Garlic and Health

It is not difficult to incorporate a clove of garlic to his daily diet and it happens to be one of the five "magic" ingredients of polymeal recipe that promotes longevity according to a British institute.

The legend of cloves of garlic forming a protective wall against vampires could have been inspired by the actual protection it provides against infection when eaten or rubbing its hands.

History

Garlic is grown from 5000 years in Central Asia, then in Egypt and later in Europe.

The Ebers Papyrus, one of the oldest medical treatises, among 700 ingredients of the Egyptian pharmacy quoted in forty garlic remedies.
The Greek athletes eat it to improve circulation and promote performance (doping is not something new!).
Pliny the Elder in his Natural History gives a list of medicinal properties of garlic.
This is the essential ingredient with mint of the famous recipe of four thieves who plundered the cities devastated by cholera, without feeling the effects.

Garlic is found in many ancient cultures where it generally represents a protection against evil.

Useful nutrients

• Essential oils: allicin, diallyl disulphide, Alliin, alliinase, inulin.
• Vitamins A, B1, B2, C and E.
• Selenium.
• Silica, sulfur, iodine, with disinfectant properties.
• Ajoene, an anticoagulant.

The allicin is one of the components which confers natural antibiotic properties to garlic.

Health benefits

Among centenarians may be found a good proportion of high consumers of garlic, and that reflects, among other medicinal properties, its anti-inflammatory quality, the capacity to fight against inflammation being a factor of longevity.
Main benefits:

• Antibiotics.
• Anti-parasite.
• Hypoglycaemia.
• Hypotensive.
• Disinfect intestine.
• Antirheumatic.
• Anticoagulant.
• Antioxidant.

The effects of garlic are to stimulate the heart, to facilitate blood circulation, combat inflammation, protect the brain and the cardiovascular system, reduce the adverse effects of diabetes, promote digestion, fight against cancer and increase longevity .

He fights the flu, angina, cancer, diarrhea, infections of all kinds and poisons.

Consumption and production

It is consumed in all countries of the world.

The biggest producers are in order and thousands of tons, China (12,000), India (645), South Korea (325), Russia (254), USA (225). (Values in June 2008).

References

• Effects of garlic on blood.
• Garlic and vaso-dilatation.
• Consumption of garlic does not lower cholesterol, according to another study.
• Eric Block (1985). "The chemistry of garlic and onions." Scientific American. Garlic contains ajoene.