Garlic Thoughts

My garlic connection started when I was a kid. On those days, whenever I fell ill, the first thing I could expect was my father coming with some fresh garlic juice (in a kind of measuring cup [made of stainless steel] called ‘gokarnam’ in my native language). If I spit it out, he used to scold and threaten me harshly or even beat me. I really hated that. Cold, flu, fever, stomach ache… it all attracted garlic, the smelly garlic. Even now, it stays like traumatic memory somewhere within me.

Why did my father do that? I hardly think he had a clear idea about the medicinal effects of garlic. But almost everyone living in my State that time had some idea about many herbal plants. These were passed on to us by tradition. Because my place was the land of Ayurveda, the herbal system of medicine. Thus, garlic, cardamom, ginger (both raw and dry), honey, neem, basil, turmeric….they all played other than culinary role during my childhood (and even now).

India is the second largest producer of garlic in the world (first being our neighbor China) and its part of many traditional dishes. How do science and religion see garlic?

Raw garlic has the following (found out as of now):

Carbohydrates
Sugars
Dietary fibers
Fat
Protein
Beta carotene
Thiamine
Riboflavin
Niacin
Pantothenic acid
Vitamin B6
Folate
Vitamin C
Calcium
Iron
Magnesium
Phosphorous
Potassium
Sodium
Zinc
Manganese
Selenium

Scientifically, it has been proved that garlic is capable of preventing some cancers (eg. gastric cancer; one can refer studies/materials by the United States National Cancer Institute). It is useful to control cholesterol too. There are so many other uses of garlic, including repelling many insects and mosquitoes.

But most of the religions are not that friendly with garlic. People from some sects of Hinduism and the Jain community avoid garlic. Yes, they don’t eat garlic at all (some don’t use even onion). Till the time I am writing this, I don’t know whether any particular Hindu scripture talking about garlic (I mean asking us to avoid) other than some books on Yoga.

There is a Christian myth. When Satan left the Eden garden, garlic arose from his left foot print and onion from the right. And it became part of white and black magic among the Europeans.

And in Islam, Prophet Mohammed said whoever ate garlic should not enter the mosque.

My father used to crush the garlic to take the juice. Why? I am 100% sure that he just did that without knowing the science behind that. It might sound strange, but one can find Allicin (this has antibiotic, anti-inflammatory and many other properties) in garlic, only after crushing it (some chemical changes happens then).

Since garlic has proven medicinal effects, it may interact with some medicines. Too much of garlic can lead to bleeding (hence should be best avoided at later stages of pregnancy) and thus affect a surgery or a child birth. Thus its logical to avoid too much garlic during periods too. Over dose of garlic can poison us. We might even get headache, diarrhea, nausea etc as a result of eating (too much of) garlic. The immediate after effect of eating garlic is halitosis or bad breath. Even our sweat will become smelly. So?

So, if we want o avoid dating somebody, the best bet is garlic !!!… An apple may be able to keep the doc away, but garlic in the morning can keep almost everybody away from us, the whole day….