Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Garlic, I Think I Love You

What better way to start blogging again by talking about the health benefits (to me, anyway) of raw garlic!

But first, some background information. Throughout elementary school, I got sick ALL the time. Never deathly sick, but I would have to stay home for a day or two once every couple of months. And yes, sometimes I wasn't really that sick but it created a good excuse to ditch school. From about middle school up until the last few years I hardly ever got sick. I honestly can't even remember being sick more than two or three times in all of college.

Fast forward to the last few years. My perfect health streak has faded. I've been so used to not being sick...ever, that it's kind of a shock when I do get sick. I blame the fact that I'm working from home and thus have not been exposed to various organisms that would test and strengthen my immunity. That plus the fact that Michael is in school right right now, bringing thousands of wonderful germs home each day. Anyway, this winter has been a doozy. I got some stomach flu bug when I was out in California visiting family, and since coming back to Texas have gotten a mild to medium cold THREE times in the past two months or so.

And this is where the garlic comes in. This is not going to be a super technical post about the actual scientific and nutritional properties of garlic because A.) I don't know about any of that and B.) I'm not going to take the time to research it just for this post. All I want to say is this: If you are sick or feel like you are getting sick, eat some raw garlic and you will be better the next day. Continue eating some each day until you're completely better.

Michael's sister had mentioned awhile ago that garlic is supposed to help when you're sick, but we always kept forgetting about that when we'd get sick. This last time we got sick we took her advice. I was basically already sick. My throat hurt whenever I swallowed, I head some serious pressure in my head, and my body was just tired and lethargic. That day I ate about two cloves of raw garlic and by the next day I felt fine. From prior experience, I know that normally if I feeling the way I was, I would NOT have been better by the next day. Michael can also attest to the same experience.

So that's it, folks. Just try some raw garlic next time you're sick and I hope it works for you!

p.s. Yes, you will smell very garlicy for a few days, but there are worse smells in the world.
p.p.s. I just chopped up the raw garlic and sprinkled it on toast or my food just before I ate it. I did try just eating it straight but it's so acidic I had to drink three or four glasses of water so my stomach wouldn't go crazy. And yes, I believe it must be RAW garlic for the health benefits to kick in.

No comments: