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, antiinflammatory 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.
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