Garlic

Garlic is used widely as a flavoring in cooking, but it has  throughout  history also been used as a medicine.

A bit of interesting history, “The original Olympic athletes in Ancient Greece were given garlic – possibly the earliest example of “performance enhancing” agents used in sports. According to experts at Kew Gardens, England’s royal botanical center of excellence, the people of ancient India valued the therapeutic properties of garlic and also thought it to be an aphrodisiac. The upper classes avoided garlic because they despised its strong odor, while monks, “…widows, adolescents, and those who had taken up a vow or were fasting, could not eat garlic because of its stimulant quality.” Throughout history in the Middle East, East Asia, and Nepal, garlic has been used to treat bronchitis, hypertension, TB, liver disorders, dysentery, colic, intestinal worms, rheumatism, diabetes and fever”.