To Ilana: Regarding Garlic

[Guest guest]

You know, I'm probably really used to garlic by now. I do remember that when

I first used it, juiced together with carrot, it felt like liquid fire going

down (or Moonshine, LOL) and I sort of felt like I'd been hit by a train.

But this feeling quickly subsided, and I felt so much stronger within an

hour, I just kept drinking that juice. I've never had all that much

difficulty taking noxious-tasting medicines anyway. And all garlic cloves

are not created alike, either...! I've had the experience of biting into a

particularly potent one and not enjoying it one bit. But other times and

with other cloves the experience is quite different.

 

You don't really know if you are having a good or bad reaction to the

garlic. It is potent, and so is eating fresh horseradish, or biting into a

hot pepper. If you're worried about your stomach lining, what I would do is

to take a little tiny clove, or half a clove, and juice it with carrot and

spinach and a liitle piece of beet. I don't know if you do juices often but

IMHO if you don't, make only a 6 or 8 ounce cup at first. Just drink it

first thing in the morning instead of a meal. See how you react to it. If

you haven't already, invest in a good book on the medicinal effects of

juicing. I recommend this because from what I've heard you can sometimes

feel awful from taking juices but you are actually undergoing a detoxifying

reaction. I have to admit I've never used juices to detox, really, just as

an adjunct to my usual diet. Some of the other group members could probably

give you more advice on this than I could. But anyway, you are starting with

a little piece of garlic. And do this for a few days, and if there is no

heartburn or any of the effects you are afraid of, you can try putting more

garlic in.

 

Another good way to get fresh garlic in your system is to make an oil and

vinegar salad dressing, to which you add a minced half clove of garlic. I

don't usually mince garlic or use a garlic crusher, BTW. I use the side of a

4-sided grater, and the garlic comes out in little tiny pieces just the way

you would want it. You'll want to whisk the dressing together so it doesn't

separate so easily. And then just pour it over your salad.

 

Oh we were talking about garlic as a tincture. A tincture is a really

concentrated form of a substance. So if by chance the active principle were

NOT destroyed by making the tincture, you would tend to have an even

stronger reaction to it than to the fresh substance, as I understand it.

 

I have some really cool books about herbs and tinctures but some of my

health library is at my mother's house right now. One of my favorites was by

Michael Tierra, I believe. I think it described the difference between

different methods of introducing herbs into the system. And some group

members here might know more about this as well.

 

Fran