Garlic
It’s one of the world’s oldest healing foods. It was being used both as a favorite food and
as a powerful medicine centuries before Moses led the children of Israel out of Egypt and
into the wilderness.
Garlic and its cousin the onion were regarded highly for both health-giving and magical
qualities in ancient cultures. Garlic was one of the first foods to be deliberately cultivated,
although wild varieties grew in abundance.
Evidence of its healing powers is detailed in 4,000 year old records from the ancient
kingdom of Sumeria. Depiction of garlic bulbs have been discovered on walls of Egyptian
tombs that date back to 3200 B.C. – centuries before Joseph and his brothers settled in
Egypt.
During that same period, ancient records reveal that garlic was the principal ingredient in
many remedies that Egyptian healers prescribed as cures for headaches, sore throats and
other complaints.
By the time of Moses, garlic was already being used as an anticoagulant, antiseptic, anti-
inflammatory and anti-tumor agent, as well as a relief for flatulence, a diuretic, a sedative,
a poultice and as a cure for internal parasites.
At least 67 different varieties of garlic and onions have been identified as growing in the
Holy Land, so it’s little wonder that the ancient Israelites developed a fondness for it
centuries ago. It may for health reasons that the Talmud specifies that several different
foods are to be seasoned with garlic regularly.
Research suggests that garlic may help protect against heart disease and stroke by
lowering blood pressure. It contains allylic sulfides, which may neutralize carcinogens. In
fact, garlic has been linked to lower rates of stomach cancer too.
The Environmental Nutrition Newsletter published evidence from five clinical trials showing
that ½ to one clove per day lowered blood cholesterol levels an average of 9% in people
with borderline and high cholesterol.
Scientific interest in the healing power of garlic has exploded so much over the last
decade that the National Library of Science now lists nearly 150 papers published on
garlic’s ability to maintain good health.
In various studies, garlic powder, aged garlic extracts and fresh garlic all have had
positive effects in preventing cancer in animals; improving diabetes management; slowing
the growth of human cytomegalovirus; preventing fatigue; and relieving stress more
effectively than the addictive tranquilizer, Valium.
As little as half a raw clove will boost the body’s natural protection against blood clots,
which cause heart attacks and strokes. And it takes only two raw garlic cloves a day to
lower cholesterol levels in heart patients.
The ingredient that gives garlic its strong smell is a chemical called allicin. That also
makes it such a potent antibiotic. In hundreds of experiments, allicin extract from raw
garlic has destroyed the germs that spread such illnesses as botulism, tuberculosis,
diarrhea, staph, dysentery and typhoid.
Scientific interest in the healing power of garlic has exploded so much over the last
decade that the National Library of Science now lists nearly 150 papers published on
garlic’s ability to maintain good health.
In various studies, garlic powder, aged garlic extracts and fresh garlic all have had
positive effects in preventing cancer in animals; improving diabetes management; slowing
the growth of human cytomegalovirus; preventing fatigue; and relieving stress more
effectively than the addictive tranquilizer, Valium.
As little as half a raw clove will boost the body’s natural protection against blood clots,
which cause heart attacks and strokes. And it takes only two raw garlic cloves a day to
lower cholesterol levels in heart patients.
The ingredient that gives garlic its strong smell is a chemical called allicin. That also
makes it such a potent antibiotic. In hundreds of experiments, allicin extract from raw
garlic has destroyed the germs that spread such illnesses as botulism, tuberculosis,
diarrhea, staph, dysentery and typhoid.
One scientist reports: “Galic has the broadest spectrum of any antimicrobial substance we
know of. It’s antibacterial, anti fungal, anti parasitic, anti protozoan and antiviral.” Some
researchers say that one medium-size garlic clove has as much antibacterial power as
100,000 units of penicillin.
Japanese scientists have distilled an antibiotic medication called Kyolic from raw garlic.
Because it was used so commonly as an antibiotic by Russian army medics during World
War II, it became known throughout all of Europe as the “Russian penicillin.” An
astonishing 500 tons of garlic were trucked into Moscow to combat one influenza epidemic
in the 1950’s. European doctors still prescribe garlic to ward off colds, pneumonia,
whooping cough and a wide array of intestinal disorders.
Another natural ingredient in garlic called alliin is changed into the antibiotic substance,
allicin, when garlic is chewed, chopped or crushed. Animal tests in Japan indicated that
fresh garlic might be an effective weapon against a form of breast cancer. And another
finding from the same suggested that garlic is probably a better antioxidant than vitamin
E, one of the top antioxidants known to slow the aging process.
At the M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute in Houston, investigators looked at
sulfur compounds from both garlic and onions and concluded their ingredients blocked the
formation of carcinogens that lead to colon cancer. Meanwhile, the National Cancer
Institute has announced that the sulfur in garlic is high on its list of potential natural
“chemo preventives.”
Garlic is also heart-friendly. Scores of studies around the world have focused on garlic’s
astonishing ability to fight hypertension, prevent embolisms, or blood clots and lower bad
cholesterol. A study at Bombay Hospital’s Research Center in India found that those who
ate several garlic cloves daily significantly reduced the risk of potentially deadly blood clots
– even in patients who already suffered from coronary disease.
In even smaller doses, garlic drastically reduced cholesterol levels -= on average from a
high of 305 all the way down to 218 over a 60-day period.
While cooking may destroy or reduce the allicin and weaken garlic’s potential, most of its
therapeutic benefits remain intact. Cooked garlic still lowers blood cholesterol and works
as a decongestant and cough medicine.
Before the birth of Christ, the Israelites were using garlic as a major ingredient in their
food, as well as a medicine. In fact, they were so fond of garlic and consumed so much of
it that in the Mishnah they proudly called themselves “garlic eaters.”
Whether cooked, raw or in extract form, garlic may be one of the most potent natural
healing foods we have. The ancient people of the Bible knew that basic fact of life while
some of our scientists are just rediscovering it.
