I've been doing some online reading about garlic and how it's supposedly bad for your health.

Apparently garlic contains a toxin that can be harmful. I read somewhere that airline pilots aren't allowed to eat garlic as it's bad for their concentration.

Another website claims that it distrupts brain signals.

What are your thoughts on this?

I thought it was supposed to be good for your heart ?

hang on... very vaguely... didn't we once discuss this and it was something like a certain type of garlic or garlic that had gone green or something????

Steve

I've never come across it on here, but then again I haven't looked.

I thought it was good for you too...

I don't know, so many things that are good, are bad for you. not only that, the views change every few years! Eat what you like, in moderation.

Farlic is certainly bad for the man sitting next to you, if you are the one who has eaten it! LOL!!

Ha ha ha Farlic eh? Mamta.

Green garlic ? is it the garlic gone green which is toxic as mentioned by Steve? I know that green potatoes are toxic and should not be consumed, potatoes which are exposed to sunlight turns green.

I certainly agree with you, Mamta. Who or what to believe?

Maybe this is one for Lapis. :-)

Farlic indeed! That will teach me to check what I write! I can't even correct it now. Never mind, garlic, farlic, they are all the same ;-)!

I haven't seen anything. There was some talk about garlic not lowering blood cholesterol levels, so what?

Garlic is supposed to have anticeptic properties, but then, so are many other things we eat. I go along with Mamta, things in moderation, except potato salad, made with home-made mayo, and spring onions, I could eat that for ever.

Of all the claims for 'special' properties for food and spices, the only one I believe is that cloves help with toothache!! Everything else, large pinch of sodium chloride.

Large pinch of sodium chloride is bad for you Lapis ;-)!

Cinnamon is good for lowering you blood sugar.

Cumin helps with indigestion.

1/2 tsp. of ground black pepper, mixed with honey definitely relieves cough, an ancient remedy and it works.

Bottle gourd is good for numerous things, if you listen to my mother (cure for everything in her eyes) and now the famous Baba Ramdevji.

I started writing down about 'Foods and Health' a long time ago and then forgot! Must dig it out and get it completed.

Mamta

Hi Mamta,

I though you had written "Farlic " on purpose (after eating raw garlic stay FAR away)......anyway my dad's gone ga ga over baba Ramdev's remedies but some of his gold / silver? "bhasms" are not cheap.

I don't think I will live that Farlic down, will I?

Although I never follow anyone blindly, Baba Ramdevji has brought the Yoga and Ayurvedic remedies to the masses in India.

I remember meeting him many years ago at his old Ashram, when he was starting to make a few TV documentaries. I went to the Ashram with my mum and her sister, who have been living at the Jwalapur Vanprastha Ashram for over 25 years. Ramdevji and his friend Vaidya Balakrishna ji were a lot younger then. I remember Ramdevji sat on a little dais in the small hall there, and gave us some Yoga instructions. Balakrishna ji gave my some hypertension medicines 9van't remember what), but they made me feel quite ill, so I stopped them, probably too strong. I do believe that a lot of Ayurvedic medicine are very effective, if taken properly. So, your father is not doing badly following him.

Mamta

although an excess of salt is not necessary, we still need some to carry out vital body functions, as you well know, Mamta. ;?)

I don't believe cinnamon lowers blood sugar levels, but could believe that cassia reduces blood clots, as it contains coumarin, which is the basis of warfarin, the anticoagulant.

Honey sooths throats, well, yes, but I would have thought giving pepper to a person with a cough counter productive?

As for Ayurvedic medicine, I mustn't comment, we would get into serious disagreements ;?) Modernn medicine works for me, and I'm sticking to it.

nothing on google shows any problems except one group of people saying it puts your left and right sides of the brain out of sync and makes it difficult for your psychic powers !

Steve

Hello Lapis

Yes indeed, some salt is required by our body, but we eat far too much in our foods these days, especially the ready-made ones.

Things like cinnamon, bitter Gourd, Karela, Fenugreek seeds, Neem, Bay leaves etc. do reduce the blood sugar somewhat, but not enough to control one?s diabetes completely and they certainly don?t cure it as some people say they do. The problem with Ayurvedic practitioners is that they do not accept the limitations of these treatments and often make people give up their conventional medicines, to disastrous end. There is some work on cinnamon in diabetes, not sure how authentic it is and how well controlled the trails are, if any.

The first time my mum said to me about taking black pepper in honey for cough, I nearly had a fit, thinking black pepper is going to make me cough and splutter! But it does seem to work, better than honey alone, just as ginger extract and honey do. As there are not controlled trials of these things, no one can say with absolute certainty whether they do.

Modern medicines work, of course they work, but we often forget that they don?t always and often have side effects. Take for example medicines for CVS, hypertension specifically. So many have side effects and patients often do not realise this, putting up with the SE?s. Even the statins have drastic side effect in some people, which I have discovered to my own cost.

We have to accept that Ayurvedic medicines have some place in medicines in certain conditions, but they do not cure many things that claim to. It is more to do with the practioners than the medicines themselves. They have to be given by people who have studied it properly, not some quacks sitting in a side room who have learned from a few books like ?Dadi ma ke Nuske? (grandmothers medicines) and set up shop.

oops - I was talking about garlic

Steve

I was taught by a Dorset farmer that the best remedy for most colds/flu etc. was a combination of honey, apple cider vinegar and a pinch of pepper. It works! - and it actually quite palatable, a sort of sweet and sour medicine.

My mates dad used to always put pepper in hot water or his cup of tea (can't remember which) and never had a cold !

Steve