One of the best smells to ever smell is that fresh scent of roasted garlic cooking in the kitchen. On the east coast garlic is everything! I’m a New Yorker, which means I adore my Italian food and garlic bagels more than humanly possible.
Garlic has been loved not only in the kitchen for all these centuries, but has also been used all around the world for its medicinal magic.
For most of the country, this winter has been the worst in years! It’s been beyond freezing. During this season a lot of us have also been hit with flus and colds that won’t go away.
Instead of spending all your money on over the counter medicine and loading up at your local pharmacy, here’s a little secret that is proven to not only help better than “remedy” drugs, but also barely costs a thing: GARLIC.
Sounds crazy, right? I thought that when I first heard it from my boss a few years ago. I said “no way!” and continued my battle with the latest cold.
Then, I tried it. It worked!
I’m not the only one who will tell you this. I’ve met so many people throughout the years who swear by it. The people who do it that I know, are also the ones who are sick the least.
You see, garlic is a very strong antioxidant with antimicrobial, antiviral and antibiotic properties. It’s also proven to provide decongestant effects for colds and flus.
Garlic contains a compound called allicin, which blocks enzymes that play a part in bacterial and viral infections.
One study done in 2001 followed 146 adults, all of whom were in decent health, between November and February. A portion of the subjects were selected to receive a daily garlic supplement. For those taking this, only 24 of them came down with colds, as oppose to 65 colds in the group that hadn’t taken any garlic. Also discovered was that for every day that year, at least one person in the group that had no garlic supplement was found to be sick as compared to just 111 days in the group who took garlic. Their recovery was also faster.
So, next time you are fighting a cold or a flu, don’t wait too long and then go to the pharmacy. No, as soon as you start feeling the symptoms, eat a clove of raw garlic. Chop it into tiny pieces and eat it quickly, to make the process easier. You can even mince and add some olive oil or honey to swallow it down.
It may sounds gross, but you’ll quickly learn that it’s the best cure.
