Make Room for Ginger & Garlic in Your Medicine Cabinet

Ginger and Garlic a must during the Winter Months

The prevention or remedy to many common ailments, from the common cold to motion sickness, can be found in your kitchen.

This knowledge actually goes back 5,000 years, when ancient ayurveda found that one’s diet is critical for achieving and maintaining good health. In fact, ancient ayurveda, the art of living in harmony with nature, invented a simple system to create healthy meals with all of the necessary nutrients.

They are defined as the six tastes: sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent and astringent. Garlic and ginger are two foods, which contain many of these tastes and as a result have been found to prevent and treat many common illnesses.

* Common Cold: Garlic has powerful anti-viral properties. One of the reasons garlic is so healing is that is contains five of the six ayurvedic tastes. Ayurvedic medicine is based on an individual’s characteristics and body frame or mind/body types, which are called doshas.Garlic is balancing for all three doshas: Vata, Pitta and Kapha. Rather than wait until you have a cold, try eating garlic regularly to fend them off. Many people who use garlic on a regular basis claim that they have immunity from any cold and flu viruses.
* Indigestion: Garlic stimulates digestion and helps with overall rejuvenation.
* Ear Infection: For an effective home remedy for an ear infection, ayurveda recommends placing a peeled clove of garlic in the ear (not far down of course!) and covering the ear with a bandage to keep the clove in place. Sleep with it in this way and in the morning you will notice a big difference!
* Yeast Infection: For those of you that don’t get squeamish, garlic can even be used for a vaginal yeast infection. Wrap a clove of garlic in gauze and tie securely with a long string of dental floss. Insert like a tampon, and sleep with it inside. Use the string to take out the garlic in the morning.

Garlic can be added to sauces and salads and roasted garlic is mild and makes a delicious spread. There are clay pot garlic roasters made specifically for this purpose. If you don’t tend to cook with garlic, there are odorless garlic capsules available.
* Digestion: Ginger kindles the digestive fire, called ‘agni’, stimulating the appetite and also helps the body to digest, absorb and assimilate food.
* Motion Sickness: used to prevent or relieve all kinds of motion sickness
* Joint Pain: Ginger has a warming property, so it is especially helpful in the cold winter months.
* Cough: Ginger is also known to alleviate congestion and runny noses

Ginger can be used in so many ways, both fresh and dried. Dried ginger is stronger and more concentrated. Ginger is very difficult to eat raw, and not recommended, because of its pungency. However, it’s a delicious addition to sauces or cooked meals, such as stir-fry. It is also delicious in baked goods and dessert, like gingerbread or ginger snap cookies.