Health Benefits of Garlic – Lehsun Ke Fayade

How do you eat garlic?

Garlic is delicious and very easy to add to your diet. Wherever possible, it should be consumed fresh. However, if fresh garlic is not available, you can use garlic powder too. Find the recipe of how to make garlic powder at home towards the end of this post.

Health Benefits of Garlic / Lehsun ke fayade

Garlic (Allium sativum), is used widely as a flavouring in cooking, but it has also been used as a medicine throughout ancient and modern history; it has been taken to prevent and treat a wide range of conditions and diseases.

In fact, a couple of days back the Ayush Ministry (Ayurveda & Well being) of India released a circular which advocates use of garlic amongst other things. Thereby, nationally endorsing the health benefits of garlic.

It is not that Ayurveda does not acknowledge the health benefits of onion and garlic. Ayurveda recognises onions and garlic as blood purifiers. Moreover, garlic is used to prepare various ayurvedic medicines.

But Ayurveda does not support their excessive usage as it considers onion as tamasic in nature (makes people irritable) and garlic to be rajsic (disturbed sleep and drained energy) in nature. As per Ayurveda, both these ingredients produce excessive heat in the body.

Health Benefits of Garlic are Significant

From Ancient Egypt, garlic spread to the advanced ancient civilisations of the Indus Valley (Pakistan and western India today). From there, it made its way to China.

Garlic has acquired a reputation in different traditions as a prophylactic as well as a therapeutic medicinal plant. Health benefits of garlic have played an important dietary and medicinal roles throughout the history.

Some of the earliest references to this medicinal plant were found in Avesta, a collection of Zoroastrian holy writings that was probably compiled during the sixth century BC. Garlic has also played as an important medicine to Sumerian and the ancient Egyptians.

There is also some evidence that during the earliest Olympics in Greece, garlic was fed to the athletes for increasing stamina.

Ancient Chinese and Indian medicine recommended garlic to aid respiration and digestion and to treat leprosy and parasitic infestation. In the medieval period, garlic was also played an important role in the treatment of different diseases.

Avicenna in his well-known book, Al Qanoon Fil Tib (The Canon of Medicine), recommended garlic as a useful compound in treatment of arthritis, toothache, chronic cough, constipation, parasitic infestation, snake and insect bites, gynecologic diseases, as well as in infectious diseases (as antibiotic).

With the onset of Renaissance, special attention was paid in Europe to the health benefits of garlic. Garlic has attracted particular attention of modern medicine because of widespread belief about its effects in maintaining good health.