Can you imagine anything worse than being somewhere in public and realizing your breath is loaded with a smell so pungent that it’s offending everyone in a one mile radius from you?

It may be fair to say that garlic tops the list there.

Yikes. I’ve nightmares about this and think having a constant supply of a combination of mouthwash and chewing gum in my bag would be a great idea, but the fact remains that licking some grrr-lick can work nothing short of wonders for you, despite its grrrr factor.

Plus with a reputation for preventing everything from the common cold to aging, garlic is as much known for its versatility as for its effectiveness.

Hey, it can even be effective as a repellent - and not just for mosquitoes.

The word garlic comes from  garleac, meaning “spear leek” in Old English. It is reported to be native to Central Asia, and dates back over 6000 years.

But it was the Egyptians historically that took garlic to the next level. They worshipped it and placed clay garlic bulb models  in the tomb of none else than Tutankhamen. Can you believe, they even used it as currency? Who would’ve thought that money could stink so bad?

Egyptian folklore holds that garlic repelled vampires and ghosts, protected against the “Evil Eye”, and warded off nymphs said to terrorize pregnant women and engaged maidens. Garlic was also considered an aphrodisiac in Egypt. Nature decided to enshrine this super-substance in stink.

Researchers have known that the distinct aroma, flavor and healing properties of garlic come from an organic compound in garlic called allicin, which is also a powerful antioxidant or something that stop the damaging effects of radicals that can accelerate certain diseases.

Like a lot of other herbal medicines though, garlic was not subjected to a vigorous scientific study until earlier this year.

In a Science News report,Queen’s University Chemistry professor Derek Pratt, who led a study on how garlic does it said “We didn’t understand how garlic could contain such an efficient antioxidant, since it didn’t have a substantial amount of the types of compounds usually responsible for high antioxidant activity in plants, such as the flavanoids found in green tea or grapes.”

The  team experimented with synthetically-produced allicin, they found that an acid produced when allicin decomposes rapidly reacts with radicals, more than the allicin itself, explaining its effects better.

According to Dr. Pratt, who is Canada Research Chair in Free Radical Chemistry, no one has ever seen compounds, natural or synthetic, react this quickly as antioxidants.

“The reaction between the sulfenic acid and radicals is as fast as it can get, limited only by the time it takes for the two molecules to come into contact,” he told Science News.

That’s all for the science part. From the personal angle, I wonder why Nature wraps extremely good things in extremely bad packages. Maybe the rock band, The Verve, got it right when they sang that life is a bittersweet symphony. And sometimes it’s easier to appreciate the sweet, when you’ve had a taste of the bitter.

(Images courtesy of www.braquiplan.com & www.britannica.com)

Revered in India as “holy” this golden-yellow colored powder is worth its weight in gold, that too nutritionally, but not monetarily.

Any guesses what I’m talking about?

This ingredient has been hailed for centuries for its ability to treat wounds, infections and other health problems. But until recently, the science of the healing remained a mystery.

We’re talking, of course, about turmeric. None else can fill its yellow shoes.        The Turmeric Plant

The use of turmeric as a coloring and healing agent for food  dates back to as far as 600 B.C. Amongst the other oldest recorded references to turmeric is an account by Marco Polo in his travels to China in 1280. Repeated historical references to turmeric across communities ensured it crossed over from folklore into everyday use.

Curios researchers that flocked to test the powder in the last few decades, identified curcumin as the chief active ingredient in turmeric. This said little though, apart from changing the alphabets that carried the mystery from turmeric to curcumin. But it added specificity to the “magical” effect of turmeric, by labeling curcumin an antioxidant, anti-cancer, antibiotic, antiviral and other properties has been revealed.

It wasn’t until March this year that University of Michigan researchers led by Ayyalusamy Ramamoorthy discovered the scientific basis of curcumin’s activities in human cells.

It turns out that cucurcmin is somewhat of a Nazi. The molecule inserting itself into the cell membranes, somehow making them more orderly. And somehow being lined up straight makes cells more resistant to infection and malignancy.

If you ask me, while the curcurmin is doing everything it’s supposed to in cells, the scientists need to do some more explaining.

Ramamoorthy, the lead Professor of chemistry and biophysics behind this work told Science News that the cell membrane goes from being crazy and floppy to being more disciplined and ordered, so that information flow through it can be controlled.

Wow.

With no science education to her credit, my grandmother just knew that  giving me turmeric in milk when I had a cold as a child growing up in India, would work wonders for me. It did.

Natural antibiotics like turmeric exemplify what I think should be a larger trend. It is this larger trend that Michel Pollan is advocating throughout the country in his talks. His book, aptly titled “In Defense of Food” argues, that nature has everything we ever needed for healthy living and that it is time society took a step towards a more natural form of living. His argument that there are cultures all over the world today that are closer o nature and healthier than the more affluent, but more artificial societies of the west also points us in the same direction.

In fact, if anything, it is unnaturalness that is the primary cause of  unhealthy lifestyles today. The sheer change in levels of human activity in the last few decades are probably nothing less than an evolutionary shock to the human body, which was programmed for far higher levels of activity. From forging for our own food, to moving less than a few feet to reach into the fridge, is a spectacular change and one that definitely comes with implications.

It may be useful for us to realize that biggest experiments with food were for earlier times, and those times solved the major questions. Ours may be to stick to that and interestingly, this makes me think that progress can sometimes mean regressing, but intelligently.

According to Science News, Ramamoorthy too was given turmeric laced milk to drink when he had a cold as a child, (not by my grandmother though.)

If there is one thing everyone can agree on it is that water is all important to our health and good looks.  Sure, sometimes you feel like something a little more exciting than a glass of straight up h20.  But it can be difficult to avoid sugar and sugar-substitutes in flavored waters, ingredients you definitely do not need to add to your health plan.  Fortunately, there are two great (and healthy) alternatives for flavored water lovers. 

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I can remember as a kid blowing the fuzz off of a dandelion weed and making a wish. Little did I know that dandelions were nutritious. Dandelion greens are considered a leafy vegetable that contain more nutrition than broccoli. Having a higher content of vitamins A, and C, and iron. Dandelions also contain lots of magnesium and potassium.

The best time to eat dandelion greens is in the spring and early summer when the leaves are still young. Dandelion greens should be harvested in early spring, before the flowers appear.  They’re a bit bitter but taste fantastic in a salad. You can also saute the flowers, roots and leaves with onion and garlic, serve them on a sandwich or salad, boil the leaves and serve like spinach or add them to your green smoothies like I do!

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Ahh, the joys of iced tea.  Even in the depths of winter, sipping a tall glass of sweet iced tea calls to mind lazing around on the porch under a warm midsummer sun.  What’s more, it’s even good for you!

While there are some good bottled iced teas on the market with natural ingredients, making your own at home offers many advantages: less packaging waste, guarantee of no artificial ingredients or HFCS, unbeatable freshness, and complete customization for your taste preference perfection.

If you’ve been inspired, as I have, to green your beverages by making your own coffee and even soda pop at home, then here are some tips on making your own sweet iced tea.  After all, we’ve just survived February, we’ve earned a look ahead into summer!

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Or are they?

In this weekly series, we’ll be looking at several baby essentials that really aren’t.  They may be useful in certain situations, but if money or space is tight, or if you’re just looking to simplify and reduce consumerism and waste, here’s how to get along just fine without these so-called “essentials.“

In Part 1, we questioned the crib.   Part 2 bemoaned the bucket.  Part 3 scrutinized the stroller.  Part 4 ditched the diapers.  This week, let’s scrub the tub!

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Other than drying or freezing them, another way to use fresh herbs to create delicious herbal taste into the colder months when we may not have as hearty a harvest available (although window herb planters are kind of cool for winter-fresh herbs.

Herb-Infused Vinegars
As Kelli Best-Oliver wrote earlier this week in her ‘five cool things to do with herbs’, making herb-flavored vinegars is pretty easy. She suggests heating the vinegar slightly. I’ve never done that, but it seems like a good idea!

I usually use white wine, white balsamic or champaign vinegars for these. My current favorite (and the one people are getting for x-mas this year) is tarragon vinegar, which of course makes an awesome bernaise sauce (always served at our traditional McWilliams family Christmas eve dinners).

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