Raw Food Forums

Hello everbody!

Just a query regarding raw garlic. I know some people call this an excitotoxin. Others say it is extremely good for us (antibacterial properties and etc).

What are your experiences with raw garlic?

I've realized (DURHHHH!!!!! :mellow: :mellow: :mellow:) after all these years that it gives me the most painful indigestion possible. I should have been bright enough to remember this from when I was a kid!!! LOL!

Does anyone care to share their thoughts with me  on raw garlic?

Best cheers,
Niqi

it is a fantastic medicinal herb. It also makes me very flatulent, so bad in fact, that I had to stop eating it! Onion does the same.

I sometimes use it as a medicine, or if I'm eating out, but not as an everyday food. I would have no friends left.

Hi Niqi,

Just wondering where/how you came to "know" that garlic could be an excitotoxin?  Where is that written?  I've never heard that at all.  Just wanting to know for my own knowledge and research.

Thanks heaps

Rita :heart:

Hi Rita - I'm taking this with a grain of salt, because I LOVE garlic, and of course I do know the nutrionalist's point of view that garlic is healthy and good for you.

Doug Graham says in the 80/10/10 diet that "Herbs and spices like garlic, onion, curry, cumin, ginger, cayenne, chili powder and oregano contain alkaloids and other toxic chemicals. These seasonings stimulate our taste buds and nerves while delivering toxins to out nervous system. Their use should be avoided, or at least minimzed. They act as irritants in the digestive tract, often causing the body to produce mucus for protection. They also function to disguise the bland or noxious taste of cooked foods and seduce us into consuming foods that would not attract us on their own." Graham, D. (2006). "The 80/10/10 Diet". p256

I've read on Harley's posts too that garlic has been called an exitotoxin.

Before anyone shoots me down; I'm just saying that these points of view exist. I do not necessarily subscribe to them.  :shrug:

All I've noticed is that since going predominantly raw, raw garlic gives me the worst indigestion I've ever experienced. It really hurts! I am wondering what anyone else might be experiencing with raw garlic. This pain used to happen to me when I was a teenager (and presumably less backlogged with toxic sludge!!LOLOL!!!!) when I ate raw garlic.

It's food for thought; if raw garlic gives me pain, then maybe there might be something in it that is toxic TO ME???

Best cheers, Niqi

I have found raw garlic to be absolutely fantastic for warding off colds and flu.

Trouble is, according to the David Klein book about healing UC, I am not meant to have it, so I have dramatically reduced my intake over the past year.

You can eat it straight – but this is only for very brave souls. I tried it once in 1995 but never tried it again.

I prefer it chopped up fine and mixed in with a salad. Once you mix it around, especially with other strong flavours (grated beetroot), you can really hardly taste it, just the odd poof here and there.

It is also good to add to a vegetable juice – pretty wicked.

You can also peel a bulb and put it in your sock overnight in bed. The garlic will be absorbed into you body through your sole. Just be careful if you get up in the night for the loo and forget its there. Can make hobbling to the loo quite an adventure.

At one stage I was eating raw garlic every day and it would have been seeping through my pores - put it this way, I always got a seat to myself on the train.

I was at a talk of his with a real doctor and she said he was way off the mark with some of his information. She also said that some of his information was completely incorrect. She said she did not correct him, as she did not want to embarrass him in front of his audience.
 
So now I tend to take much of what “doctor” Doug Graham says with a large grain of salt.

From personal experience, I know how good garlic, onion, ginger and cayenne is in regards to natural health matters. They all kept me mainly cold and flu free for many years, or at least helped to reduce my symptoms if I did happen to come down with something.

I like it. I wouldnt eat it every day. Im not a big fan of 'condiments' myself but this is something i feel has more medicinal properties, and id like to have some growing in my backyard eventually.

You can eat it straight – but this is only for very brave souls. I tried it once in 1995 but never tried it again.
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Yeppy- have had the same experience.

Raw garlic can give me a volcano in my tummy both upways AND downways.

Pity, because I Love the taste and no matter what anyone says, I DO love it's qualities. I don't think it's as bad as all that!!!

LOL!!!

Niqi

It doesnt give me indigestion. I use it still in some dips and dressings, but find raw need alot less. Like a small slice off a clove, anymore and its overwhelming. That amount is perfect in raw dishes, you could use 2 slices of it if it was being roughly chopped and not blended.

It might be a problem if i consumed it in larger amounts.

When I first went raw I was still using loads and loads. These days making the same dressing I will have only a tiny amount and only if necessary. Love it loads, just can taste it over everything else.

xoxoxo

I've discovered that going into the garden and cutting off a few leaves from the growing bulb still gives a nice mild garlic taste, without any of the intestinal upsets. It's great, I've been making a yogurt-style sauce from sunflower seeds, garlic leaves, lemon juice and mint. Brilliant!

Thanks for the tip omshanti, I will have to try that one day.

I love garlic but am unfortunately also unable to digest it, very painful. so maybe there is some truth in Dr D's opinion.
(Since there are so many of us who have problems dealing with it.)

Does "excitotoxin" refer to some spiritual paths which abstain from garlic, leek, onion because it "excites" their practitioners into thinking impurely?

one night i had about 2 hole cloves of garlic in my dinner and later on i had such bad stomich painz that my boyfriend hads to take me to te hospital!

sucked as!

slice it paper thin with a razor(like in goodfellows) and only use tiny amount...

i had a violent reaction to maca for a while but cut it back to a scarick and built my way back up, now i can eat a tablespoon if i want..

same with chilli, it would give me the worst gut ache, but recently i worked my way up from a tip of a finger size to now a whole one in my guacamole...

good luck

i think garlic is amazing, i'd be more worried about artifical excitotoxins rather that natural ones..

maybe crush with celtic sea salt  :laugh:

Hi Guys, I used to love garlic, cooked or raw, i am now about 7 months into my raw journey I cant eat it much at all now.
It simply makes me feel ill. I like Omoshanti's  idea

Just wondering if 'garlic chives' which i think is similar to above would do the same thing, it is too late to plant garlic here now.
((())) frang

I love my garlic chives. Eat them all the time. They do give a mild flavour. Try and see!

xoxoxox

I have 'society garlic' growing in my feral garden. It grows like a weed all year round and adds a nice subtle flavour..in the spring though when it flowers if there is even the slightest breeze you can smell it a mile off. We used to have it growing next to the front door until I moved it. If a dish calls for garlic I pinch off a few leaves of the society garlic and add it instead..i find that it doesn't have the same flatulent effect that normal garlic sometimes has.
To be honest I don't think i've ever used garlic chives but i suspect that the society garlic might be a wild version...or not.  :shrug: