Addicted to garlic

by Susun Weed | Mar 11, 2010 | Columns, Magazine, Wise Woman Ways | 1 comment

Hi Susun,

I think I am addicted to garlic. I eat at least 2-3 raw cloves a day, usually on a gluten free bagel drizzled with olive oil or in a bowl of pasta. Can you suggest more ways to incorporate garlic into my diet? Also, what are some of the health benefits? Thank you!!

Susun’s response:

Garlic (Allium sativum), also known as the stinking rose, when consumed regularly has amazing health benefits. Garlic will help you improve cardiovascular health, prevent cancer, counter infections including anthrax, and find a safe source of phytoestrogens (great for menopausal women).

Garlic is a great friend to old hearts. Several cloves a day of fresh, raw garlic can lower blood pressure, reduce phospholipids and cholesterol, strengthen heart action, increase immune response, reduce platelet clumping and clotting (thus reducing strokes), and stabilize blood sugar levels.

If you don’t like raw garlic, then use powdered. A four-year study found women who ingested 900 mg (1/4 teaspoonful) of garlic powder daily had 18 percent less arterial plaque than those taking a placebo.

Garlic and its smelly relatives (onions, chives, and leeks) are hormone-rich plants that most women crave. Garlic is an excellent source of phytoestrogens; these hormone-like substances not only reduce cancer incidence, they help ease the menopausal passage.

An easy garlic tonic is made this way: Fill a glass jar with fresh garlic cloves, no need to peel them. Pour honey over all, until the jar is nearly full. Place on a plate and let sit for at least 24 hours before using. A spoonful is a dose. This tonic will keep at room temperature for a year.

Eat 1/2 clove of garlic a day and watch your blood pressure drop!

You can get the benefits of garlic by eating it in any food, fresh or powdered. Try this simple recipe for instant garlic bread: Mince garlic and spread on hot buttered toast. Here are some more of my favorite raw garlic dishes:

• Scrambled eggs topped with minced raw garlic
• Tomato sauce with chopped raw garlic added just before eating
• Yogurt cheese with minced raw garlic on whole wheat crackers
• Minced raw garlic on a baked potato
• Herb vinegar and minced raw garlic on cooked greens like dandelion, spinach, kale, collards, mustard, amaranth, or lamb’s quarters

Green blessings, Susun Weed

Author

Susun Weed

Susun S. Weed has no official diplomas of any kind; she left high school in her junior year to pursue studies in mathematics and artificial intelligence at UCLA and she left college in her junior year to pursue life.

Susun began studying herbal medicine in 1965 when she was living in Manhattan while pregnant with her daughter, Justine Adelaide Swede.

She wrote her first book -- Wise Woman Herbal for the Childbearing Year (now in its 30th printing) -- in 1985 and published it as the first title of Ash Tree Publishing in 1986.

It was followed by Healing Wise (1989), New Menopausal Years the Wise Woman Way (1992 and revised in 2002), Breast Cancer? Breast Health! The Wise Woman Way (1996), Down There: Sexual and Reproductive Health the Wise Woman Way (2011), Abundantly Well - Seven Medicines (2019).

In addition to her writing, Ms Weed trains apprentices, oversees the work of more than 300 correspondence course students, coordinates the activities of the Wise Woman Center, and is a High Priestess of Dianic Wicca, a member of the Sisterhood of the Shields, and a Peace Elder.

Susun Weed is a contributor to the Routledge International Encyclopedia of Women's Studies, peer- reviewed journals, and popular magazines, including a regular column in Sagewoman.

Her worldwide teaching schedule encompasses herbal medicine, ethnobotany, pharmacognosy, psychology of healing, ecoherbalism, nutrition, and women's health issues and her venues include medical schools, hospital wellness centers, breast cancer centers, midwifery schools, naturopathic colleges, and shamanic training centers, as well as many conferences.

Susun appears on many television and radio shows, including National Public Radio and NBC News.
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