Abundant Living
March 2000

GARLIC: Nature's Antibiotic

Scientific Name: Allium sativum

Parts Used: cloves

Garlic has been known for it's beneficial properties for thousands of years. It's medicinal value was used anciently and continues to be used for both prevention and healing.

The ancient Egyptians used garlic for food and medicine. The Bible, in Numbers, records the children of Israel complaining that they didn't have garlic during their sojourn in the wilderness after leaving Egypt.

Many European countries (especially the Italians and Spanish) have used garlic for over 2,000 years. The Spanish introduced garlic to the new world. The Chinese also used garlic for food and medicine. In many ancient writings throughout the world, garlic is referred to as a cure for many ailments.

The garlic clove contains a very high concentration of sulphur. Sulphur is a mineral that has the ability to carry oxygen to the body. Sulphur carries the oxygen in the body directly to the infected areas.

Medical science discovered that sulphur caused this rapid healing, so in World War II, flowers of sulphur (an inorganic, mined mineral) was substituted for the garlic. In the army, as in other services, sulfa was used for practically every ailment. Wonderful results were seen and doctors were told to use it in ever increasing amounts.

There is an important difference between the healing process of garlic and this inorganic, man-made remedy. The excess of organic materials not used in healing the infection with garlic is easily passed as harmless vegetable fiber from the body. When the man-made sulfa drug is used, however, the inorganic flowers of sulphur remain in the body. This inorganic mineral eventually combines with the urine and forms a substance that cuts up the urinary tract, causing kidney and bladder problems.

The average-size clove of garlic has been determined by the United States Department of Agriculture. One clove provides 7 calories of energy, 0.31 gm of protein, 0.01 gm of phosphorous, 0.07 mg of iron, 0.9 mg of sodium, 26 mg of potassium, 0.01 mg of thiamine (vitamin B1), 0.004 mg of riboflavin (vitamin B2), 0.02 mg of niacin (vitamin B3), and 0.75 mg of ascorbic acid (vitamin C). There are also seventy-five sulfur-containing compounds in garlic. They include: allicin, diallysulfide, cysteic acid, methionine, alliin, and the crystalline isolates from allium sativum, such as S-methyl cysteine and cycloalliin. It also contains seventeen amino acid, including all eight essential ones. (From Encyclopedia of Natural Remedies, by Louise Tenney, MH)

Some uses for Garlic

Rheumatic Pains: Massage painful joints and areas with oil of garlic.

Strep and Score Throat: Take capsules or oil of garlic

Respiratory Congestion: Use a garlic paste made of grated garlic and Vaseline. Apply to the feet and cover.

These are just a few ideas. Garlic is known for it's antibiotic factors so it is beneficial for infections. It can help increase the body's resistance against bacterial infection. Garlic is a great herb to aid the body's own immune system.

Growing Your Own Sprouts

Sprouts should be an important part of your diet. They supply fresh greens year around.

Alfalfa is the most popular raw sprout. Wheatgrass is also best served raw. Avoid supermarket sprouts; they can contain mold and are rarely fresh. Grow your own! It's fun!

Sprouting Directions

Use a quart or half-gallon jar for sprouting. If using the larger size, double the amount of seeds used.

1. Purchase only high quality untreated organic seeds, grains, or legumes which have been tested for germination. Rinse the seeds in lukewarm water.
2. Place two tablespoonfuls of seeds (¼ cup of legumes or grains) in the sprouting jar with three times as much water as seeds. Soak overnight. Many small seeds require four hours of soaking, while some require none. Seeds with very hard coats, such as guar beans, require longer soaking, as long as two days.
3. After soaking, drain the water from the jar. Rinse seeds in fresh lukewarm water and drain again. Lay the jar at an angle (about 70 degrees) in a warm, dark place so the seeds can drain. Cover with a dishcloth or similar cloth.
4. It is important to rinse and drain seeds twice a day. If they dry out,
5. the seeds are ruined. In hot, dry weather you may need to rinse them three times a day. Drain the seeds/sprouts in a dish rack over the sink. In very humid weather, the sprouts should be kept in the dark until ready to "green." Take care to turn the jar over gently. Rapid movement of the jar may cause awkward shifting of the sprouting seeds, breaking the tender shoots and causing spoilage.

Suggestions

1. Do not presoak chia, alfalfa, cress, oat, or mustard seeds.
2. Wire mesh screening is best for draining small seeds. Switch to screening with larger openings for better drainage of bigger sprouts. Screens with lids can be found in the health food stores, or you can use cheesecloth secured with a rubber band around the top of the jar.
3. Rinse water drained from sprouts is nutritious and can be used in soups or to water your plants.
4. When the sprouts reach their full height, place them on a window sill in direct sunlight to develop the chlorophyll; the tiny leaves will turn green within a day.
5. On the fourth day, rinse the hulls from alfalfa sprouts to prevent premature spoilage. Fill the sink with cold water and soak the sprouts. As the hulls float to the top, skim them off with a strainer.
6. Gelatinous seeds such as guar, flax, and chia may not sprout well in a jar.
7. Use sprouts with seeds attached. Sprouts should not be overcooked, which destroys their crispness. Cooking time should be only long enough to remove the raw flavor. We recommend cooking all sprouts except alfalfa.
8. Sprouts my be cooked and served as a plain vegetable. To saut鬠place a small amount of oil in a pan, add sprouts and a small amount of water or tamari sauce. Cover and cook 10 minutes. (Some people prefer to cook sprouts only 5 to 8 minutes) Minced onion or mushroom browned in the oil add flavor, as do shredded carrots, turnips, and cabbage.
9. You can steam sprouts before eating two tablespoons of oil, then cover with butter or you can brown them in a small amount of oil.
10. Cooked sprouts can be added to any vegetable combination for casserole dishes and are popular in stir-fry vegetables. They are a good addition to salads and scrambled eggs or omelets.
11. Add them to potato salad.
12. Try them in rice dishes.

Wheat Grass is the most highly nutritious food on this planet and it is easy to grow. Fill a large tray (the type used for bedding plants) with soil and plant the seeds. Cover with plastic and place them on a window sill until the first sign of green appears. Remove the plastic, water as needed and watch your fresh greens grow. Wheat grass juice is used throughout the world for healing many diseases and is excellent for all intestinal disorders.

Sprouts are alive, they are highly nutritious; no one food offers more. They contain concentrated nutrients.

Sprouts contain protein, vitamins A, B complex, C, D, and E, iron, enzymes, potassium and magnesium, calcium and phosphorus, trace elements like zinc and chromium, and essential amino and fatty acids.

I (Barbara) personally love sprouts: take a fresh slice of homemade wheat bread and add Swiss cheese and Alfalfa sprouts on top. Yummy!!!

Sprout and Bean Salad

16 ounces cooked red kidney beans
Juice of 1 lemon (freshly squeezed)
8 ounces chopped bean sprouts
6 tablespoons olive oil or canola oil
2 stalks chopped celery
Dash of barley malt sweetener or your choice
½ diced green pepper
Dash of spike seasoning
½ finely chopped onion

Stir together the beans, sprouts, celery, pepper, and onion. Make the dressing, blending the lemon, oil, and sweetener together. Season to taste. Pour dressing over salad and top with fresh sprouts. (From Prescription for Dietary Wellness, by Phyllis A. Balch, CNC and James F. Balch, MD)

The new Master Price List are out; a copy came in your March "Horizons."
Additional copies can be ordered for only 20¢ each — Stock No.2070-2

Studies Show Fruits and Veggies are Good for You

(But we already knew that!)

A Report in "JAMA" [Journal of the American Medical Association] showed that according to one study, individuals who ate the most fruits and vegetables had the lowest risk of stroke. Each additional serving of fruits or vegetables lowered risk of ischemic stroke (caused by deficient blood supply) by another 6%. Citrus fruits and juices ranked higher than other fruits. Leafy green vegetables and cruciferous vegetables had the most protective effect among the veggies. Other studies also place the cruciferous vegetables on top of the list in their protective role for women against the risk of breast cancer. (From "Alternative Medicine" Magazine, May 2000.)

The following is a list of scheduled meetings, listing the various locations, contacts, and speakers. These are primarily NSP educational meetings, and everyone is welcome to attend.

Our regular training meetings are scheduled for the third Monday night of each month. Meetings alternate between the Kate Love Simpson Library on Main Street in McConnelsville, Ohio, and The Inn at Marietta in Reno, Ohio.

If you know of any changes to this schedule, or have an event that you would like added to this schedule, please email us and let us know.

For additional natural health training opportunities,
please check our web site at www.TheHerbDoc.com/training/

We're looking forward to seeing all of you at the
Marietta Area Spring Herb Conference!
Check last month's Abundant Living for details.

Barbara's Book of the Month

Instead of reviewing a book for you this month, I wanted to share with you the following item that Jonas read at one of our recent monthly training meetings. I hope it speaks as much to you as it does to us.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Author unknown

The paradox of our time in History is that we have taller buildings, but shorter tempers; wider freeways, but narrower view points; we spend more time, but have less; we buy more, but enjoy it less.

We have bigger houses, but smaller families; more conveniences, but less time; we have more degrees, but less sense; more knowledge, but less judgment; more experts, but more problems; more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little; drive too fast, get too angry too quickly; stay up too late, get up too tired; read too seldom, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom.

We have multiplied our possessions but reduced our values; We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often. We've learned how to make a living, but not a life; we've added years to life, but not life to years.

We've been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbor. We've conquered outer space, but not inner space. We've done larger things, but not better things.

We've cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul; we've split the atom, but not our prejudice; we write more, but learn less; we plan more, but accomplish less.

We learn to rush, but not to wait; we have higher income, but lower morals; we have more food, but less appeasement; we build more computers to hold more information to produce more copies than ever, but have less communication.

We've become long on quantity, but short on quality.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion; tall men and short character; steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the times of world peace, but domestic warfare; more leisure, but less fun; more kinds of food, but less nutrition.

These are the days of two incomes, but more divorces; of fancier houses, but broken homes. These are the days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night-stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill.

It is a time when there is much in the show window and nothing in the stock room. A time when technology can bring this letter by way of your e-mail address, and a time when you can choose either to make a difference, or just to hit "delete."

How to Order Garlic from NSP

NSP's Hi-Potency Garlic provides 400 mg of standardized and stabilized high potency garlic in each tablet, which is equivalent to 1,200 mg of fresh garlic (1,000 mg of fresh garlic = 1 clove). Hi-Potency Garlic is unlike so-called "odorless garlic" supplements which has been stripped of the active ingredients. NSP uses only a pure garlic, carefully processed to maintain maximum allicin-allim potential. A supplement's allicin-allim content is the most accurate means of measuring garlic potency. Each Hi-Potency Garlic tablet is coated with chlorophyll to preserve freshness and ensure the contents are absorbed in the intestinal tract, thereby avoiding any belching or garlic odor on the breath. Hi-Potency Garlic also adds the Synerpro concentrate of cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cabbage and chinese cabbage) and carrot, red beet, rosemary, tomato, turmeric and bioflavonoids (from citrus fruits), for added antioxidant protection.

Garlic contains allicin, the odor-causing agent, and allyl sulfide, both of which are responsible for the herb's worm-killing ability. Hookworms, pinworms, roundworms, and tapeworms all perish in the presence of garlic, and some external applications use garlic for treating ringworm. Dr. Trowbridge, author of The Yeast Syndrome, writes in his book about a University of Massachusetts study which showed that garlic, either in whole clove form or in extract form, helps fight yeast infections. Garlic has also been shown to be more effective against Candida albicans than nystatin, gentian violet, and six other leading antifungal preparations, in both animal and in vitro studies.

 

NSP provides garlic in four forms:

Stock No. 290-0 (100 capsules)
Stock No. 292-9 SynerPro® Hi-Potency (60 tablets)
Stock No. 1694-6 Garlic Oil (60 capsules)
Stock No. 832-3 Capsicum & Carlic with Parsley (100 capsules).