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Recipes with Garlic: Chick Pea with Italian Herbs & Red Wine
People may naturally crave garlic in autumn for relaxation and transition to a more inward-focused winter hibernation. Cooked garlic is a useful sleep aid in garlic milk. It is also an aphrodisiac and awakens desire. Raw garlic is pungent, cleansing, has a laxative action, and may cause gas in some individuals.
For cleansing properties, raw garlic is more potent than cooked, especially the green shoots in the center of the garlic clove. In western medicine, garlic is used to prevent high blood pressure, perhaps because it is a blood thinner and stimulant, dilates blood vessels (vasodilator), increases sweat (diaphoretic), and increases urine (diuretic). These circulatory properties may also underlie garlic's secret in preventing heart disease, atherosclerosis, and high cholesterol.
Garlic is a warming stimulant used as an aphrodisiac. However, it also causes bad breath and smelly sweat due to a compound called allyl methyl sulfide. Cooking garlic with milk reduces bad breath and offensive sweat. Mushrooms and basil may also reduce the odor.
The laxative and circulatory qualities of garlic are useful in cleansing regimens. It is also an expectorant. Its antifungal and antibiotic properties have been used to speed recovery from strep throat. Garlic mixed with honey has been used for rheumatism.
Garlic is considered to stimulate and warm the body and to increase one's desires. For this reason, monks in India avoid garlic.
About Garlic
Regarded as both a force for good and evil, folklore and superstition abound when it comes to this little but poignant member of the onion family. A garland of garlic kept evil spirits and vampires away in the west. In an eastern Islamic myth, garlic arose from the left foot of Satan as he stepped out from the Garden of Eden. Whether you love or abhor it, few are ambivalent about garlic, or "stinking rose" as it is sometimes called. The entire plant is edible.
Buying & Preparation
Garlic cloves should be firm to the touch. Reject garlic that is soft or moldy. To peel, smash the garlic beneath the flat side of knife. The skin will crack open. With proper chopping techniques (knife to thumb knuckle) you can quickly prepare cloves and cloves of garlic!
Cooking Garlic
Keep careful watch when cooking garlic; it burns quickly. Straining and using garlic oil gives a rich garlicky taste without the side effects of bad breath afterwards.
Raw garlic has a sharp pungent flavor. Cooked garlic is mellower. Fresh green garlic is less intense than dried older garlic.
The pungent, spicy flavor and distinct aroma of garlic is a fundamental component of culinary repertoire in nearly every continent. In the west, garlic is used in garlic bread, pasta dishes, and oil infusions, and often paired with onion, tomato, butter, and parsley. It may be roasted in an oven with olive oil.
Ajoblanco, from Spain, is a combination of bread, crushed almonds, garlic, water, olive oil, salt and sometimes vinegar. The thick, Greek sauce known as Skordalia combines crushed garlic with a pure of potatoes, walnuts, almonds, or stale bread that has been soaked. This mixture is then beaten with olive oil to make a smooth emulsion. Aioli is a sauce made of garlic and olive oil.
In East Asia, garlic is often combined with ginger and onion to form "tri-root." In Korea, heads of garlic are fermented at high temperature, making a sweet, syrupy product known as black garlic.
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AYURVEDA'S GUIDE TO VITALITY & WHOLESOME NOURISHMENT
Your Ayurvedic diet is tailored to your individual body and your specific imbalances.
With an Ayurvedic diet you feel joy and satisfaction because what you are eating truly nourishes and balances you.
Disease results from diets and lifestyles that are incompatible with your nature.
By eating a personalized diet matched to your body, you experience optimal health.
See How it Works.
Ayurveda assesses metabolic imbalances through 20 main biocharacteristics
(gunas).
Aggravating them weakens your body and causes imbalance.
By knowing which biocharacteristics are habitually imbalanced in your body, you will be able to identify and correct metabolic imbalances before you get sick.
Every biocharacteristic has an opposite which balances it (i.e. hot balances cold).
You restore balance by favoring diet and lifestyle choices that increase the opposite biocharacteristic.
Taste is used to sense the most basic properties and effects of food.
Each taste has a specific medicinal effect on your body.
Cravings for food with certain tastes indicate your body is craving specific medicinal results from food.
Taste is experienced on the tongue and represents your body's reaction to foods.
Sweet taste causes physical satisfaction and attraction whereas bitter taste causes discomfort and aversion.
Kapha should use less sweet taste while Vata and Pitta would benefit from using more sweet taste.
One of the first signs of illness is that your taste and appetite for food changes.
The six tastes are sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, and astringent.
Do you crave foods with any of the tastes below?
Ayurveda is a metabolic theory of medicine that explains individual health, tendencies, and disease patterns through the concept of doshas, which can be understood as your metabolic patterns and tendencies.
Each dosha reflects a distinct metabolic nature and describes strengths & weaknesses in bodily function, and how these affect energy levels, digestion, susceptibility to disease, and many other tendencies.
Your metabolic nature not only affects your physical characteristics, but also influences your mental thought patterns, confidence, and enthusiasm.
Ayurveda balances these metabolic strengths & weaknesses to support your body's vitality and prevent recurrent disease cycles. This support is a critical aid, especially in chronic or incurable disease conditions.
The 3 metabolic body types
(doshas),
are Catabolic (Vata), Metabolic (Pitta), and Anabolic (Kapha).
Through dosha, Ayurveda empowers people to identify metabolic imbalances early, break repetitive patterns of disease, and cultivate habits that support long-term vitality and well-being.
Ultimately, these metabolic patterns also provide a framework for understanding yourself, including body, mind, and spiritual tendencies.
Ayurveda & Greek Medicine were the dominant form of medicine along the Silk Road from England to China and South Asia.
They work by assessing your metabolic type, patterns, and nature.
Greek medicine recognizes 4 metabolic temperaments, Melancholic, Choleric, Sanguine, and Phlegmatic.
Cold and dry with a slow, variable or erratic metabolism. Colicky, tense. Withdrawn, pensive, anxious, and hesitant. Analytical, intelligent, detail oriented and creative. Prone to ojas depletion, dehydration, an overactive nervous system, and depression.
Has a hot and dry metabolic nature. Enthusiastic, vibrant and bright. In excess burns up fluids and ojas, irritable. Corresponds to high bilirubin in the blood that irritates and heats up the body and liver.
A Phlegmatic has a cold and wet metabolic nature. The coldness implies a slow metabolism, the moisture that you are well-nourished. Phlegmatics tend towards sluggishness and thickened fluids, including mucus.
A hot and oily nature with a moderate metabolism and a well nourished body makes Sanguine individuals vigorous, vivacious, outgoing and generous, and prone to impulsivity and self indulgence. Bullish and intense when out of balance.
Medicinal Benefits, Uses & Herbal Actions of Garlic
Experiences are Personal
Experiences vary according to the person and constitution. Individual results may vary.
The list of herbal-actions below has not be approved by the FDA and should not be used to treat a medical condition.
An herb that increases appetite or settles a nauseas or nervous stomach. These generally increase the digestive fire, therefore relieving symptoms of sluggish or difficult digestion.
Stimulant laxatives induce bowel movements by stimulating peristaltic movement (the contraction of smooth muscle in the intestines). They are effective when used on a short-term basis. On a long-term basis, they can create dependency. Aka irritant laxativ
Sedative herbs create a sense of calm in the mind and body by specifically calming or quieting the nervous system. Excellent for anxiety, stress and chronic pain.
STRONG ANTIFIBROTIC
Fibrosis of an organ is often a progressive leading to organ failure (i.e lungs, liver, kidney). While vulneraries usually help restore collagen, antifibrotic herbs often clear collagen. Aka fibrinolytic.
Expectorants help you eliminate mucus from the lungs. These herbs often work by increasing the quantity of mucus, or thinning the mucus. Expectorants are indicated when phlegm congests the lower respiratory tract.
STRONG ANTIMICROBIAL
An agent that kills microorganisms or inhibits their growth. Antimicrobial is an umbrella term that can be broken down into specific categories of target microorganism, such as anti-bacterials, fungals, and virals.
Restores the proper function of the body by cleansing the blood and balancing blood chemistry. In Ayurveda terms, they pacify Pitta in rakta. They were traditionally used to revitalize and detoxify after a long winter.
A vasodilator is an herb that widens the blood vessels by the relaxation of smooth muscle cells within the vessel walls, thereby increasing circulation systemically or to a local area.
Herbs that promote urine formation, thereby flushing the kidneys and urinary tract while eliminating any excess water retention. As diuretics reduce water retention, they are often used to reduce blood pressure.
Cholagogues stimulate the production & release of bile from the liver & gallbladder. This refreshes and cleanses these organs, as well as increases bile in the small intestines.
Herbs that increase sexual arousal through various actions including increased circulation, relaxation, stimulation, or tonics that strengthen glandular health.
Garlic may be beneficial for these symptoms.
The suitability of any food for a condition is highly dependent on the individual.
Please see your doctor before using this food to treat a medical condition.
We will use this information to better predict food that helps you.
CONTRAINDICATED FOR THESE SYMPTOMS
Garlic may be harmful or contraindicated for these symptoms.
Note this is not a complete list of all possible contraindications.
Please see your doctor before using this food to treat a medical condition.
Herb Drug Interaction Risk
Here are some potential herb drug interactions with Garlic. Please see your health care provider for more information.
Alterative: Anything that strengthens or cleanses the liver can clear drugs more quickly, requiring a higher dose.
Blood-thinner: Patients on warfarin (coumadin) and other anticoagulants, or who have clotting difficulties, should take special caution to only use blood thinners under the supervision of a medical doctor.
Cholagogue: Anything that strengthens or cleanses the liver can clear drugs more quickly, requiring a higher dose.
Diuretic: Diuretics may clear pharmaceutical drugs more quickly, lowering the effect. Avoid if taking water pills or pharmaceutical diuretics.
Hypotensive: Herbs that lower blood pressure can magnify the effect of blood pressure reducing pharmaceuticals.
Sedative: Do not combine nerve suppressing sedatives with nerve stimulants, pharmaceutical sedatives, most anxiolyitcs, or antihistamines.
View other ingredients for Autumn-Winter
Garlic is recommended for Autumn-Winter. Check out these other Autumn-Winter foods here.
Eating Ayurvedically makes you feel nourished and energized. Food digests with ease when
right for your body type (dosha). Healthy digestion is seen as the cornerstone of well-being in
Ayurveda. Healthy digestion generally prevents illness. If you do get sick, a strong digestive fire
reduces the severity of illness and increases your resilience. It also improves your mood. Once
you begin eating Ayurvedically, you will feel refreshed, vital and strong.
John Immel, the founder of Joyful Belly, teaches people how to have a
healthy diet and lifestyle with Ayurveda.
His approach to Ayurveda is clinical, yet exudes an ease which many find enjoyable and insightful.
John also directs the Joyful Belly College of Ayurveda,
offering professional clinical training in Ayurveda for over 15 years.
John's hobbies & specialties include advanced digestive disorders, medieval Catholic philosophy,
& botany. He holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Harvard University.
John, his wife Natalie and their 7 kids live in Asheville, NC
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* These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
The information and products on this website are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any
disease.
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