Excessive Garlic Consumption Is Not Beneficial (Photo Gallery)
The downside of eating garlic is that it leaves an unpleasant aftertaste in the mouth for a long time, so many people don't like to eat it. However, for its antibacterial properties, we sometimes force ourselves to eat some garlic. Eating garlic in moderation is good for your health.
Garlic Is Good for Everyone, But Not Everyone Can Eat It
The allicin in garlic has excellent anti-inflammatory effects and is very effective in killing bacteria that cause colds and bacterial diarrhea. However, although garlic is good, it is not suitable for everyone, and it cannot be eaten every day.
In addition to aiding digestion, strengthening the stomach, promoting digestion, and its antibacterial functions, garlic and garlic preparations also have strong effects on regulating blood lipids, lowering cholesterol, anticoagulation, inhibiting tumor cells, lowering blood sugar, protecting the liver, and enhancing immunity. Garlic not only has antibacterial and anti-inflammatory effects but can also prevent and treat cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and has anti-cancer properties, making it very popular. The allicin in garlic has excellent anti-inflammatory effects and is very effective in killing bacteria that cause colds and bacterial diarrhea. However, although garlic is good, it is not suitable for everyone, and it cannot be eaten every day.
Patients with Eye Diseases
People with eye diseases such as glaucoma, cataracts, conjunctivitis, styes, and dry eye syndrome should eat less garlic.
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that long-term, large consumption of garlic can "damage the liver and harm the eyes." Therefore, patients with eye diseases should try to avoid eating garlic, especially those who are weak and have a deficiency of qi and blood. Otherwise, over time, symptoms such as decreased vision, tinnitus, a heavy head and light feet, and memory loss may occur.
Life Tips
In addition to eating less garlic, it is best to eat more eye-nourishing foods when you have an eye disease. The occurrence of dry eye is related to vitamin A deficiency, so you should eat more foods rich in vitamin A, such as animal liver, eggs, and milk. In addition, carotene or carotenoids in foods like carrots, tomatoes, and spinach can be converted into vitamin A in the body. Some people have symptoms such as photophobia, tearing, blurred vision, and easy fatigue, which is related to a deficiency of riboflavin (vitamin B2) and vitamin B1 in the body. They should eat more pork heart, lean meat, green vegetables, eggs, milk, beans, fish, and brown rice to supplement. If you have conjunctivitis or a sty, you should eat more cooling fruits and vegetables such as mung beans, cucumbers, bananas, and winter melon.
Patients with Liver Diseases
Many people eat garlic to prevent hepatitis, and some even eat it every day after contracting hepatitis. This practice is extremely detrimental to hepatitis patients because garlic has no effect on the hepatitis virus. On the contrary, certain components of garlic can irritate the stomach and intestines, inhibit the secretion of intestinal digestive fluids, and thus worsen symptoms such as nausea in hepatitis patients.
In addition, the volatile components in garlic can reduce red blood cells and hemoglobin in the blood and may cause anemia, which is not conducive to the treatment of hepatitis.
Some Patients with Diarrhea
When non-bacterial enteritis or diarrhea occurs, it is not advisable to eat raw garlic. Eating raw garlic will further stimulate the intestines with the pungent allicin, causing congestion and edema of the intestinal mucosa to worsen, promote exudation, and aggravate the condition. If diarrhea has already occurred, eating garlic should be done with even more caution.
Other Patients with Severe Illnesses
Eating spicy foods like garlic and chili is beneficial for healthy people to maintain long-term health, but for patients with severe illnesses who are taking medication, it has obvious side effects. It not only can make the medication ineffective but may also have a chain reaction with the drug, putting the patient in danger. Other spicy foods that may have a chain reaction with drugs include: ginger, fennel.
Garlic contains alliin and alliinase, which can generate allicin in the stomach, a substance with strong bactericidal ability. Regular consumption of garlic can inhibit and kill harmful intestinal bacteria. However, after developing enteritis and diarrhea, it is not advisable to eat garlic.
Diarrhea is often caused by catching a cold or eating contaminated food, which leads to inflammation and edema of local intestinal tissue, hypersecretion of intestinal glands, and a large amount of fluid entering the intestinal cavity. At this point, the intestinal cavity is already in a saturated state. If you eat spicy foods like garlic, it may further stimulate the intestinal wall, causing further congestion and edema of the intestinal wall's blood vessels, thus worsening the diarrhea. Therefore, acute diarrhea is not suitable for eating garlic, especially raw garlic. Eating garlic to prevent diarrhea and kill bacteria only shows its effect before the illness occurs.
If you have unexplained diarrhea that does not resolve quickly, you should go to the hospital for an examination to get the right medication.
Regular Garlic Consumption Can Prevent Cancer
Garlic was planted, eaten, and used for medicinal purposes in China starting from the Han Dynasty, when Zhang Qian traveled to the Western Regions, so garlic is also called "foreign garlic." According to records, Hua Tuo in the Three Kingdoms period used garlic mixed with wine to expel parasites. "Green Scale Pill," a famous patent medicine in the Song Dynasty, had garlic as one of its main ingredients. The famous physician Li Shizhen once used garlic on the soles of a patient's feet to cure a nosebleed (see "Compendium of Materia Medica").
As a vegetable, from sprouting to forming a bulb, garlic offers green garlic, garlic scapes, and garlic bulbs, holding an important position among vegetables with its special aroma. Famous dishes include garlic scapes stir-fried with meat or young chicken, and braised meat with garlic bulbs. Even common dishes like braised eggplant, braised tofu, and cold-mixed tofu are inseparable from garlic bulbs. In addition to containing vitamin B, green garlic and garlic scapes also contain various vitamins, and their carotene and vitamin C content are very rich. Vitamin C, in particular, can reach up to 102 milligrams per 100 grams, which is 2-4 times that of general vegetables.
As a seasoning, in addition to helping digestion and stimulating the appetite, garlic contains a pungent volatile substance called allicin, which has extremely strong and extensive bactericidal properties. For example, chewing one clove of raw garlic for 3 minutes can kill various bacteria hidden in the mouth. Therefore, raw garlic is indispensable in almost all cold dishes and pasta (like cold noodles and cold rice noodles). People in the north often eat raw vegetables, so they have more opportunities to eat garlic. As for seasonings, there is a saying, "ginger in the south, garlic in the north."
As a medicine, garlic has antibacterial, insecticidal, detoxifying, anti-inflammatory, and stomach-strengthening effects. The phytoncide in garlic can kill influenza viruses, staphylococci, streptococci, meningococci, bacilli that cause typhoid and paratyphoid, and dysentery, as well as pathogenic bacteria like cholera and diphtheria. Garlic also contains ingredients that can stimulate the phagocytic ability of human macrophages.
The sulfur-containing compound mixture in garlic essential oil has a significant preventive and therapeutic effect on hyperlipidemia. According to German research, eating 3 grams of garlic daily can significantly lower cholesterol levels in the blood of patients with high cholesterol and high blood lipids. British doctors have also found that garlic can dissolve internal blood clots and can therefore be used for conditions like coronary artery thrombosis.
Garlic has the function of preventing certain cancers. For example, for stomach cancer, it can inhibit bacteria in the stomach that produce nitrosamines, thereby reducing the formation of nitrosamines. Survey data shows that in areas and populations that grow garlic and have a habit of eating it, the incidence of stomach cancer is only one-third of that in other areas. People who eat raw garlic for a long time have much lower levels of nitrites in their stomachs—the precursors of the strong carcinogen nitrosamine—and the bacteria that produce nitrosamines are significantly inhibited. Garlic contains sulfonamide components that can gather heavy metals in the body's organs and expel them.
Eating garlic in moderation is greatly beneficial to our bodies. However, some wrong methods can mislead us into harming our health, which is得不偿失 (not worth the loss).