11 Reasons Why You Should Eat More Garlic

Have we ever wondered why Garlic is used much often as a spice in vegetables and especially while cooking meat? Most of us may answer that it might be for the taste or its good smell or some other purposes. The strong odor of garlic suggests towards its toughness that helps fight against toxins, bacteria, and germs so. There’re numbers of health benefits of garlic if we consume it in our daily life. We are not adequately aware that every minor to major herbs, seeds, and spices we use daily has some effect which may be hidden from us someway, but has been protecting us always. Garlic is one among them. Here in this article, we will discuss the nuts and bolts of garlic.

The Plant “Garlic”

Garlic (Allium sativum) belonging to the family Liliaceae is a strongly smelling bulbous, hardly perennial herb. Its bulbs are white, short, compressed, breaking up into 10-12 bulbils or cloves and covered by dry, membranous scales. The leaves of garlic are long, flat, acute and sheathing the lower half of stem. It has slender, smooth and shining scape. The spathe is long, beaked and encloses heads bearing solid bulbils. The flowers are small and whitish in color. Garlic is found to be widely cultivated in Nepal.

Energetics Of Garlic

1. Rasa (Taste): All five tastes except Sour i.e. Sweet, Salty, Pungent, Bitter, Astringent

2. Guna (Quality): Unctousness, Sharp, Slimy
Virya (Potency): Hot

3. Vipaka (Rasa essence): Pungent

4. Dosha: Pacifies Tridosha:

• Pacifies Vata and Kapha

• Aggravates Pitta and Rakta

Chemical Composition Of Garlic

It contains volatile oil, compounds of Sulphur: Allyl-propyl sulphide 6%, Diallyl disulfide 6%. The presence of these Sulphur compounds is responsible for the strong odor of Garlic.

Here we have eleven different reasons why you should include Garlic in your everyday food and what it can do to you.

11 Proven Health Benefits Of Garlic

1. Applying a thin paste of garlic externally on the skin stimulates the circulation of blood at that particular area helping to provide relief from inflammation, pain, and toxins.
   
2. Garlic has an excitatory effect on the Nervous system, provides strength to the senses, especially eye. It provides relief in a number of Vatavyadhi like hemiplegia, sciatica, osteoarthritis, facial palsy, etc when used externally as well as internally.
   
3. It has stimulatory action on the heart too, thus can be used in heart diseases including inflammation due to cardiac pathology.
   
4. It is a potent cough-expectorant, soothes the throat and eliminates the bad smell of the mucous.
   
5. It has multiple roles on the Digestive system acting as an appetizer, digestive, carminative, hepatic stimulant and anti-bacterial. It is therefore used in anorexia, digestive insufficiency, abdominal pain, and distension. The oil extracted from garlic or the juice can be taken with milk in case of intestinal worms.
   
6. Garlic also stimulates kidney for urine formation and its easy passage. It is usually recommended in Vataja type of urinary disorders.
   
7. It is very helpful for both genders as it aids in sperm formation in males and helps provide relief in dysmenorrhoea in females.
   
8. Because Garlic has stimulatory and excitatory effects on almost all systems, it helps in elevation of the strength of both body and mind, helping nourishment of all the tissues and ultimately working as a Rasayana, Ayurveda herb for rejuvenation and longevity.
   
9. The active elements of Garlic render a positive effect on pain, especially in earache. This is why, in the rural areas, oil processed by garlic has been used in earache since long.
   
10. Due to the anti-toxic effects of Garlic, it is rubbed at the site of a bite by poisonous animals and insects. The active principles, qualities, and elements in garlic have an action of destroying the bacteria and worms, the meat or vegetable might possess. It is also used in various skin ailments.
    
11. One can benefit more if s/he consumes garlic with ghee in Vata disorders, with sugar in Pitta disorders and with honey in Kapha disorders.

The bulb of the garlic and its oil is used for therapeutic purposes; 3-6 gm of the paste and 1-2 drops of oil is recommended. Intake of alcohol, sour food, excessive exercises, sunbath, anger is prohibited during the period of consuming Garlic. Garlic is helpful to almost all of your systems, but it is always better to seek the advice of an Ayurveda expert before you take it, so that you can wisely use it as per your condition, in a proper dose and way to make it truly a blessing for your sustained good health.