Thursday, November 27, 2008

Garlic: TIPS For Health

Garlic is well known to all as it’s wide use as a spice or condiment in Indian and continental cuisine.

Garlic belongs to the onion family who has given lots of importance in Ayurveda. It contains allicin, vitamin C, B6, selenium, magnesium, potassium, calcium and manganese and falconoid. Allicin has various properties like antibiotic, anti-viral and anti-fungal that is why garlic is widely used for skin infections like as athlete’s foot, herpes and warts, digestive and lung infections which includes diarrhea, coughs and colds.

Garlic is considered one of the most important herbal for blood pressure and cholesterol reduction.Eating garlic on regular basis may provide some protection against gastric cancer. Garlic has a very strong flavour, and it is difficult to eat in raw condition. It needs to be either mixed with other foods or to be added it in food while cooking. Allicin gets distributed throughout the meal, providing you with the benefits of its anti-carcinogenic and antiseptic properties.Garlic is considered as something of a miracle food and uses it as a home remedy for many complaints. The healing properties of garlic as an antiviral and anti bacterial agent are now backed with scientific evidence. Scientists have shown that the compounds in garlic are good for heart. They lower blood pressure, reduce cholesterol production in the lever, suppress harmful cholesterol and raise level of the beneficial high-density lipoproteins in the blood. The daily dose recommended is about 6g, equivalent to two or three cloves.

Garlic is also extensively used for curing asthma, arthritis, sciatica, lumbago, backache, bronchitis, chronic fever, tuberculosis, rhinitis, malaria, obstinate skin disease including leprosy, leucoderma, discolouration of the skin and itches, indigestion, colic pain, enlargement of spleen, piles, fistula, fracture of bone, gout, urinary diseases, diabetes, kidney stone, anemia, jaundice, epilepsy, cataract and night blindness etc.

Garlic can be eaten raw in order to reduce nasal congestion and also in helping to reduce the amount of mucous in the nasal cavities. Garlic is also said to aid in the cleansing of the body's blood. And, true or not, it has been said that if you cut several onions in half and place them around your home, you and your family will not get any more colds.

Peel off the garlic only just before the cooking other wise it may lose many of garlic’s potent health properties. The natural compound of Allicin as found in garlic loses its beneficial properties within hours because it begins to react with garlic's other components as soon as the clove is crushed.

Garlic can also prevent blood clotting and increase the rate at which blood clots are broken down, but large amounts- ten or more cloves a day- may have to be eaten before any effect is noticed.

DISADVANTAGE to eating garlic is that it makes the breath smell and in few people can cause allergies