process through which the body breaks up blood clots.), and 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. 

Cancer Prevention
Human population studies show that eating garlic regularly reduces the risk of esophageal, stomach, and colon cancer. This is partly due to garlic's ability to reduce the formation of carcinogenic compounds. Animal and test tube studies also show that garlic, and its sulfur compounds, inhibit the growth of different types of cancer-especially breast and skin 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.  Meat cooked at high temperatures can produce carcinogenic (cancer producing) chemicals and research has recently discovered that when meat is cooked with garlic this effect is limited.

Immune Health
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 U.K. 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.

Weight Control.
Allicin is the most potent substance found in garlic and this has been shown to not only lower blood pressure, insulin and triglyceride levels in laboratory animals fed a sugar rich diet, but also to prevent weight gain.  The researchers concluded that allicin may be of practical value for weight control.

Infection
Since 1858 garlic has also been known for its anti-bacterial properties. At this time Louis Pasteur discovered that bacterial cells died when they were saturated with garlic. Other cases of it being used as an antibiotic in history include WW II, when British doctors used it to treat those wounded in battle, and Albert Schweitzer used garlic to treat typhus and cholera. Garlic is known to have not only antibacterial but antiviral and antifungal abilities as well. It is effective against intestinal parasites, recurrent yeast infections and the growth candida albicans is slowed by garlic. With this in mind, it should be condsidered only as an aid to antibiotics in fighting infections, as it is not enough to replace them. Garlic can help by stimulating T-cells that help fight infection.

Impotence
Garlic has also been found to be helpful to those dealing with impotence. Folklore dating back centuries has hailed garlic as an aphrodisiac, and now studies have proven this legend to be true. We know that garlic aids in blood circulation and keeps veins and arteries youthful, but that is only one way it helps with impotence. According to researchers, to obtain an erection an enzyme is required called nitric oxide synthase, and compounds in garlic stimulate the production of this enzyme in people who suffer from low levels of it.

Pregnancy:
One can also benefit from garlic during pregnancy. According to a study done by doctors in a London hospital, garlic supplementation may help weight-gain for babies that may be at risk for low birth weight. The study also found that the chance of other at-birth risk factors could be reduced, such as pre-eclampsia, which is associated with hypertension.


Garlic Home Remedies
Garlic is an invaluable medicine for asthma, hoarseness, coughs, difficulty of breathing, and most other disorders of the lungs, being of particular virtue in chronic bronchitis, on account of its powers of promoting expectoration.  An older remedy for asthma, that was most popular, is a syrup of Garlic, made by boiling the garlic bulbs till soft and adding an equal quantity of vinegar to the water in which they have been boiled, and then sugared and boiled down to a syrup. The syrup is then poured over the boiled garlic bulbs, which have been allowed to dry meanwhile, and kept in a jar. Each morning a bulb or two should be taken, with a spoonful of the syrup.

For ear infections: Wrap a small piece of garlic in some tissue, and insert it into the ear. Leave it there overnight if possible. Pain is almost immediately removed and the infection tends to start clearing up overnight. See our full article Garlic can Fight and Cure Ear Infections

For scratchy throats: Put a small slice of garlic in your mouth and suck on it for 10-15 minutes. You can put it between your teeth and cheek, then scratch it with your teeth a little to help stimulate juice from the garlic slice. This juice slides down your throat and removes the pain.

Garlic can heal the pain caused by insect bites like those of scorpions and centipedes. The juice of fresh garlic mixed with salt can be applied to bruises, sprains and ringworms.

At the first sign of a cold, chop up 4 cloves of raw garlic and eat or use it as a garnish in soups etc.

Cut raw garlic and rub the cut edge on the tooth and gums a couple of times a day to stop toothache.

Take fresh garlic cloves and crush them, apply to warts until they disappear.

Crush a clove or two onto a dessert spoon then add olive oil and down the hatch. you get the benefits of raw garlic with none of the breath issues.

Garlic to clear sinuses. Melt some butter and add minced garlic cloves, spread on toast and eat.

Garlic for herpes. Take a garlic clove and cut in half. Eat one half and take the other half and rub into the affected areas. (may sting a little)

8 to 10 drops of garlic juice mixed with 2 TBLS of honey four times a day cures a persistent cough.

Garlic for tonsillitis. Peel a clove of garlic and cut them in half lengthwise. Boil for a couple of minutes in about 1.5 cup water and add a pinch of salt, teaspoon of butter, a pinch of pepper and sprinkle with nutmeg.

Cut a garlic clove into small pieces. Swallow them all in one go with a little water to cure bloating, stomach cramps and constipation.

10 drops of garlic juice with 2 teaspoon of honey aids asthma suffering.

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Sunny Garlic Spread

• 1 cup sunflower seeds
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 lemon, juiced
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Blend or process all ingredients, adding water until a thick cream is produced.  Serve with crudités – freshly cut vegetables like carrots, celery, cucumber, broccoli, etc.

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