garlic and had to resort to different herbal remedies to kick the Puritans. Pliny the Elder wrote in his famous herbal treatise that
swine out, however, I succumbed to the dreaded virus for only 3 it should be pounded with fresh coriander and taken with neat
days! Hooray for Herbs! wine for that purpose. Garlic is pretty sexy actually, and if you
Garlic works best at the very onset of a pathogen when tak- eat some, please be sure to feed some to your lover also; it is well
en in fairly high doses. For this, one to three freshly crushed or known that it’s much easier for your partner to tolerate your garlic
chopped cloves of garlic taken raw is most effective. In order for breath if their mouth reeks of it too! If that fails, chewing on a good
the alliin to break down through oxidation into the bacteria-fight- amount of parsley or cardamom may help reduce the rankness of
ing allicin, it is best to wait about 10-15 minutes after chopping your dragon breath, but remember the old saying, “Garlic is as
or crushing to get the most benefit from the garlic. For daily main- good as ten mothers…for keeping the girls (and boys) away!”
tenance, you can then choose to cook the garlic, but if you are
going for the big guns, add the raw garlic to hummus or a bowl of
Lisl Meredith Huebner, Dipl.CH (NCCAOM), RH (AHG) is a
soup to make it easier to take.
nationally board certified Chinese Herbalist, and a Registered
Throughout history, people have known that vermin are re-
Herbalist with the American Herbalists Guild. She is available
by appointment at The Essence of Being at Johnnycake Moun-
pelled by the pungency of garlic; this includes parasites such as
tain, Burlington, CT. www.theessenceofbeingat.com. Please
ringworm, lice and intestinal parasites such as threadworm as
call 860-673-6863 or email at essenceofbeing@hotmail.com
well as rats, mice and…no kidding: vampire bats! When it comes if you have any questions, would like to schedule an appoint-
to bites, garlic has long been applied as a healing poultice. Gen- ment, attend meditations, weed walks, or are interested in tak-
erally used for venomous bites, the sting of a scorpion is reputed
ing classes. See ad on page 18.
to be soothed by the application of crushed garlic. It is the sulphi-
des once again responsible for detoxifying the site. When a sting
or bite is painful because of inflammation, garlic is not the best
choice but it can prevent mosquito, tick and flea bites by making
the blood unappealing to biting insects-even lice- if consumed
regularly.
Garlic is incredibly potent; in herbal pharmacopeias; it is con-
sidered to be very hot energetically (as you can see for yourself if
you chew a fresh piece), and very drying. Because it is so hot, gar-
lic is inappropriate when there is a high fever, inflammation, red
rashes or eruptions, or when the tongue appears scarlet in color.
Some people with a tendency toward acid reflux, or burning in
the stomach will likely find garlic to be too harsh digestively, but
for those with weak digestion, poor appetites and chronic loose
stool, garlic may be a short term pick-me-up.
Garlic has somehow received the name “The Stinking Rose,”
but the origins of the nickname are dubious. If you have ever eat-
en a great deal of garlic, you may have gotten a whiff of another
notorious quality that garlic has and begin to suspect a rather
sophomoric source for the moniker! Despite it all, it was recent-
ly reported in The Scientific American that cows given a dietary
supplement of allicin showed a marked decrease in pathogenic
bacteria and a subsequent 15% reduction of methane gas from
their infamous cow flatulence. Now we know that garlic can help
reduce greenhouse gasses too!
One can feel the robust effects of garlic as soon as it is tasted,
so it should come as no surprise that garlic is also a famed aph-
rodisiac, which may be one of the reasons it was eschewed by
www.naturalnutmeg.com February 2010
33
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56