Garlic is a truly amazing super food and is also quite easy to grow. It is fairly hardy and can be overwintered in the UK. It has incredible health promoting properties a few of which are mentioned below. It’s also quite cheap to buy and it’s health promoting benefits are great value for money. Garlic’s health promoting benefits come from its sulphur containing compounds.
The active ingredient allicin is released when cloves are bruised or chopped and give garlic its pungent aroma. Garlic is a good source of saponins, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, selenium, polyphenols, and arginine. It’s also a good source of the vitamin B6 and Vitamin C.
- It has amazing antibacterial and antifungal properties.
In my own personal experience I used it to cure an ear infection that one of my children’s friends suffered. We were away on holiday miles away from a town so doctors were hard to find. Garlic was rubbed on their feet. It cured the infection and as far as I know they never returned again even though it had been quite a common occurrence before.
- There is some evidence that eating garlic may lower the risk of colon, prostate, oral, ovary or renal cell cancers.
- It is thought that consuming garlic may increase our levels of HDL (good) cholesterol and it also thins the blood as it contains anti-coagulant properties.
Recent studies have shown that garlic has potent antibiotic properties. It has been found that garlic was effective against strains of pathogens that have become resistant to many drugs. On a particular study garlic juice showed significant antibacterial activity against a host of pathogens, even including antibiotic-resistant strains such as ciprofloxacin-resistant staphylococci. Seems like a good idea to use it preventatively.
Add it to soups, stews and also to salad dressings and mayonnaise (aleoli). Try adding it into the diet daily.