Garlic

I personally have always thought of garlic as an herb, but it’s actually a vegetable. It belongs to the Allium class of bulb shaped plants, which also includes Onions, Chives, Leeks, and Scallions.

I know from experience as I’m sure most everyone does that garlic causes some nasty garlic breath after you eat it. Here’s a helpful fact to solve that problem. Drinking lemon juice or eating a few slices of lemon will stop bad garlic breath. 

Back before I got IBS, I ate pizza all the time. My favorite kind of pizza was garlic pizza. I could eat more slices of that pizza then a girl my size should be able to eat. Afterwards my breath would smell like garlic for days. No matter how many times I brushed my teeth I couldn’t get the smell out. Even mouth wash didn’t work. So knowing how to stop garlic breath would have been really helpful to know.

Garlic is a powerful natural antibiotic, but it doesn’t target specific issues. It will help with a broad spectrum of problems. The best part is, bacteria in the body does not develop a resistance to garlic as they do to the modern day pharmaceutical medicines.

Garlic also helps loosens plaque from the artery walls and strengthens the body’s defense against allergies.

It can help reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke for multiple reasons. It lowers blood pressure, decreases platelet aggregation, lowers LDL or bad cholesterol levels and increases HDL or good cholesterol levels.

Even though I can’t eat pizza any more I still eat garlic. I put garlic on my popcorn; something my older sister introduced me too. I thought it would be awful but it mixes with popcorn and butter really well.  I don’t even put that much on, just a couple of pinches worth.  I’ve also sprinkled it on my other vegetables to help enhance their flavor. Raw vegetables in my opinion need some kind of flavor enhancement to be enjoyable.

Home Remedies

Toothaches - cut raw garlic and rub the cut edge on the tooth and gums a couple of times per day

Warts – crush fresh garlic cloves and apply until the wart disappears

Bloating/ stomach cramps – cut a garlic clove into tiny pieces and swallow them all in one shot with a bit of water.

Asthma – mix 10 drops of garlic juice with 2 teaspoons of honey and swallow

Warnings

Eating too much of raw garlic can cause irritation or damage to the digestive tract.

Garlic can thin the blood, similar to the effect of aspirin.

The Olive

I’d love to say that olives have no health benefits at all. Why? Because I don’t like them and don’t want a reason to eat them.

Oddly enough I first decided I didn’t like olives, not because of the taste, I had never tried any at that point, but because of a school project.  In eighth grade I had to take the dreaded technology class. That year we did different aspects of technology every quarter. I was pretty bad at all of the units, especially the one with the power tools. One of the units though was a computer program. We had to design different objects in this program. One of the objects we had to do was an olive. Not the black kind but the green kind with the red center.  Can I just say that those olives look disgusting.  Now since I was no good at this program I couldn’t get the olive put together right, so I ended up staring at this ugly thing for many classes. Who wants to stare at that for days, really?  It was then that I decided I didn’t want anything to do with olives.

Olives are rich in Iron, vitamin E, copper, and have a good source of fiber.  They also have the healthy monounsaturated fats which increase HDL or good cholesterol 

 All of these things combined make olives have a protective effect on cells that can lower the risk of damage and inflammation.  They help reduce the severity of asthma, and osteoarthritis. They help prevent heart disease and colon cancer. Interestingly enough they also help prevent the frequency and intensity of hot flashes in women going through menopause

I did try olives at one point because I knew I shouldn’t discriminate against them because of their looks, but they tasted just as bad as they looked.  I pick them off everything or eat around them now. Sometimes the dining hall will have olives in something and I won’t see them so I’ll eat it. It’s not a good day for me when that happens.

Even though olives do have health benefits, which was really disappointing to me. I have decided that I am still not going to eat them. For all of you out there who like them though they, especially the women, they are very helpful.

Sweet Peach

When thinking about peaches most people think yellow peach but there is also a white peach. What’s the difference? The white ones are white in color on the inside and they are sweeter.

I found out that the white peaches even existed by accident. The friend of mine that has been trying to help me learn how to bake decided that we should make a peach pie. I was over the moon about it because I love peaches. She went to the store and grabbed all the ingredients and when she got back she called me over. It was baking time!

Peaches contain a ton of vitamins and minerals, for example iron and fiber, but it contains one that has been rumored to prolong the life span, potassium.  If you don’t have enough potassium, you're likely to have fatigue, anxiety, muscle weakness, skin problems, poor memory, congestive heart failure or heart deterioration. So peaches are a good way to keep your potassium up.

When my friend and I started slicing up the peaches I noticed they were white on the inside. I asked her if they weren’t ready or something. 

“Crap! I grabbed the wrong ones. These are white peaches,” she said.

So that day I learned about the existence of white peaches and made a white peach pie. For the record it was absolutely delicious.  I liked it just as much as I like yellow peach pie. I’d be happy to munch on either kind now. 

Peach tea is known in Eastern cultures to be a kidney cleanser. They don’t mean the peach flavored tea that most of us drink.  This tea has to be made from the pits of peaches. It has been claimed that peaches are good for relief of stomach ulcers and other digestive issues like colitis and kidney disease.

Peaches also contain lycopene and lutein. These are carotenes, like beta-carotene. There are studies and signals that these two substances, can help prevent macular degeneration, cancer and heart disease.

A couple years ago my dad decided he wanted to plant some fruit trees in the backyard to go along with his garden.  He knew he wanted a cherry tree but he wasn’t sure what other kind to get. I voted peach tree and made sure to remind him of that on a daily basis. My mom also agreed with me and so we ended up with a peach tree. The peaches have not yet grown to full size on the tree but for the past couple of summers I’ve gone out there and watch it bud.  I watch those cute little fuzzy peaches get a little bigger and can’t wait until the tree is big enough to let those guys grow to size. I’m dying to eat them.

Magnificent Mangos

Did you know that mangos originated over 4000 years ago?

Mangos are a fruit that I didn’t even know existed until I went to college. The first time I had some, one of the dining halls on campus was throwing a Hawaiian themed dinner which was amazing. I fell in love with mangos immediately. I didn’t know what I was eating but it was ranked as one of my most favorite fruits after that. Lucky for me someone I was with knew what mango was so I was able to find and eat it again.

Mangos have enzymes that help break down protein. It also contains fiber. Both of these things help the body with digestion.

My neighbor and close friend (who goes to the same college as me) has been trying to teach me how to bake over the past year. I admit regretfully that I’m a disaster in the kitchen though she is optimistic. I’ve managed to make the crust of lemon bars completely disappear before even though it was there and intact before it went into the oven. I’ve never figured out how that one worked. I’ve also set the microwave on fire like three times. When I got engaged I wanted to try and change that and become a baking goddess.  Needless to say that hasn’t happened. Even so I want to bake a mango into a pie, but my friend tells me that when she looked it up she found that heated mango wasn’t very good.  I’m disappointed.

Mangos are said to be connected to healthy skin when eaten or applied externally. They clear clogged pores and get rid of pimples (I should probably eat one of these right now because I’ve been breaking out recently). Here is a link to a homemade mud mask. It shows you how to make it if you want to give it a try. http://realfoodforlife.com/randys-mango-mud-mask/ I find it very interesting and might try it myself.

Mango leaves have been known to normalize insulin levels. A home remedy is to boil the leaves in water and leave them soaking all night. Then consume in the morning.

I also found that mangos are supposed to improve sex! :0   They contain a good source of Vitamin E. It is found that a balanced amount of Vitamin E can improve sex (I had mangos with my fiancé once but it was right before I had to get on a plane and come back to New York so I have no idea if that one really works).

Mangos are also a great source of Vitamin A and C so they help improve vision and boost the immune system. 

I love it when food I enjoy eating turn out to be so good for me because then it isn’t a struggle when I try to be healthy!