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Fighting Colds and the Flu with Garlic

Garlic.  In cold and flu season it’s always available at our house.  When someone has a scratchy throat, or when I feel my chest tightening up and my breathing getting difficult, I take out my cutting board and mince some garlic. Some of my kids chew it; my husband likes it in bruschetta or on tomatoes and cheese; and the rest of just swallow it with a glass of water.

Because we had company, I didn’t take any garlic when I first started feeling ill late last week.  So this weekend it took 10 cloves (!!) in two doses, with a lot of vitamin C and sleep to make me feel well again.   Usually 4 cloves of minced garlic, a bit of vitamin C, and a few early nights are enough to cure me.

I am so thankful that I did not have to struggle through exhausting coughing fits or take medications!  Garlic works for our family almost every time.

A side effect of eating garlic is, of course, that you cannot go out because of the intense smell, so you’re forced to stay home and rest…helping you get well even sooner.

I posted about garlic’s many other health benefits a few years ago.

For more tips, visit No Ordinary Blog Hop, Encourage One Another Wednesday, Women Living Well Wednesdays, Works For Me Wednesday , Raising Homemakers, Thrifty Thursday, and Frugal Friday.

10 Comments

  1. Jenni says:

    I definitely load up on garlic when I feel a cold coming on! 🙂

    1. Annie Kate says:

      It makes a huge difference, doesn’t it?

  2. JoAnn says:

    My friend just told me about taking garlic as an antibiotic, though she mentioned taking the pill form. I have a friend that eats it like you, though I won’t do that. 😉 I haven’t decided if I’m going to get the pills yet, though I have been cooking with a lot of garlic lately. But not so much we smell like it. 😀

    1. Annie Kate says:

      To get the cold-fighting benefits, you have to take a lot at a time. That just seems to be the way it is. But other benefits come from taking a bit at a time, so that’s a great thing to do, too.

  3. Loved the garlic post! You are brave woman to eat it raw and that many of them. I’ve done it before but if I eat it raw I will mince it and put it in oil and salt.

    1. Annie Kate says:

      Not brave, but desperate. I am not strong enough to deal with a lot of coughing, so I need to nip colds in the bud.

      My husband likes to make it taste better like you do; I just want to get it down. 🙂

  4. Jenn4him says:

    I love garlic! Isn’t it wonderful when something so tasty is also good for us. 🙂

    1. Annie Kate says:

      Yes, it’s a great thing! I thank the Lord for garlic.

  5. I’m reading “Food: Your Miracle Medicine” and keep standing in awe of how God placed such healing power in food. Garlic is amazing!

  6. Anna-Marie says:

    Does it work if you use it in cooking. We use alot of garlic with our cooking, maybe that is why we don’t get sick often:) Thanks for linking up to the NOBH

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