🧄The Many Benefits of Garlic🧄
👋Hi everyone!👋 Today’s health nugget is about garlic🧄. Some people just think of garlic as something you add to your food, but it is so much more than that! Let’s take a look at some of the great benefits of it.
Garlic has been proven to be more effective than two popular antibiotics, erythromycin and ciprofloxacin. Unfortunately, antibiotics don't stop at bad bacteria and they don't treat viral infections, which are often nearly impossible to distinguish from bacterial ones. Instead, antibiotics kill good bacteria too, and that is not good because good bacteria are often helping your body fight the infection. Garlic is effective against a wide spectrum of bacteria, fungi and viruses. Garlic is traditionally used to treat colds and coughs. It's also reported to boost the immune system and help ease asthma symptoms.
Arab traditional medicine recommended garlic to help treat heart disease, high blood pressure, arthritis, toothache, constipation, and infections. In addition, boiling 3-4 garlic cloves with one glass of water and consuming it three times a day cures menstrual pain.
Raw garlic activates alliinase, an enzyme that converts alliin into allicin, which is beneficial, as this is what makes garlic antibacterial, antiviral and antifungal. You should consume raw garlic within an hour or two of a meal to activate alliinase and achieve maximum benefits.
If you can’t stand raw garlic you could also steam the garlic with the skin on and it will still bring many benefits (you can take off the garlic skin off before eating). If you still are not comfortable eating it this way, you can spread it on toast or find another way to incorporate it into your food, whether raw or steamed. Just keep in mind if are already taking medication for the problem you are having, you shouldn’t mix garlic with it. For example, if you are on a high blood pressure medication and you start taking garlic, it might drop your blood pressure too much.
If you have a cold or cough, put a garlic poultice (click here to learn how) under your feet and in less than 5 minutes you might even start to taste the garlic in your mouth! Be aware that putting garlic directly on the skin will irritate and even cause blisters.
If you are starting to have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or heart problems and are not on any medication, I recommend you start taking 1-2 garlic cloves a day and see the difference it makes for yourself!
So, add that extra garlic in your recipes and research some home remedies to try out! Here is one for you to try:
Immune Boosting Garlic Syrup
Immune Boosting Garlic Syrup Recipe
Ingredients:
Two to three large garlic heads
Raw Honey (enough to cover the garlic)
Instructions:
Pull apart the garlic so you are left with the individual cloves. Peel completely.
Place the garlic cloves into a large lidded jar.
Pour the raw honey over the garlic until it is completely covered.
Pop the lid on and set aside at room temperature for at least 2 weeks. Give it a stir every day or two for the first week, to keep the garlic coated in honey (they float on the top of the honey until about week two). After the first day or two it will get bubbly, this is good. As the garlic + honey ferments, the honey turns to liquid.
After two weeks (or longer if you’d like to leave it longer) you can take the resulting garlic-infused honey as a cough syrup or as a natural immune-booster. And don’t chuck out the garlic! Chop it up and add it to salad dressings. It will store in a lidded jar in a dark pantry indefinitely. Do your best to source raw honey and organic local garlic, it makes all the difference!
Author: Judith C.
Licensed Massage Therapist (LMT) 1//2023