Garlic

Garlic has been known for so many thousands of years that its origins are rather obscure. It is thought to have come first from south-eastern Siberia, from whence it spread to the Mediterranean countries where it became naturalized.
Experiments by competent scientists, as well as ordinary people, have shown beyond any reasonable doubt that consuming garlic has the following health benefits:

• Garlic lowers blood pressure.
• Garlic lowers LDL Cholesterol.
• Garlic can help to reduce atherosclerotic build-up (plaque) within the arterial system.
• Garlic lowers or helps to regulate blood sugar.
• Garlic helps to prevent blood clots from forming, thus reducing the possibility of strokes and thromboses (It may not be good for haemophiliacs).
• Garlic helps to prevent cancer, prevents certain tumors from growing larger and reduces the size of certain tumors.
• Garlic helps to remove heavy metals such as lead and mercury from the body.
• Raw Garlic is a potent natural antibiotic and, while far less strong than modern antibiotics, can still kill some strains of bacteria that have become immune or resistant to modern antibiotics.
• Garlic has anti-fungal and anti-viral properties.
• Garlic dramatically reduces yeast infections due to Candida species.
• Garlic has anti-oxidant properties and is a source of selenium.
• Garlic probably has other benefits as well.

Cooking with Garlic

Several factors influence how much flavour is imparted to a dish by the garlic. You can actually make a mild garlic seem much more potent and a powerful garlic seem meek, just by knowing how to prepare the garlic and when to add it to the food you are preparing. A properly cured, healthy garlic bulb has neither smell nor taste, nor does a carefully removed clove from the bulb. You can gently peel the clove cover away from a clove and it still has no taste or smell, unless you damage it in some way during the separating or peeling process. The reason for this is the components of garlic that cause its smell and taste are kept apart by the internal and external cellular walls.