Let food by thy medicine
and medicine be thy food…—Hippocrates
Family: allium \\ onions, garlic, rakkyo (a type of Asian onion), scallions, chives, leeks, and shallots.
Garlic has a long history all around the world for the treatment of all number of illnesses. Modern medicine has continued to discover the efficacy of garlic.
Eating raw garlic twice a week reduces your risk of lung cancer by 44%. Some of the compounds in garlic have been found to destroy brain tumors. It reduces incidence of osteoarthritis. And, it was found to be 100 times more effective than popular antibiotics at fighting the campylobacter bacterium (which is a cause of intestinal infections).
- Antibiotics are medications that slow down/destroy the growth of bacteria. They CANNOT fight viral infections. If you use them for shorter than the prescribed length of time, or take less than the prescribed dosage, you might feel better but all the bad bacteria may not be killed off, and the bacteria will learn from this and can return and spread to others. Improper usage and over-usage of antibiotics has been linked to the rise in drug-resistant bacteria. Antibiotics may have side effects such as diarrhea, nausea and vomiting, rashes, and fungal infections, with less common side effects of kidney stones, blood clotting, sensitivity to sunlight, bowl inflammation, and even deafness, depending on the antibiotic. Some people may be seriously allergic to antibiotics, especially penicillin, to the extent that they may die if they are given it. For all these reasons, it should only be taken when necessary, and only taken properly, as prescribed.
Garlic, along with onions, can treat and prevent not only cancer, (at least if eaten raw) but also “coronary heart disease, obesity, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes type 2, hypertension, cataract and disturbances of the gastrointestinal tract” — the compounds that make them work so well for health reasons are the ones that cause these vegetables’ pungent smell.
Garlic protects the heart during surgery, and can be used to treat heart failure. It also reduces the risk of mothers having premature delivery, and, if taken consistently, and chopped or crushed so that the garlic releases allicin, can be used as a preventative measure to reduce your risk of getting the common cold.
If you’re cooking garlic, crush it and let it sit for 10 minutes before heating it to retain some of its powerful effects. Or, to gain the full benefits of garlic, while enjoying a delicious dish, you can make garlic hummus.
See more at:
Garlic: a review of potential therapeutic effects by Leyla Bayan, Peir Hossain Koulivand, & Ali Gorji
What to know about antibiotics [Medical News Today]
The analysis of onion and garlic by Virginia Lanzotti
Allicin [Wikipedia]
