The Stinky Rose
Garlic: Worth More Than Its Weight in Gold!

By Uncle Paul

Today I want to take you on a journey so far back in time that even the ancient pyramids have yet to be built. We will travel on a small boat 300 miles south down the Nile, passing vicious crocodiles sunning themselves in the desert heat. Melons will be our chief source of fluids as the temperature grows hotter and hotter.

Finally we will arrive on a beach so we can travel by foot to the mouth of the canyon at Abydos, which the Egyptians believed to be the entrance to the underworld. The feeling here is almost mystical, but we won’t enter the canyon because we have eight miles more, and another 4000 years back in time, to where we will find the first evidence of the treasure of the stinky rose. Clay sculptures and paintings on clay tablets of the stinky rose were found here in the cemetery at El-Mahasna.

Ancient Egyptians treasured the stinky rose so much that 15 lbs of it could buy a slave, and the first known strike in history took place because of the absence of the stinky rose.

The slaves who built the Great Pyramids refused to work because the stinky rose showed up late. It is said to have cost the Pharaohs $2 million in today’s money to provide the stinky rose to slaves during the construction of just one pyramid. It is estimated slaves ate 1.5 million pounds of the stinky rose to increase their stamina and maintain overall health.

Today we know the stinky rose as the incredible miracle herb, garlic. Throughout history, garlic has been used to heal. The Summarians in 2600 BC used garlic for its healing powers, and they introduced it to China, where garlic’s popularity later spread to Japan and Korea. In 1500 BC, records show garlic was prescribed to cure 22 diseases.

The ancient Greeks and Romans used the herb for repelling scorpions and curing bladder infections. Around 50 AD, the chief medical officer of the Roman army used garlic to treat soldiers with intestinal worms. Greek athletes believed that chewing garlic would help them outperform their competition.

In 1772, four French grave-robbers raiding plague victims’ corpses in Marseilles were amazingly immune to the plague. Their secret was garlic in vinegar, which became known as the Vinegar of the Four Thieves. They ate it, anointed their clothes with it, breathed through garlic-soaked rags, and even took baths in it.

Yes, the stinky rose has an intriguing history. But more important is the history it is making today.

Garlic’s sulfur content is the highest of all vegetables, three times higher than broccoli and onion. Garlic is a source of selenium, an important trace mineral that helps slow down the aging process.

Three medium cloves of fresh raw garlic contain 13 calories, 1 gram of protein, 3 grams of carbohydrate, and 2 grams of sodium. Garlic does not contain fiber or fat.

Garlic is a mini-storehouse of minerals, including manganese, copper, iron, zinc, sulfur, calcium, aluminum, chlorine, and selenium. Ironically, raw garlic has little biological activity. But when you “damage” the cloves — by slicing, cooking, or chewing — the enzyme alliinase immediately converts alliin into allicin, which gives garlic its characteristic odor.

Allicin was once thought to be garlic’s principal active ingredient. However, researchers now know that allicin is rapidly oxidized. More than 100 biologically active sulfur-containing compounds, proteins, and saponins are created as a result of this oxidation. While allicin may still serve as a general marker of garlic’s potency, research increasingly points to S-allylcysteine and other compounds as the most therapeutically active ingredients in garlic.

There are more than 1,000 studies being done on garlic today because of its importance in the fight for good health. Garlic is shown to help combat Candida infections. In one study, they injected an aged garlic extract into mice with Candida infections. After a day, the Candida colonies numbered 400, compared with 3,500 colonies among the mice given only a salt-water solution. After two days, the garlic-treated mice were free of Candida.

Medical studies have shown that garlic — the aromatic seasoning people either love or hate — can lower cholesterol, prevent dangerous blood clots, reduce blood pressure, prevent cancer, and protect against bacterial and fungal infections.

As a cancer treatment, it was recorded in 1550 BC that garlic was used externally for the treatment of tumors by Egyptians and internally by Hippocrates and Indian physicians.

Scientific research has also confirmed garlic’s role as a natural antibiotic. One theory suggests garlic promotes phagocytosis, the ability of white blood cells to fight infections. Another theory is that garlic stimulates other immune cells, such as macrophages and T-cells, to fight bacterial and viral infections and to scavenge for cancer cells.

So pick up that stinky rose, truly a treasure, and begin your journey to better health, stamina, and let us not forget — incredible taste.

Uncle Paul, along with his wife Calla, owns Uncle Paul’s European Style Open Air Produce Market, 2310 SE Hawthorne, 503-484-8612 or visit www.unclepaulsproduce.com