The Holistic and Nutritional Health Benefits of Garlic

By: Dana Baardsen
www.danabaardsen.com

Since it’s flu season, it’s the perfect time to talk about garlic, one of the most accessible healing plants. Most people are shocked when they find out how powerful garlic is when it comes to fighting off the common cold and other ailments and disease.

Fresh garlic is one of the cheapest, safest, most effective ways to combat sickness and promote healing. If garlic is a main staple in your diet for the long-run, you can expect to help your prevention case, in terms of diabetes heart disease, and cancer.

Garlic: 

• A natural anticoagulant
• Helps strengthen the immune system
• Removes toxins and pollutants
• Contains anticancer and antibacterial substances

Garlic is a member of the allium family and contains allicin and other diallyl sulfides which are antibacterial and antifungal. Incorporating fresh garlic into your diet will absolutely ease your symptoms or even eliminate them, when you’re feeling under the weather. Even the essential oils from garlic are antibiotic and can be used to treat and speed up the healing process for the common cold. 

Use garlic to quit smoking or bite sugar addictions. Garlic is detoxifying, which means it removes toxins and pollutants from the body. By employing garlic when kicking an addiction to anything, you’re decreasing the amount of time you will experience the physical withdrawal symptoms.

Heart Health. Garlic contains stimulators to the nitric oxide production in blood vessels, which promotes improvements in the elasticity of the vessels. This reduces the risk of stroke and atherosclerosis.

In addition to stroke and heart disease prevention, garlic also is diabetes-preventative. Levels of the amino acid homocysteine are lowered with regular consumption of garlic, which helps to regulate blood sugar levels.

Garlic is pretty amazing, huh? The funny thing is, most natural and plant-based foods are. There are several healing super foods out there which are inexpensive, accessible, and able to be to easily incorporated into your diet. Add garlic to your sauces and soups during this time of year to ward off the common cold and flu. If you’re adventurous, experiment with black garlic, which has twice the antioxidants while leaving no trace of bad breath.

xoxoDana
Healing Foods: Susan Curtis, Pat Thomas, and Dragana Vilinac