Gorgeous Glorious Garlic

Article #2: Gorgeous, Glorious Garlic

Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. To us, a ripe red apple entices. To a tiger, a gory red carcass is enticing.

So, in seeing an article that sings the praises of garlic in the November, 1978 issue of Reader’s Digest, I wonder what is at the heart of it. Magazines usually don’t devote their space to something without a commercial angle unless there is an overriding reader interest. But let’s presume this article is simply an effort to present a topic of general interest which they sincerely feel will benefit their readers.

When we get into the article we find that garlic is praised for about everything except its food value. In fact the windup is that garlic is a “flavoring agent,” a condiment. But in between we find it is quite toxic (not by the tenor of the article but by some of its uses as an antibiotic and an insecticide). It was noted that its juice can be used as an antibiotic to kill a culture of bacteria in just minutes.

We organic gardeners have long known that we can protect our gardens well by planting garlic amongst some of the rows. Also, it is suggested that the juice of garlic can be used for killing mosquito larvae, aphids, houseflies, caterpillars, etc.

But we of life Science recommend that you not eat garlic because of its poisonous qualities. To be sure, the mustard oil of garlic is the sole ingredient for which it is recommended. And just as surely, it is a poisonous indigestible oil that plays havoc with the human constitution just as does the capsicum of hot peppers, the nicotine of tobacco, the solanine of the nightshade family or any of the myriad of other poisons of popularity referred to as herbs.

There will be a day when garlic and other plants bearing poisons will be recognized for what they are and shunned rather than praised.