Garlic is Mother Natures Pungent Cure-All-The Odoriferous Herb

I don't know about you, but one of my very favorite aromas is garlic wafting through a kitchen, especially when it's in a great tomato sauce or stir fried with some vegetables. Whether it's in a pan with olive oil or roasting in the oven, the smell of garlic sets my appetite on overdrive!While not everyone shares my predilection for this odoriferous herb, there can be no denying that its appeal extends far beyond its smell or taste. Time and again, garlic has come through as one of the most versatile healing herbs known to humans.

The value of garlic (Allium sativum) has been recognized since ancient Egypt, when slaves went on strike to increase their garlic rations. In the 1950s, the great Albert Schweitzer, M.D., used garlic in his African clinic to treat dysentery, typhus and cholera. During the Second World War, garlic was used as a disinfectant for wounds and as protection against gangrene in injured soldiers. Now, research is showing that it protects against two of the most dreaded diseases of our time: heart disease and cancer.

Some have even argued that since our ancestors ate a diet rich in a variety of plants and herbs now missing in modern diets, we should consider phytonutrient-rich plants such as garlic to be essential nutrients!

I think this is a great idea, and you can easily incorporate into your own personal diet plan just by taking aged garlic supplements.

Garlic Basics:
Garlic is a member of the lily family. Its genus (Allium) also includes onions. When a clove of garlic is crushed or chewed, an odorless sulfur-containing compound, alliin, is transformed to allicin, which gives garlic its characteristic odor. Allicin is the element of garlic that has been most intensively studied and which appears to have the most medicinal value. Allicin naturally breaks down to other compounds, including daily sulfide and ajoene, which are thought to have unique healing effects on the body.

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