When it comes to antiviral and antibacterial power, there is no plant in the world like garlic. Everything that antibiotic drugs can do, garlic does better, safer and cheaper. It may take a little longer but, in the process, using garlic regularly will build your strength and balance your body instead of leaving you exhausted and in a mess as many drugs do after treatment. So make garlic a day-to-day part of your life. Cook with it, prepare garlic vinegars and garlic oils for your salads. Eat chopped garlic on your baked potatoes. Use it any way you can think of. It helps safeguard health and youth.
Garlic is most effective eaten raw and is really enjoyable crushed or minced in salads or pasta. If you worry about the smell, chew a sprig of parsley after your meal and never drink cheap red wine with garlic. It sours the breath badly. Come to think of it, never drink cheap red wine at all. Take one or two cloves (not bulbs!) of garlic every day in your foods. If you really don’t think you can manage two cloves of fresh garlic, make pickled garlic and use it as a condiment.
Recent popular interest in garlic has been increased by the bad publicity given to cholesterol. Garlic decreases levels of the harmful type of cholesterol and can even help prevent blood clots responsible for heart attacks and strokes. Garlic also boosts immunity, balances blood sugar, helps the liver to deal with toxins and relieves digestive problems. Garlic contains amino acids, vitamins and trace elements, flavonoids, enzymes and dozens of unusual sulphur compounds rarely found in other plants. It is these sulphur compounds that some scientists believe are responsible for garlic’s antibacterial, antiviral and antioxidant qualities. Garlic is also one of the greatest natural sources of selenium.
I prefer to use whole garlic — and lots of it, too. Buy it fresh, juiced, in tablets, capsules and tinctures. There are plenty of garlic recipes that don’t give off the characteristic odour if you can’t handle its smell.
Garlic oil
- large bulb fresh garlic
- olive oil
Mince the garlic and put in the top of a double boiler. Pour in enough olive oil to cover the garlic by an 2.5 cm (1 in) and warm gently for an hour. Cool, strain through muslin or cheesecloth, and keep in a sealed bottle or jar in the fridge. Use it on your salads; it’s delicious.
Caution:
Garlic acts as a blood thinner so it is wise not to take with anticoagulant drugs. Taking large daily doses - more than 10 g - can cause stomach irritation or indigestion
pickled garlic
Combine the water, cider vinegar, soy or Worcestershire sauce and honey in a saucepan and warm to dissolve the honey. Half fill a jar (with a tight-fitting lid) with the mixture and drop in as many peeled cloves of garlic as you have. You need to make sure that the pickling mix covers the garlic so add more of it if needed. Tightly close the lid and keep in the fridge for two weeks before eating. Your pickled garlic will keep for about two months.
