Remember the scene? The fair maiden lies helplessly in her bed asleep; hovering over her prostrate body is a large, fearsome bat. In seconds, the bat metamorphoses into the dreaded Count. He approaches his victim, ready to destroy the body and soul of yet another human – then springs backward in terror. For there, hanging from the top of a bedpost is a sprig of garlic.
Garlic’s fame as a vampire remedy may be the fiction of so many Grade-B horror movies, but its powers to prevent and heal disease are not. The little bulb’s medicinal powers were known in Biblical times. Egyptians ate garlic to make them strong and Romans gave it to their soldiers to make them both strong and courageous. Perhaps inspired by the plant’s strong, pungent aroma, people in India and China used it to ward off evil spirits. They also used it to cure all sorts of ills, including broken bones, tuberculosis, and the common cold.
Garlic, found within the onion family, has always been shrouded by mystery, and even today, nobody is sure just what curative and preventive powers it has and why. We know for example, that men in Greece, Italy, and other Mediterranean countries eat large amounts of garlic and have a lower heart attack rate than in northern European countries, but we don’t know why.
What modern research has shown is that garlic does indeed promote good health and it’s particularly good for the blood system because it keeps our modern-day “Count Dracula” – LDL cholesterol or “bad cholesterol” – from clogging arteries. Over the years there has been a lot of evidence that supports the many health benefits of garlic.
Physicians and medical researchers from many nations backed up the plant’s long-suspected preventive and curative powers. They reported that garlic is highly nutritious and contains very few calories. It lowers serum cholesterol, especially the “bad” cholesterol; lowers blood pressure; improves circulation by reducing the “stickiness of the blood;” helps arthritis sufferers; and can protect against several illnesses like the common cold by making the immune system more effective.
It has been found that patients with high cholesterol levels who ate the equivalent of one-half to one clove of garlic a day reduced their total cholesterol and LDL by about 10-15%. Also, The Journal of the National Cancer Institute said research on some 1,600 people in China, a third of whom had stomach cancer, showed that those who had eaten the most garlic and onions were 60 percent less likely to have stomach cancer than those who had rarely eaten these foods.
Laboratory studies have also shown that something in garlic reduces the incidence of some tumors and inactivates some cancer-causing chemicals. We still don’t know for sure why garlic works to prevent and cure disease, we only know that it does. This is likely from the auto immune-stimulating effects.
The verdict: Eat as much garlic as you find palatable, or as much as others around you can tolerate.
SPAGHETTI WITH GARLIC AND OLIVE OIL
½ cup olive oil
2 tablespoons salt
Freshly ground pepper
2 tablespoons of chopped or sliced fresh garlic
1 lb. spaghetti or linguine
2 tablespoons fresh chopped parsley
Boil spaghetti in water salted with 2 tablespoons until desired consistency is reached about 10 minutes).
Sauté oil, garlic, and salt in a small saucepan over low beat. Stir the oil, garlic, and salt frequently, the garlic should be sauteed until it turns a golden color – do not overcook or the garlic will taste bitter. Drain the spaghetti, and transfer it to a warm bowl. Add the olive all and garlic sauce. Add pepper and parsley to each serving. Serves four.
Authors: Dr. William Scarpa Jr. and Matthew Wilhelm, RD, LDN
Read more articles by cardiologist William Scarpa Jr., MD and registered dietitian Matthew Wilhelm, RD, LDN in their monthly newspaper column, Healthy Living in the High Country. Their column is published the first wednesday of the month in the Watauga Democrat. Dr. Scarpa and Matthew are part of Appalachian Regional Healthcare System and are proud to serve the High-Country area.
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