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Garlic and onions are more than just an ingredient in tonight’s dinner. Garlic and onions also help fight infections and heal the human body. People far back in history were well aware that both of these foods had medicinal. They were consumed on a regular basis in order to protect themselves from getting sick and also as a way to help them heal quicker in the event that they did come down with an infection.

Scientific research studies support the fact that onions and garlic are worthy of being eaten every single day in order to provide optimum health benefits. Although pungent, these are not foods that should be easily dismissed. Never let the unpleasant aroma cause you to avoid them. Perhaps it would not be wise to eat onions or garlic before an important meeting or a date however.

These natural foods are full of chemicals that can help protect a person from a variety of infections, diseases and illnesses. Garlic and onions help to protect against a plethora of physical problems such as cardiovascular disease, respiratory concerns, diabetes, and a variety of cancers.

A number of tests have shown that a diet rich in garlic helps to lower the total cholesterol rate of an individual, including the bad cholesterol or LDL while at the same time it raises the good HDL cholesterol in the bloodstream. Garlic is responsible for producing cells in the blood that are deemed “natural killers” and these can help to fight off many different kinds of infections as well as deadly tumors. Garlic lowers blood pressure and it decreases the risk of developing blood clots. Blood clots are to blame for the incidence of many strokes and heart attacks.

Garlic fights bacteria and viruses and therefore helps to prevent infections and it decreases the risks of a number of different types of cancer, with an emphasis on cancers of the stomach. It is important to note that garlic is best eaten in its raw form and its medicinal properties are at their height when garlic is cut up, sliced up or chopped. Cooking garlic, especially for too long or at high temperatures is responsible for destroying some of the compound known as “allicin” in it as it is allicin that makes garlic as healing in nature as it is.

Onions have many health benefits as well. Much like garlic, onions help to increase the HDL cholesterol in the blood, especially when they are eaten in their raw state. Onions also help to decrease the bad cholesterol or LDL in the blood and they increase the ability of the blood to dissolve blood clots. Onions are excellent at decreasing the risk inherent in developing diabetes and help to fight off the bacteria that are responsible for causing many infections in the human body. Onions decrease the risk of many different types of cancers. A compound known as quercetin has been discovered in onions and this compound is extremely powerful when it comes to fighting cancer and is an excellent antioxidant.

While eating onions and garlic may not win you any fans, they will win you many years of good health.

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Scott Meyers is a staff writer for It’s Entirely Natural, a resource for helping you achieve a naturally healthy body, mind, and spirit. You may contact our writers through the web site. Follow this link for more informaton on Food Cures.

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Tags: antioxidants, cancer, cholesterol, Diabetes - Insulin Resistance, Food Cures, garlic, hdl cholesterol, onions

Unfortunately, no matter how well you take care of yourself, you still inevitably come down with a cold or the flu. Even if you do all the right things such as eating a nutritious diet, exercising on a regular and getting plenty of sleep, illness can still get you.

If you do catch a cold you are always told to make up a pot of chicken soup. Studies have proven that chicken soup is indeed effective at fighting the physical aches and pains of the common cold. Bear in mind, however, you should eat small quantities of chicken soup, but as often as possible, to reap the beneficial results for your health.

It has been shown that chicken soup works to break up the congestion in the nose by thwarting the flow of the secretions from the nose. The white blood cells that come out in droves due to a sore throat and a head cold can be inhibited by chicken soup, which decreases the inflammation in the head as well as the creation of phlegm.

There is an amino acid in chicken, which is known as cysteine, and this is released when the soup is added to broth to make a soup. Once the cysteine is released in the making of the soup it becomes very much like a popular drug called acetylcysteine that is prescribed by physicians to patients who are suffering from bronchititis.

The mucus in the lungs is thinned out and this helps to release much of the congestion and the cough. The vapors from the hot chicken soup are one of the best antidotes for “cleaning house” when it comes to the common cold. Hot, spicy foods are excellent for kick starting the immune system and flushing out impurities so add some items such as onions, garlic, cayenne pepper or even jalapeno peppers to your chicken soup to facilitate faster healing.

Another excellent food remedy for congestion is garlic. At the very first sign of a cold starting consume several cloves of fresh garlic as it can help to encourage your immune system to get into gear and it helps to rid the body of congestion. Garlic is a very powerful food that has within it a special substance that is excellent at killing a virus known as the human rhino virus, which is to blame for many head colds as well as parainfluenza 3, which is a virus that causes a person to become sick with the flu. But the benefits of garlic when a person is sick do not end there. Garlic helps to encourage watery fluids building up in the lungs, throat and mouth to leave the body as soon as possible. The mucus that is characteristic of a cold is thinned out thanks to the presence of garlic and it is gotten rid of as swiftly as possible. Garlic also has the ability to fight inflammation, which makes it an excellent food to have on hand all of the time.

There is no cure for the common cold or flu but doing the right things can help to minimize it’s uncomfortable effects.

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Scott Meyers is a staff writer for It’s Entirely Natural, a resource for helping you achieve a naturally healthy body, mind, and spirit. You may contact our writers through the web site. Follow this link for more informaton on Food Cures.

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Tags: chicken soup, cold, Food Cures, garlic