My 4YO baby girl is definitely taking after her health freak mommy for she can eat raw garlic!  Whenever we dine at restaurants, I will surely request for a plate of chopped raw garlic to eat with the dishes.  Not that I heart raw garlic. I hate the aftertaste of garlic in my mouth.  But I heart reaping the health benefits from eating raw garlic.

After being told that raw garlic can heal her from a flu that she was having, my health freak baby girl began scooping raw garlic and ate them with her rice and dishes, as shown in this picture here.  I’ll bet no other 4-year old would eat raw garlic without giving you a disgusted look on his/her face while trying to feign puking. But not my baby girl.  It was only when my mil commented that the chopped raw garlic may not be clean that I stopped Cass from putting more chopped raw garlic into her mouth.    My mil commented that the cleanliness of the chopping board used by the restaurant worker is highly questionable, which is very true.  I wouldn’t be surprised that after chopping raw meat on the board, the restaurant’s foreign worker  chopped  raw garlic on the wooden chopping board.  A damp wooden chopping board, especially one which has contact with raw meat is a very good breeding ground for bacteria.   The next time I chop garlic, I’ll be sure to save some  for Cass to eat it with her rice and dishes.  My 2 older girls are not that adventurous though.

Food For Thought
Below are some main health and medicinal benefits of garlic.
Note: To get the full health benefits of raw garlic, you have to do just that – take it RAW! Commercial garlic pills, tablets, oils and capsules, especially the odorless ones, are often devoid of the active enzymes that provide the benefits. Crushed, raw garlic may be mixed into virtually any meal, or put in gelatin capsules for easy swallowing, or drunk as a tea by simply crushing 1 or 2 cloves and adding hot water.

Health & Medicinal Benefits of Garlic

Powerful immune system enhancer

1. Antibacterial, antiviral
2. Antifungal – effective remedy for yeast infections & candida
3. Clears boils & infected sores
4. Improves appetite
5. Digestive aid – especially good if eaten with meat
6. Increases libido – take several raw cloves a day
7. Expels intestinal parasites & worms
8. Reduces high cholesterol
9. Health Remedies Using Garlic Cloves

Below are some Chinese health remedies using garlic cloves as the main ingredient. These are common, traditional ways that Chinese people make use of the health benefits of raw garlic.

Garlic Tea:
Put 1 or 2 cloves of crushed garlic and 1 or 2 grams of loose-leaf green tea in a teapot. Add a teaspoon or two of unrefined brown sugar if you wish. Pour in boiling water that has been left to cool slightly. Stir the mixture and let it steep for several minutes before drinking. After wards, leave the ingredients in the pot, as you can top it up with more water once or twice throughout the day. This is a common folk remedy for killing germs and resolving toxins in the body.

Garlic Nose Drops:
This is a preventative for the common cold and sinus problems. Crush several cloves of garlic to obtain the juice. Mix with warm water at a ratio of two parts water to one part garlic juice. Lie down and use an eye-dropper to place a couple of drops into each nostril as soon as you feel any symptoms coming on. Continue for as long as necessary. If the drops overly irritate your nostrils, stop, or reduce the number of drops.

Garlic Paste:
Crush 2 garlic cloves and mix with several drops of pure sesame oil to make a paste for external application to boils,carbuncles and infected sores. Cover then reapply when the paste becomes dry and falls off. If the skin becomes overly irritated discontinue use or wait for a day or two and try again.

Maximizing the health benefits of raw garlic to get the full health benefits of raw garlic, whether in salads, as tea, or in capsules, it’s important you eat less refined, processed and canned foods, and more foods in as close to their natural state as possible. Afterall, what’s the point in taking fresh, raw garlic to improve your health while, for instance, continuing to eat nutritionally-dead, toxin-producing junk foods?

According to Traditional Chinese Dietary Therapy, garlic is warm in nature (i.e. heaty) and a strong stimulant. Therefore, people who have excess heat in their body should first balance their system. Excessive internal heat comes from eating too much heaty food and drinks, e.g. meat, fried foods, coffee and alcohol. This causes symptoms like red eyes, bad breath, constipation, yellow urine, a yellow tongue moss and acne. If you have these kinds of symptoms, eliminate or greatly reduce the above items from your diet for a few weeks before you start eating garlic regularly, or it will just make your body hotter and your symptoms worse.

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