January 19, 2018 • 44 mins
Garlic has millennia of history with cultures all over the world -- but mostly as a medicine and vampire deterrent, not a food. Anney and Lauren explore how we came to eat garlic, plus whether there's any hard evidence of its supposed health benefits.
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, and welcome to food Stuff. I'm Lauren Volkbon and
I'm Amy Reese, and today we're talking about one of
the things that I shouldn't need. Oh it's one of
my favorite things. It's garlic. Garlic, garlic. I use it
probably every day, and in college people would know I
was cooking because the whole dorm it smell like garlic.
(00:28):
And it's a great pet name. I recently ran into
a dog named garlic, and I'm a second. No, that's
that's really good name. That's like quality. Yeah, like it
a lot. Oh, man, that's too bad, Lauren, Well, what
is it garlic? What is it? Well, it comes from
the lily family, it does. It's closely related to the onion, shallot, chive,
(00:50):
and leak, and is native to Central Asia. The word
traces back to the Old English word for spear leak
our garlic are was a word for for a type
of spear spearhead. Yeah, exactly. Scientifically, it goes by Allium sativum.
Non scientifically, it goes by stinking rose or natural antibiotic
(01:13):
Russian penicillin, vegetable viagra, and plant talisman. I hope that
that has you your interest peaked. Um slang from nineteen
twenties America might refer to garlic as halitosis, italian perfume,
and bronx vanilla. So it's got a lot of it's
got a lot of names. The whole thing is called
(01:36):
a garlic bulb, and each bulb has about ten to
twelve individual segments called garlic cloves. It's a perennial with
bees and other insects doing the pollinating. It can grow
up to four ft or about one point two meters
and is one tough pliant. The U s d A
classifies it as a hardiness Zone eight, meaning it can
withstand temperatures from twelve degrees celsius or ten degrees smary
(01:59):
night to negative seven degrees celsius or twenty degrees fahrenheit.
Perhaps thanks to this hardiness, it's pretty easy to grow,
and it's grown all over. Garlic that's going to be
sold fresh is actually still harvested by hand, and each
segment or clove is a potentially working seed. You can
plant them separately and they'll segment and grow into bulbs,
(02:20):
and the stems of some garlic plants called scapes are
also used in cooking. Their little bit like scallions. There
are just tons of varietals of Allium sativum, plus a
few species of onion uh Genus Allium that are commonly
called garlic, like elephant garlic, which is actually part of
the leak family, which explains why it's kind of milder
(02:41):
and more leaky tasting then true garlic. The two main
sub varieties of Sativum are soft neck and hard neck garlics,
named for the types of stalks that grow up from
the garlics bulb or root. Soft necks have flexible stalks
suitable for braiding once they're eye and hardnecks have stiff stocks.
(03:02):
Makes sense, it does. A variety of soft neck called
artichoke is probably the most common in American groceries. Hardnecks
tend to be a little bit like spicier and more
garlicky uh. Soft necks a little bit more delicate and
grassy tasting. All of the sub sub varieties and that
wasn't me to stuttering like I sometimes do. Like subvarieties
(03:23):
of these subvarieties, they all have slightly different flavor profiles,
which can be really fun to play with if you're
into that sort of thing. Um the Internet can tell
you all about them. Black garlic, by the way, that
kind of chewy, sweeter, more subtle, dark colored garlic does
not grow that way. It's regular garlic that has been
gently fermented. Bacteria. Poop wins again, back, always wins. Yes.
(03:50):
Each year, Americans eat about two fifty million pounds of garlic,
or about two point five pounds her person on average. However,
if you think that's a lot, the South Koreans have
as way beat, with a yearly twenty two pounds per person.
China is the largest producer, though, coming in at an
annual twenty tons, and that is about eight of global production.
(04:13):
During the Chinese garlic craze of two thousand, garlic was
more valuable than gold. What and although the value of
American garlic production was about two thirty two million dollars.
As Americans are the largest importers of fresh garlic, most
garlic used as food in the United States, about about
(04:35):
the market is actually dehydrated and used in processed foods, soups,
frozen meals, garlic bread, salad, dressing, etcetera. South Korea is
the third largest garlic producer, and garlic even plays a
role in the myth of Korea's founding. According to this myth,
a tiger and a bear prayed to the king, who
(04:56):
was God's soon to be reincarnated as a human. In response,
the king gave them mugwart twenty garlic clothes and instructed
them to find a cave, eat those things, pray, and
in one hundred days, if they didn't see sunlight, they'd
get their wish. The tiger didn't have the patience and
gave up, but the bear made it one hundred days
(05:17):
and became a woman. This woman asked God for a son,
and God's son the king answered the call, temporarily turning
into a man, marrying her, and together they had a son.
He became the king and Korea's founder. Yeah. As of
two thousand five, garlic was the top selling herbal dietary
supplement in the United States, accounting for over twenty seven
(05:40):
million dollars in sales. Yes, and I have an interesting
story about this, a personal anecdote. Yes, I had a
friend um and she was a nurse working in Africa,
and she was also I lived with her briefly when
she got back from Africa. It turns out she got
worms while she was contracted worms and um. Everyone she
(06:03):
knew that had been in close contact with her was
recommended to take garlic supplements because they didn't want unless
you had like outright symptoms, they didn't want to treat
you because apparently horrible side effects you can you can
have horrible side effects that you take to get rid
of any kind of parasites. So they suggested garlic in
(06:23):
case any worse symptoms came up. So I had to
take garlic supplement for a while, and it also I
had um an aunt who took it for her heart
to heart health. We will be talking about the veracity
and potential uses of some of this throughout history and
modern day. Yeah, oh yeah, absolutely, there's there's a whole
whole bunch of it right right, But first we have
(06:46):
to talk about the Toronto Garlic Festival. Toronto has a
garlic festival, and I want to go today. There's a
lot of garlic themed festivals around. One of the biggest
in the in the US is California's Gilroy Garlic Festival,
held every summer in Gilroy, a town with some serious
garlic processing industry. But but seriously, they're all over the place,
Like you want a garlic festival like we can get
(07:07):
you to a garlic festival. Done and done field trip. Yes. Um.
These days it is traditionally used as a spice. Around
the turn of the twenty century, French chef x Marcel
Bolston said, it is not really an exaggeration to say
that peace and happiness begin geographically where garlic is used
(07:28):
in cooking. But as with I don't know everything we
talked about, it was and is first used medicinally, so
let's start talking about history. Garlic goes back probably about
six thousand years, from two thousand, six hundred to two
(07:49):
thousand one b c e. The Sumerians used garlic as
a healing agent. The current thought is that from Sumeria
it spread to China, and then from there it's spread
to Japan and Korea. Some food historians dispute this, though,
believing China to be the place of origin instead. Whatever
the case, records of garlic being used as a health
remedy in ancient China go back to two thousands seven
(08:13):
b C. Even being prescribed as an antidepressant, which I
found very interesting. I guess garlet makes me happy. I mean,
aside from the stomach troubles. It's not to say yeah,
I wish it was um. It was also mainly used
though for diarrhea and worm infestation, and in combination therapy.
It was prescribed to treat insomnia, fatigue, headache, and male impotence.
(08:36):
Because it had a heating and stimulating properties, it was
designated as yang in the context of Yin, Yang Yin,
and yang, but um. These same properties precluded it from
Buddhism and also allegedly Japanese cuisine. Yeah. In ancient India,
garlic was recommended for all sorts of stuff from lack
(08:56):
of appetite, cough rheumatism, skin disease, weakness, hemorrhoids. The list
it's on on the Bible mentions garlic. When Moses and
the Hebrews left Egypt, it's written that they missed quote
the fish, the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leaks,
and the onions and the garlic. HM. Ancient Egyptians were big, fat,
(09:16):
oh yeah, huge, just the biggest fans. They used it
as currency, and they sculpted garlic bulbs out of clay
and put them in Kingcut's tomb. And not just his
tomb garlic, yes, the tonal garlic. They put it in
a lot of tumbs, some dated back to three thousand seven,
and possibly it was used in the mommification process. Egyptian
(09:40):
slaves might have been given a daily ration of garlic
to keep them strong for pyramid building. According to Herodotus,
inscriptions on the plates of the Egyptian pyramids tell us
how much their builders used the garlic for this vegetable.
Then he gives a number, which in modern day terms
was approximately thirty million dollars. What yes, and our old
(10:02):
pal Pliny commented in his Works of Garlic twenty three
medicinal uses that you the Egyptians listed. Oh hey, we've
been saying his name wrong this whole time. It's apparently
pronounced plenty um. And thank you to Ben for writing
it on Facebook about that. See, I've had other listeners
right in and say please keep saying it that way. Oh,
(10:24):
it's a fight to about And they all point out
the beer, right. I bet the beer came up in California.
He didn't mention that, but well, I'm pretty sure he
is correct. But there is like a joke to keep
saying it away because of a beer. I don't know. Okay, yes,
well plenty or plenty either way either way, he's our
good friend. He is. He is also on a Bingo card. Yeah.
(10:46):
The one thousand, five fifty BC evers papyrus out of
Egypt listed thirty two illnesses garlic could heal. Another miscellaneous
papyrus fragment from twelve Egypt included a test for male
sterility that called for a woman to place appeeled garlic
glove in her vagina, keep it there overnight, then see
(11:07):
if her breath had any garlic smell in the morning.
If yes, you would have children. Okay, this is this
is my favorite science extension of the episode, because you
can totally apply crushed garlic topically to your skin and
have it wind up triggering your taste, smell, sensory system um.
(11:29):
The American Chemical Society released a really fun video about
this a couple of years back. One of the flavor
compounds in garlic, called allison um, can enter the bloodstream
through the skin. I'm not sure whether this means that
your breath would wind up smelling like garlic, though I
haven't I haven't actually tried it myself. Also, don't don't
put things in your vagina that are not meant to
(11:52):
go in your vagina. You can walk away from this
episode with that. Yeah, that the a CSS video involved
crushed garla in a bag on your foot. Totally Yeah,
just well. I I wasn't aware that would have to
be a thing in the podcast, but it was, and
we're moving on from it. In Egypt, other nearby ancient
(12:16):
cultures that interacted with Egypt got the idea to use
garlic as a remedy. The Talmud called for a meal
featuring garlic on Fridays and mentioned its potential as an afrodusiac.
We're racking up that bingo, we are. The ancient Israelis
used it for hunger, blood pressure, a body heater, and
a killer of parasites. The Babylonians use garlic as a
(12:39):
remedy for stomach aches, and the ancient Greeks they were
garlic groupies too. A Greek market and Athens had an
entire section devoted to several different types of garlic. Garlic
bulbs were found in NS's Palace, located on the island
of Crete and what is sometimes called Europe's first city.
Greek's first Olympic athletes were given garlic to improve their score.
(13:02):
In an example of one of the first performance enhancers. Yeah,
and in the same vein Greek soldiers might receive some
garlic from their commander leaning up to a big battle.
Hypocrates suggested it for all sorts of health things, particularly
for intestinal parasites and as a diuretic. Later in the
first century CE, Greek physician Diosperiety is espoused garlics curative
(13:25):
uses for things ranging from baldness, menstrual cycle regulation, a
leprosy seasickness, colic relief, and anti parasitic and in combination
with wine for a snake bite, which earned garlic the
nickname snake grass. I'm cooler than garlic, but I wouldn't
(13:45):
know what I was getting snake grass. Yeah. Some writings
suggest that poor people sleeping outdoors would rub garlic juice
on themselves to keep away with the snakes, so it
must have been fairly common uh. At least it was
fairly commonly thought to help out with that. Also, if
a rabid dog bit you, you were recommended putting some
(14:08):
garlic right on the wound. One thing, though, you were
not allowed into temples after eating the rank roses a
k a. Garlic. The smell was thought to offend God.
Greek mythology suggested that garlic might be the key to
discovering immortality, but unrelated to that particular story, Greek travelers
(14:31):
would leave garlic at crossroads with statues of the dark
Greek goddess Hykat for protection and to confuse any demonic followers,
in a ritual called Hykat supper. Once you put down
your garlic offering, you did not look back, because you'd
see her in her hellhounds and it'd scar you for life.
Oh that very serious, it was. And okay, yeah, also
(14:55):
very serious. The first bridal bouquets and Greece had garlic
and bride's work crowns of garlic bulbs to keep evil
spirits away. And garlic is still a part of some
wedding traditions to this day, whether a groomsman shows it
in his jacket, puts it in his buttonhole for luck
and to try to keep people away. Just kind of
a tradition that's hung around, you know. Yeah. Yeah, but
not everyone in the ancient world was a fan of garlic. No,
(15:19):
And uh, the Romans and I feel like they have
come out against a lot of things in our episodes
against Butter. It seems a little arbitrary to me personally,
but well, they begrudgingly admitted it had some useful medicinal properties.
Might make you stronger, it might increase your endurance. But
to them that breath man not worth it. No, they
(15:44):
couldn't get past it, and they certainly wouldn't willingly put
it in their food. In fact, the Epiquios, which was
this Roman collection of recipes, only referenced garlet twice, and
both in small amounts, and both times to settle a
sick stomach. A farming handbook out of Rome claimed if
(16:04):
garlic in advance, one will be immune to pest and
other noxic noxious creatures. So you know, medicinal use. But
it was viewed as a food for peasants or soldiers
and sailors for a forementioned strengthened stamina. Despite the smell,
it was still seen as an aphrodisiac. I do not
understand that um and was allegedly used to that end
(16:28):
at Roman orages. M The nobility in India held similar opinions.
They thought garlic was a foul foreign food. No garlic
was allowed at ceremonies, and the first time it appeared
in Sanskrit writings was around three as a treatment for
heart disease or thritis, to weakness, to jestive issues and
(16:48):
worm infestations. Chakra wrote a bit but for its unpleasant odor,
garlic would be costlier than gold. Since it was seen
as an aphrodisiac, Widows and monks and young people were
advised to avoid it. Yeah, I never really thought about
the garlic danger, all right. A bunch of writers mentioned
(17:10):
garlic in the first centuries of the New millennium. Celsus
used it for tuberculosystem fever, garlin for colic and digestive ailments.
He called it the Rustics theoriac in the most popular
folk remedy, and Columel claimed it was being used for
say it with me now and aphrodisiac wow. The Assyrians
(17:33):
used garlic to bring down a fever, to relieve constipation
and muscle inflammation, and to rid yourself of intestinal parasites.
The Slavic people used it for snake bites and also
spider bites, lice, and ulcers around seventh centuries, which brings
us to the Middle Ages, And it also brings us
to a word our sponsor, and we're back, thank you sponsor. Okay,
(18:08):
So garlic sees as a remedy only went up in
the Middle Ages. Monks grew it at monasteries so they
got over the bad breath, I guess, and Arabic physicians
persbe prescribed garlic quite a bit too. The medical school
at Solerno put garlic in the class of a hot food,
meant to be eaten in the winter months to help
(18:29):
out your heart and your lungs. They even had a
poem about it, poetry. Since garlic hath powers to save
you from death, bear with it. Though it makes unsavory
breath and scorned, not garlic like some may think, it
only makes men wink and drink and stink lovely. So
(18:50):
many other physicians mentioned it so many. It was used
during the Black Plague, and it was thought to keep
diseased mosquitoes away. Around this time too, stories of gar
lexibility to ward off a whole slew of evil things
started popping up. It could keep away of vampires. More
on that in a minute. Nymphs known to harrass engaged
(19:11):
in pregnant women, and a garlic nest necklace provided protection
against the evil eye. Different cultures used it to keep
demonic forces at bay, to deter witches, and sorcerers, and
thanks to garlics resemblance to a human head in India's
I still don't see it. I'm okay with it anyway, huh.
(19:32):
In India, some thought that demons wanted garlic just as
badly as human blood. In Buddhist bloor, garlic comes from
the blood of a demonic spirit slain at the hands
of Vishnu, whereas in Islamic myth garlic comes to his
courtesy of Satan's left foot. At one time, in England
and India, garlic may have been used as part of
an exorcism. All these things might explain why people so
(19:55):
readily accepted garlics used as a medicine, since at the
time a lot of illnesses were thought to be caused
by evil spirits and the like. In Korea, people used
to eat garlic to keep away tigers, and in some
parts of Africa they did the same for crocodiles. We
here at food Stuff do not recommend either of these
(20:15):
as your main strategy. Crocodile or tiger of Asian no
a supplement, sure, but yes not your main Not You're
not your main's right. Despite Charlemagne mentioning garlic in seven,
being of Italian origin. Food historians think garlic was most
likely introduced to Western Europe by soldiers returning from the Crusades.
(20:39):
While it was widely accepted as a curative, still not
so much as a food. No, the smell of it
was associated with poverty. However, it did occasionally pop up
on wealthy European tables and sauces, particularly one that I'm
pretty sure inspired IOLDI um, but only in small amounts still,
and one key Alfonso of Castille, forbade any night who
(21:03):
had consumed garlic or onions from speaking to other courtiers
and from the court itself for four weeks. After four weeks,
I suppose it would have been really difficult to get
rid of bad breath back then. That's actually we should
return to that in a future episode. Absolutely, oh yes, okay, alright,
(21:24):
perfect that it was probably grown in the wild before this.
By eight, garlic made its way from the Mediterranean Sea
to Britain, where it was once again prescribed to fight
off intestinal parasites, animal bites, stomach ailments, and the plague,
along with Dan Dreff skin diseases. Too fake and drop sea.
(21:44):
Unless we not forget about imperialism. Cortez wrote in sixteen
or four of the indigenous Peruvians, they esteemed garlic above
all the roots of Europe and North America. Tribes like
the Choctaw were already growing garlic when the Europeans showed up,
they to use it in their tea. Oh and just
to fill out that bingo card Columbus. Yes, that Columbus
(22:08):
had one basket of garlic on his cargo, manifest Gradually,
well off French and Italians start to add garlic to
their cuisine. Some things I came across suggested that in
the late sixteenth century, King Henry the Fourth was baptized
in garlic water to grant him protection from both disease
(22:29):
and evil spirits. Okay, I read another fun, maybe not
true thing, that a thousand folks at Marseilles use garlic
against the spread of an epidemic plague. I supposedly French
grave diggers drank wine with crushed garlic, added with the
idea that it would ward off the plague and corpses.
In this time we're sometimes embalmed with it, or they
put garlic clubs in their mouths, noses and ears. Not
(22:51):
the corpses but you know people doing the embalming to
keep evil spirits, vampires in the like away in a mirror.
Ica Milia Simmons, frequently mentioned on this podcast seventeen cookbook
American Cookery, have this to say about the subject. Garlics,
though used by the French, are better adapted to the
(23:12):
uses of medicine than cookery, so we weren't on board yet.
Speaking of the French, Alexander Duma wrote in the eighteen hundreds,
provincial cooking is based on garlic. The air and Provence
is impregnated with the aroma of garlic, which makes it
very helpful to breathe, and I read a lot of
places that it was very It was regional, regionally popular
(23:34):
in France and Italy, but not but not widespread. Louis
Pastor noted that garlic was an extremely effective bacteria killer
in eighteen fifty eight. John Guns eight seventy eight Homebook
of Health prescribed garlic for infections, as a diuretic for asthma,
and just generally for good health. And as we move
(23:54):
into the twentieth century, we see garlic used to treat typhoid, fever, cholera,
and diphtheria. In nineteen eighteen Beirut. That same year, in
France it was used to treat Spanish fever, and during
the nineteen seventeen eighteen flu upidemic in the US, people
going out would wear garlic necklaces. Wow, I can't imagine
that happening today. British citizens were tasked with supplying as
(24:17):
much garlic as they could as an antiseptic for soldiers
during World War One. And as for that Russian penicillin thing,
Russian physicians had a long history of prescribing garlic for
respiratory issues, especially in children, but also as sort of
a prep for pilots, even into World War Two when
penicillin had been invented, hence Russian penicillin. Yeah. Also, garlic
(24:40):
vodka apparently was used for the flu. I love that
so many people's like concept of medicine is like, put
this thing that we think will help into this alcohol
that we're drinking. Yep, extra healthy. Okay, So how did
it become as common as salt, at least in the
u US for for food for seasoning? Right? Yeah, how
(25:02):
how did we get over this? It's just a medicine concept. Remember,
it wasn't super popular and in the early twentieth century.
In the U S. It was viewed as cheap an
ingredient used by poor immigrants. I believe we mentioned in
a previous episode Italian immigrants were deresive Philly called garlic lovers.
This even comes up in It's a Wonderful Life, Yeah evil,
(25:24):
Mr Potter calls the Italian immigrants George Bailey gives loans
to George Bailey's garlic Eaters. Gone over my head. I
seen that movie once, so I don't know. I never
picked up on it. It was also used to discriminate,
discriminate against Jewish people and Koreans. Seriously, it's upsetting. Um.
(25:44):
There was this whole concept of Jewish stink and sweet
smelling Christians. If a Jewish person converted and was baptized,
they could get rid of their inherent bad smell. And yeah,
this concept was so entrenched that the Nazis issued garl
bold buttons you could wear to show the world just
how anti Semitic you were. Wow, it is horrible, yeah, yeah,
(26:10):
but but it did. Those those negative perceptions did start changing.
They did towards the end of the war actually, and
this changed um. Thanks to food writer James Beard. He
wrote of a garlic chicken recipe calling for not one,
not two, not three, but forty forty cloves of garlic.
He prescribed garlic as a faithful friend for almost any
(26:34):
type of seasoning, used with discretion. One theory about about
how garlic became a little bit more popular and widespread
in the US is that as soldiers were coming back
from wars overseas World War one and two, specifically through
the first half of the century, they were bringing with
them a taste for garlic. Dozens of recipes called for garlic,
(26:55):
and Clayborne's nineteen sixties New York Times cookbook in the
sixteas and seventies, Julia Child advised reviewers to no longer
look at garlic as suspiciously foreign, probably subversive, and certainly
very lower class um. From the nineties through today, American
garlic consumption has more than quadrupled, a surge larger than
(27:18):
for any other vegetable during this time. Theories for why
this is include the rising popularity of foods and restaurants
based on other cultures, good press about the potential health
benefits of garlic, and demand for those garlic dietary supplements.
Garlic production has been down in recent years, though not
due to lack of demand, but rather due to changing
(27:40):
weather patterns. As hardy as garlic is, mild winters prevent
bulbs from developing as robustly as normal, and this likely
applies to every type of produce that we talk about, y'all.
But but like, yes, climate change may affect garlic production
going forward, making it more rare and expensive. Yeah. Well
that's an upbeat note to end this history slash modern
(28:03):
day segment. Yeah, but it does segue nicely into science science. Yes,
but first quick break for word from our sponsor, and
we're back, Thank you sponsor. So I'm going to start
(28:26):
the science section here with a cooking tip. Um. We
mentioned earlier that one of the flavor compounds that makes garlic,
you know, garliccky, is called allison. And this compound is
not found and whole cloves of garlic. It's made by
a chemical reaction when the tissue of the clove is
disrupted by being crushed or cut. When that happens, an
(28:49):
enzyme called alan as acts on this amino acid called
alan and converts it to allison. So if you want
a strong, a stronger garlic flavor, crusher, chop it, and
then let it kind of sit and hang out for
up to fifteen minutes before you use it, thus allowing
this enzyme to do its work. And I'm glad you
(29:10):
mentioned at this, because a lot of times that's a
stepf I'll dish your gard oh like now that I
know it might flavor. Yeah. Also, the smaller and more
disrupted that you make your garlic via chopping and crushing,
the more intense the flavor will be. The more uh,
those compounds will get to interact with each other and
do the thing. Uh. It might seem unintuitive, yes, but
(29:34):
sliced or whole clothes will impart a more mild flavor
to a dish. Also, temperatures above a hundred and forty
degrees fahrenheit that's about sixty degrees celsius will inactivate that
enzyme alan ace. So yes, cooking garlic, cooked garlic, what
will be more mild than raw garlic something that we
all probably knew but yes mentioned why yeah, and oh
(29:58):
hey speak ging of this compound, Allison. Some researchers think
it's also the reason why garlic can have health benefits
as an antioxidant. When alison breaks down during digestion. A
couple of things that are produced are are sulfuric compounds,
(30:18):
which can stabilize the free radicals that some researchers think
can cause damage to your cells and thus contribute to
conditions like cancer and heart disease and and free free radicals.
Free free radical uh sidebar yeah for radicals. UM is
the fancy name for atoms or molecules in your body
that react easily with other atoms or molecules because they
(30:41):
have at least one unpaired electron. Think of it. Think
of it like you're at a party, okay, and some
people are walking around with a drink in one hand
and a plate of ordinars in the other, but some
people are only carrying a plate. The people carrying just
a plate can more easily shake hands with or like
awkwardly side hug someone that they bump into. They are
(31:02):
the free radicals in this scenario. Antioxidants are technically their
molecules that can prevent free radicals from being created in
the first place by preventing oxidation. Antioxidants, yes, but the
word is sometimes also applied to molecules that stabilize free radicals.
In this scenario, it's that latter thing. The the sulfur
compounds are like a host at the party who comes
(31:24):
by with a tray of drinks hands one to the
person holding just a plate, and then it becomes harder
for the partygoer to interact or to react. In chemistry terms,
I'm gonna start calling people at parties free radicals. He's
being such a free radical now. However, garlics exact usefulness
(31:45):
as a medicine is still debated, and basically more research
needs to be done to to see exactly how it
has these properties that it's been used for for you know,
thousands upon thousands of years, and and how we can
best harness that harness the power of garlic harness anyway, Yeah,
(32:07):
so some some research has indicated that incorporating garlic in
your diet may help prevent certain types of cancer, like
colon and stomach cancers. Dietary supplements of garlic, by the way,
have not been shown to have the same effect. Um
Garlic does act as an anticoagulant in your blood, which
can help prevent plaque build up in your arteries and
(32:29):
also help prevent blood clots of both of which can
lead to heart attack. And stroke, but its levels of
effectiveness are uncertain. M there's as of yet weak evidence
about whether it helps lower high blood pressure. It might
be it might be more of a preventative thing than
like a fixed an issue thing. Um. Again, eating garlic
(32:51):
in your diet may be helpful, but talk to a
doctor before attempting to fix anything, especially with a garlic supplement. Um. Definitely,
also don't take garlic supplements if you're on another prescription
blood thinner or if you've just had surgery, because since
it can act as an anti coagulant. Yeah. Yeah, yeah,
bleeding can happen bad times. Um. Garlic supplements can also
(33:14):
interfere with a few medications, so yeah, always always check
with a medical professional before using dietary supplements. There's some
conflicting evidence about whether garlic helps lower bad L d
L cholesterol levels. Okay, fun conflicting yeah. Um. There have
been preliminary studies into whether garlic supplements have antibiotic properties
(33:37):
that can help prevent or fight the common cold. They
have seemed to work better than placebo, but more studies
need to be done, and preliminary studies indicate that garlic
gel may have antifungal properties when applied topically to help
treating ringworm, athletes, foot, and jock itch. Garlic does not, however,
(33:58):
seem to help with another type of fungal infection, yeast infections.
And now I get to say for the second time
in one episode that you should not put things in
your vagina that were not meant to go into your vagina.
Self cleaning, oven eating, eating garlic or supplements doesn't seem
(34:23):
to help either though. If if you if you have
a yeast infection that you can't get rid of, see
a doctor. Don't don't try all the things that the
Internet tells you to try, just really really talk to
a doctor. There there are a few non medicinal or
non traditional medicine ways of trying to knock out yeast infections.
So if that's the thing that you're looking for, a
doctor can help you with that as well. Anyway, Okay,
(34:46):
one more, one more word about supplements. Okay. There are
four basic ways that garlic can be processed into supplements,
and those methods, as you would imagine, vastly influence what
kinds of stuff you'll get out of the supplement. And like,
remember that one of the most promising compounds in garlic
only happens when you crush garlic cell walls to let
(35:06):
a reaction happen and then begin to digest the resulting compound.
All right, So if you're going to do for a supplement,
do some research. What I read seems to indicate that
garlic oil masserrate capsules are the way to go. But again,
talk to your doctor. There can be adverse effects, way
(35:27):
worse than just getting a little bit stinkier. Yeah, and
speaking of how do you get rid of that garlic breath?
Oh yes, I and another addition of annie is terribul
in relationships. I almost broke up with someone because I
was too embarrassed to tell him that I didn't want
to kiss because I just had hummus. Garlic was really overpowering.
(35:50):
But you know, eventually I had to admit it, and
he was like, why didn't you just say that? Anyway, Um,
the internet tells me that to get rid of garlic breath,
apples lemon juice are green too, not altogether, although I
guess you could go that route, but you know, I
don't know if it's a serious issue. There's more to
(36:10):
be found online, So let's end this episode with why
we're all really here? Yeah? Yeah, vampires the food stuff
vampire sidebar. I am so excited. Oh oh yes you
(36:31):
should be. Is there any truth to this whole garlic
keeping away vampires business? And if you're not sure what
we're talking about in popular culture, Vamparalore from Mexico, the Philippines, Germany, Hungry, Austria, Portugal, Armenia.
I mean, I'm sure there's more right there right in
if you've got some. They are all repelled by garlic.
(36:52):
All these types of vampire, all these vampires from all
over the place, and these are like independently occurring mythos,
Like it's crazy. I love it. Yeah. Going back to
some of the first vampire stories out of medieval Europe,
vampires have detested garlic. One book I read claimed that
as recently as the nineteen seventies, a church in Romania
(37:12):
handed out garlic for eating to eat out any potential vampires.
The reason for this is thought to be possibly based
on garlic allergies or it's antibiotic and anti fungal properties
that we have just detailed have been there throughout history. Um.
I also read that in Romania they celebrate St. Andrew's
(37:33):
Day on November twenty nine, which also goes by the
Night of the Vampire. Vampires another undead are thought to
gather near crossroads and abandoned buildings on this day, So
people eat a lot of garlic. They perhaps place cloves
of garlic around windows and doors, or maybe they make
a garlic paste and spread it on the door in
a shape of a crucifix. Some young people celebrate by
(37:55):
guarding the garlic. Okay, yeah, Each young woman is tasked
with ringing three clothes of garlic to an agreed upon spot.
All of these are gathered in a pot, and this
pot is watched over by candle light by the house's
oldest female occupant all night. Once the sun comes up,
the pot is taken outside and is the centerpiece for
a dance. Then the garlic is split up and used
(38:18):
as sacred symbol to protect against illness or spells. Listeners,
please right in if you've seen this or experience it,
or if there's any truth to it. Yeah, that's that's amazing.
Oh my goodness. Well, anyway, we are in like friends
(38:39):
because there has been research into the very question of
garlic's anti vampire properties. Wait what Yeah, in a group
of intrepid scientists lacking actual vampires, got the idea to
use blood sucking leeches to test this out. The leeches
were given the option of a garlic smeared hand or
(39:00):
a clean, non garlic smeared hand, and and two out
of three of the cases the garlic hand was the
preferred choice. But wait, it was more. While the leeches
may preferred the garlic hand, when they went that route,
they only attached for fourteen point nine seconds, as opposed
to the forty four point nine seconds they hung on
(39:21):
to the other hand without the garlic. Oh weird. Interesting.
The study concludes vampires are feared everywhere, but the Balkan
region has been especially haunted. This study indicates that garlic
possibly attracts vampires. Therefore, to avoid a Balkan like development
in Norway, restrictions on the use of garlic should be
(39:44):
considered food for thought. Garlic vampire research. It was so
fun and there was a lot of it. I convinced it.
And I'm sure you're like, really, but I did. There's
a lot of it out there. Oh. I adored humans,
and and especially scientists humans who do research like that.
(40:07):
That's wonderful. Yeah, it was. It was very entertaining. That
is our garlic episode. Yeah it was. It certainly was
um and it brings us to our listener male. The
first one is kind of kind of related to vampires.
(40:29):
It's from Maja, who is a registered dietitian. As she
wrote in about our fan diet episode. I get questions
about these on almost daily basis. But the most interesting
one you haven't mentioned, I got from my mom when
she asked me about the Moon diet. Yes, the Moon
diet one's intake would be based on the cycles of
(40:52):
the moon, with the idea that the gravitational pool from
the Moon will have an effect on the water and
our pool toxins from your body, among other beliefs. Hmm,
someone needs to go back to physics class to learn
that gravitation doesn't work that way and that your body
already has organs that allow for detoxication. Needed to say,
(41:13):
I cringe when I read about it and thought you
might too. I did. I literally, Yes, it was a
deep cringe. Emily wrote in about our yogurt episode to begin,
I was incredibly giddy when I heard you guys mention
Bulgaria's part in yogurt My husband is Bulgarian, and many
people do not realize that yogurt is not all about Greece.
(41:33):
Yogurt is a huge part of Bulgarian culture. I had
to be a quick study under his mother to learn
all of the ins and outs of yogurt making. So
many Bulgarian dishes and drinks are centered around yogurt. They
use it in a similar way that Americans would use
sour cream. One of the things I wanted to point out, though,
is that Bulgarian yogurt tastes nothing like American or Greek yogurts.
Most of the yogurts that we find at our grocery
(41:54):
stores are not made with the same cultures. She listed
a couple, but oh, that's a lot of Latin Okay.
In order to be considered Bulgarian yogurt, it must have
this particular bacteria combination. What I'm trying to say is
Bulgarian yogurt is this special gem that very few Americans
ever experienced. When my husband's family came to America, they
were horrified at the sugary, fruity gunk that was sold
(42:16):
as yogurt. Luckily, my mother in law came to the
rescue by teaching us how to make yogurt from the
yogurt that we bought. Now we always have a gallon
of Bulgarian yogurt in the fridge, and I can make
all of his favorite dishes, soups, drinks, and sides. Making
your own yogurt sounds complicated, but it is worth it.
My best advice is to keep trying. I had a
few batches turn out strange, lumpy, cheesy, etcetera. But those
(42:38):
were great opportunities to research what went wrong and perfect
my process. I look forward to hearing more podcasts and
learning new things from you too. I'm going to include
a few Bulgarian recipes below, and I highly recommend that
you try Bulgarian yogurt. And she totally did Yeah, and
I really want to try it. Yes, I wonder how
it can be imported. I need to work this out.
(42:59):
She said she found some in uh Tescaloosa, Alabama, which
I believe is near where she lives, but it was
really expensive, prohibitively expensive. So she included the recipes. Um,
and if we can remember and we'll post him and
(43:19):
you can try him. Yeah. Yeah, So thanks to both
of them, Yes for writing in YouTube can write us.
Our email is food stuff at work dot com. We're
also on social media. You can find us on Facebook
and Twitter at food Stuff. Hs W stands for how
Stuff Works. We're also on Instagram at food Stuff. Thank
(43:40):
you all so much for listening. Thank you to our
super producer Dylan Fagin, who I would be looking at
if he were in the room with us, but he's
still out recording another podcast, Dylan, How could you? Dylan?
Are you a villain? Oh No, he's lovely. He is.
He's very lovely anyway. Yes, thanks, thanks to all y'all.
(44:04):
We hope that lots more good things are coming your way.
Hello, and welcome to food Stuff. I'm Lauren Volkbon and
I'm Amy Reese, and today we're talking about one of
the things that I shouldn't need. Oh it's one of
my favorite things. It's garlic. Garlic, garlic. I use it
probably every day, and in college people would know I
was cooking because the whole dorm it smell like garlic.
(00:28):
And it's a great pet name. I recently ran into
a dog named garlic, and I'm a second. No, that's
that's really good name. That's like quality. Yeah, like it
a lot. Oh, man, that's too bad, Lauren, Well, what
is it garlic? What is it? Well, it comes from
the lily family, it does. It's closely related to the onion, shallot, chive,
(00:50):
and leak, and is native to Central Asia. The word
traces back to the Old English word for spear leak
our garlic are was a word for for a type
of spear spearhead. Yeah, exactly. Scientifically, it goes by Allium sativum.
Non scientifically, it goes by stinking rose or natural antibiotic
(01:13):
Russian penicillin, vegetable viagra, and plant talisman. I hope that
that has you your interest peaked. Um slang from nineteen
twenties America might refer to garlic as halitosis, italian perfume,
and bronx vanilla. So it's got a lot of it's
got a lot of names. The whole thing is called
(01:36):
a garlic bulb, and each bulb has about ten to
twelve individual segments called garlic cloves. It's a perennial with
bees and other insects doing the pollinating. It can grow
up to four ft or about one point two meters
and is one tough pliant. The U s d A
classifies it as a hardiness Zone eight, meaning it can
withstand temperatures from twelve degrees celsius or ten degrees smary
(01:59):
night to negative seven degrees celsius or twenty degrees fahrenheit.
Perhaps thanks to this hardiness, it's pretty easy to grow,
and it's grown all over. Garlic that's going to be
sold fresh is actually still harvested by hand, and each
segment or clove is a potentially working seed. You can
plant them separately and they'll segment and grow into bulbs,
(02:20):
and the stems of some garlic plants called scapes are
also used in cooking. Their little bit like scallions. There
are just tons of varietals of Allium sativum, plus a
few species of onion uh Genus Allium that are commonly
called garlic, like elephant garlic, which is actually part of
the leak family, which explains why it's kind of milder
(02:41):
and more leaky tasting then true garlic. The two main
sub varieties of Sativum are soft neck and hard neck garlics,
named for the types of stalks that grow up from
the garlics bulb or root. Soft necks have flexible stalks
suitable for braiding once they're eye and hardnecks have stiff stocks.
(03:02):
Makes sense, it does. A variety of soft neck called
artichoke is probably the most common in American groceries. Hardnecks
tend to be a little bit like spicier and more
garlicky uh. Soft necks a little bit more delicate and
grassy tasting. All of the sub sub varieties and that
wasn't me to stuttering like I sometimes do. Like subvarieties
(03:23):
of these subvarieties, they all have slightly different flavor profiles,
which can be really fun to play with if you're
into that sort of thing. Um the Internet can tell
you all about them. Black garlic, by the way, that
kind of chewy, sweeter, more subtle, dark colored garlic does
not grow that way. It's regular garlic that has been
gently fermented. Bacteria. Poop wins again, back, always wins. Yes.
(03:50):
Each year, Americans eat about two fifty million pounds of garlic,
or about two point five pounds her person on average. However,
if you think that's a lot, the South Koreans have
as way beat, with a yearly twenty two pounds per person.
China is the largest producer, though, coming in at an
annual twenty tons, and that is about eight of global production.
(04:13):
During the Chinese garlic craze of two thousand, garlic was
more valuable than gold. What and although the value of
American garlic production was about two thirty two million dollars.
As Americans are the largest importers of fresh garlic, most
garlic used as food in the United States, about about
(04:35):
the market is actually dehydrated and used in processed foods, soups,
frozen meals, garlic bread, salad, dressing, etcetera. South Korea is
the third largest garlic producer, and garlic even plays a
role in the myth of Korea's founding. According to this myth,
a tiger and a bear prayed to the king, who
(04:56):
was God's soon to be reincarnated as a human. In response,
the king gave them mugwart twenty garlic clothes and instructed
them to find a cave, eat those things, pray, and
in one hundred days, if they didn't see sunlight, they'd
get their wish. The tiger didn't have the patience and
gave up, but the bear made it one hundred days
(05:17):
and became a woman. This woman asked God for a son,
and God's son the king answered the call, temporarily turning
into a man, marrying her, and together they had a son.
He became the king and Korea's founder. Yeah. As of
two thousand five, garlic was the top selling herbal dietary
supplement in the United States, accounting for over twenty seven
(05:40):
million dollars in sales. Yes, and I have an interesting
story about this, a personal anecdote. Yes, I had a
friend um and she was a nurse working in Africa,
and she was also I lived with her briefly when
she got back from Africa. It turns out she got
worms while she was contracted worms and um. Everyone she
(06:03):
knew that had been in close contact with her was
recommended to take garlic supplements because they didn't want unless
you had like outright symptoms, they didn't want to treat
you because apparently horrible side effects you can you can
have horrible side effects that you take to get rid
of any kind of parasites. So they suggested garlic in
(06:23):
case any worse symptoms came up. So I had to
take garlic supplement for a while, and it also I
had um an aunt who took it for her heart
to heart health. We will be talking about the veracity
and potential uses of some of this throughout history and
modern day. Yeah, oh yeah, absolutely, there's there's a whole
whole bunch of it right right, But first we have
(06:46):
to talk about the Toronto Garlic Festival. Toronto has a
garlic festival, and I want to go today. There's a
lot of garlic themed festivals around. One of the biggest
in the in the US is California's Gilroy Garlic Festival,
held every summer in Gilroy, a town with some serious
garlic processing industry. But but seriously, they're all over the place,
Like you want a garlic festival like we can get
(07:07):
you to a garlic festival. Done and done field trip. Yes. Um.
These days it is traditionally used as a spice. Around
the turn of the twenty century, French chef x Marcel
Bolston said, it is not really an exaggeration to say
that peace and happiness begin geographically where garlic is used
(07:28):
in cooking. But as with I don't know everything we
talked about, it was and is first used medicinally, so
let's start talking about history. Garlic goes back probably about
six thousand years, from two thousand, six hundred to two
(07:49):
thousand one b c e. The Sumerians used garlic as
a healing agent. The current thought is that from Sumeria
it spread to China, and then from there it's spread
to Japan and Korea. Some food historians dispute this, though,
believing China to be the place of origin instead. Whatever
the case, records of garlic being used as a health
remedy in ancient China go back to two thousands seven
(08:13):
b C. Even being prescribed as an antidepressant, which I
found very interesting. I guess garlet makes me happy. I mean,
aside from the stomach troubles. It's not to say yeah,
I wish it was um. It was also mainly used
though for diarrhea and worm infestation, and in combination therapy.
It was prescribed to treat insomnia, fatigue, headache, and male impotence.
(08:36):
Because it had a heating and stimulating properties, it was
designated as yang in the context of Yin, Yang Yin,
and yang, but um. These same properties precluded it from
Buddhism and also allegedly Japanese cuisine. Yeah. In ancient India,
garlic was recommended for all sorts of stuff from lack
(08:56):
of appetite, cough rheumatism, skin disease, weakness, hemorrhoids. The list
it's on on the Bible mentions garlic. When Moses and
the Hebrews left Egypt, it's written that they missed quote
the fish, the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leaks,
and the onions and the garlic. HM. Ancient Egyptians were big, fat,
(09:16):
oh yeah, huge, just the biggest fans. They used it
as currency, and they sculpted garlic bulbs out of clay
and put them in Kingcut's tomb. And not just his
tomb garlic, yes, the tonal garlic. They put it in
a lot of tumbs, some dated back to three thousand seven,
and possibly it was used in the mommification process. Egyptian
(09:40):
slaves might have been given a daily ration of garlic
to keep them strong for pyramid building. According to Herodotus,
inscriptions on the plates of the Egyptian pyramids tell us
how much their builders used the garlic for this vegetable.
Then he gives a number, which in modern day terms
was approximately thirty million dollars. What yes, and our old
(10:02):
pal Pliny commented in his Works of Garlic twenty three
medicinal uses that you the Egyptians listed. Oh hey, we've
been saying his name wrong this whole time. It's apparently
pronounced plenty um. And thank you to Ben for writing
it on Facebook about that. See, I've had other listeners
right in and say please keep saying it that way. Oh,
(10:24):
it's a fight to about And they all point out
the beer, right. I bet the beer came up in California.
He didn't mention that, but well, I'm pretty sure he
is correct. But there is like a joke to keep
saying it away because of a beer. I don't know. Okay, yes,
well plenty or plenty either way either way, he's our
good friend. He is. He is also on a Bingo card. Yeah.
(10:46):
The one thousand, five fifty BC evers papyrus out of
Egypt listed thirty two illnesses garlic could heal. Another miscellaneous
papyrus fragment from twelve Egypt included a test for male
sterility that called for a woman to place appeeled garlic
glove in her vagina, keep it there overnight, then see
(11:07):
if her breath had any garlic smell in the morning.
If yes, you would have children. Okay, this is this
is my favorite science extension of the episode, because you
can totally apply crushed garlic topically to your skin and
have it wind up triggering your taste, smell, sensory system um.
(11:29):
The American Chemical Society released a really fun video about
this a couple of years back. One of the flavor
compounds in garlic, called allison um, can enter the bloodstream
through the skin. I'm not sure whether this means that
your breath would wind up smelling like garlic, though I
haven't I haven't actually tried it myself. Also, don't don't
put things in your vagina that are not meant to
(11:52):
go in your vagina. You can walk away from this
episode with that. Yeah, that the a CSS video involved
crushed garla in a bag on your foot. Totally Yeah,
just well. I I wasn't aware that would have to
be a thing in the podcast, but it was, and
we're moving on from it. In Egypt, other nearby ancient
(12:16):
cultures that interacted with Egypt got the idea to use
garlic as a remedy. The Talmud called for a meal
featuring garlic on Fridays and mentioned its potential as an afrodusiac.
We're racking up that bingo, we are. The ancient Israelis
used it for hunger, blood pressure, a body heater, and
a killer of parasites. The Babylonians use garlic as a
(12:39):
remedy for stomach aches, and the ancient Greeks they were
garlic groupies too. A Greek market and Athens had an
entire section devoted to several different types of garlic. Garlic
bulbs were found in NS's Palace, located on the island
of Crete and what is sometimes called Europe's first city.
Greek's first Olympic athletes were given garlic to improve their score.
(13:02):
In an example of one of the first performance enhancers. Yeah,
and in the same vein Greek soldiers might receive some
garlic from their commander leaning up to a big battle.
Hypocrates suggested it for all sorts of health things, particularly
for intestinal parasites and as a diuretic. Later in the
first century CE, Greek physician Diosperiety is espoused garlics curative
(13:25):
uses for things ranging from baldness, menstrual cycle regulation, a
leprosy seasickness, colic relief, and anti parasitic and in combination
with wine for a snake bite, which earned garlic the
nickname snake grass. I'm cooler than garlic, but I wouldn't
(13:45):
know what I was getting snake grass. Yeah. Some writings
suggest that poor people sleeping outdoors would rub garlic juice
on themselves to keep away with the snakes, so it
must have been fairly common uh. At least it was
fairly commonly thought to help out with that. Also, if
a rabid dog bit you, you were recommended putting some
(14:08):
garlic right on the wound. One thing, though, you were
not allowed into temples after eating the rank roses a
k a. Garlic. The smell was thought to offend God.
Greek mythology suggested that garlic might be the key to
discovering immortality, but unrelated to that particular story, Greek travelers
(14:31):
would leave garlic at crossroads with statues of the dark
Greek goddess Hykat for protection and to confuse any demonic followers,
in a ritual called Hykat supper. Once you put down
your garlic offering, you did not look back, because you'd
see her in her hellhounds and it'd scar you for life.
Oh that very serious, it was. And okay, yeah, also
(14:55):
very serious. The first bridal bouquets and Greece had garlic
and bride's work crowns of garlic bulbs to keep evil
spirits away. And garlic is still a part of some
wedding traditions to this day, whether a groomsman shows it
in his jacket, puts it in his buttonhole for luck
and to try to keep people away. Just kind of
a tradition that's hung around, you know. Yeah. Yeah, but
not everyone in the ancient world was a fan of garlic. No,
(15:19):
And uh, the Romans and I feel like they have
come out against a lot of things in our episodes
against Butter. It seems a little arbitrary to me personally,
but well, they begrudgingly admitted it had some useful medicinal properties.
Might make you stronger, it might increase your endurance. But
to them that breath man not worth it. No, they
(15:44):
couldn't get past it, and they certainly wouldn't willingly put
it in their food. In fact, the Epiquios, which was
this Roman collection of recipes, only referenced garlet twice, and
both in small amounts, and both times to settle a
sick stomach. A farming handbook out of Rome claimed if
(16:04):
garlic in advance, one will be immune to pest and
other noxic noxious creatures. So you know, medicinal use. But
it was viewed as a food for peasants or soldiers
and sailors for a forementioned strengthened stamina. Despite the smell,
it was still seen as an aphrodisiac. I do not
understand that um and was allegedly used to that end
(16:28):
at Roman orages. M The nobility in India held similar opinions.
They thought garlic was a foul foreign food. No garlic
was allowed at ceremonies, and the first time it appeared
in Sanskrit writings was around three as a treatment for
heart disease or thritis, to weakness, to jestive issues and
(16:48):
worm infestations. Chakra wrote a bit but for its unpleasant odor,
garlic would be costlier than gold. Since it was seen
as an aphrodisiac, Widows and monks and young people were
advised to avoid it. Yeah, I never really thought about
the garlic danger, all right. A bunch of writers mentioned
(17:10):
garlic in the first centuries of the New millennium. Celsus
used it for tuberculosystem fever, garlin for colic and digestive ailments.
He called it the Rustics theoriac in the most popular
folk remedy, and Columel claimed it was being used for
say it with me now and aphrodisiac wow. The Assyrians
(17:33):
used garlic to bring down a fever, to relieve constipation
and muscle inflammation, and to rid yourself of intestinal parasites.
The Slavic people used it for snake bites and also
spider bites, lice, and ulcers around seventh centuries, which brings
us to the Middle Ages, And it also brings us
to a word our sponsor, and we're back, thank you sponsor. Okay,
(18:08):
So garlic sees as a remedy only went up in
the Middle Ages. Monks grew it at monasteries so they
got over the bad breath, I guess, and Arabic physicians
persbe prescribed garlic quite a bit too. The medical school
at Solerno put garlic in the class of a hot food,
meant to be eaten in the winter months to help
(18:29):
out your heart and your lungs. They even had a
poem about it, poetry. Since garlic hath powers to save
you from death, bear with it. Though it makes unsavory
breath and scorned, not garlic like some may think, it
only makes men wink and drink and stink lovely. So
(18:50):
many other physicians mentioned it so many. It was used
during the Black Plague, and it was thought to keep
diseased mosquitoes away. Around this time too, stories of gar
lexibility to ward off a whole slew of evil things
started popping up. It could keep away of vampires. More
on that in a minute. Nymphs known to harrass engaged
(19:11):
in pregnant women, and a garlic nest necklace provided protection
against the evil eye. Different cultures used it to keep
demonic forces at bay, to deter witches, and sorcerers, and
thanks to garlics resemblance to a human head in India's
I still don't see it. I'm okay with it anyway, huh.
(19:32):
In India, some thought that demons wanted garlic just as
badly as human blood. In Buddhist bloor, garlic comes from
the blood of a demonic spirit slain at the hands
of Vishnu, whereas in Islamic myth garlic comes to his
courtesy of Satan's left foot. At one time, in England
and India, garlic may have been used as part of
an exorcism. All these things might explain why people so
(19:55):
readily accepted garlics used as a medicine, since at the
time a lot of illnesses were thought to be caused
by evil spirits and the like. In Korea, people used
to eat garlic to keep away tigers, and in some
parts of Africa they did the same for crocodiles. We
here at food Stuff do not recommend either of these
(20:15):
as your main strategy. Crocodile or tiger of Asian no
a supplement, sure, but yes not your main Not You're
not your main's right. Despite Charlemagne mentioning garlic in seven,
being of Italian origin. Food historians think garlic was most
likely introduced to Western Europe by soldiers returning from the Crusades.
(20:39):
While it was widely accepted as a curative, still not
so much as a food. No, the smell of it
was associated with poverty. However, it did occasionally pop up
on wealthy European tables and sauces, particularly one that I'm
pretty sure inspired IOLDI um, but only in small amounts still,
and one key Alfonso of Castille, forbade any night who
(21:03):
had consumed garlic or onions from speaking to other courtiers
and from the court itself for four weeks. After four weeks,
I suppose it would have been really difficult to get
rid of bad breath back then. That's actually we should
return to that in a future episode. Absolutely, oh yes, okay, alright,
(21:24):
perfect that it was probably grown in the wild before this.
By eight, garlic made its way from the Mediterranean Sea
to Britain, where it was once again prescribed to fight
off intestinal parasites, animal bites, stomach ailments, and the plague,
along with Dan Dreff skin diseases. Too fake and drop sea.
(21:44):
Unless we not forget about imperialism. Cortez wrote in sixteen
or four of the indigenous Peruvians, they esteemed garlic above
all the roots of Europe and North America. Tribes like
the Choctaw were already growing garlic when the Europeans showed up,
they to use it in their tea. Oh and just
to fill out that bingo card Columbus. Yes, that Columbus
(22:08):
had one basket of garlic on his cargo, manifest Gradually,
well off French and Italians start to add garlic to
their cuisine. Some things I came across suggested that in
the late sixteenth century, King Henry the Fourth was baptized
in garlic water to grant him protection from both disease
(22:29):
and evil spirits. Okay, I read another fun, maybe not
true thing, that a thousand folks at Marseilles use garlic
against the spread of an epidemic plague. I supposedly French
grave diggers drank wine with crushed garlic, added with the
idea that it would ward off the plague and corpses.
In this time we're sometimes embalmed with it, or they
put garlic clubs in their mouths, noses and ears. Not
(22:51):
the corpses but you know people doing the embalming to
keep evil spirits, vampires in the like away in a mirror.
Ica Milia Simmons, frequently mentioned on this podcast seventeen cookbook
American Cookery, have this to say about the subject. Garlics,
though used by the French, are better adapted to the
(23:12):
uses of medicine than cookery, so we weren't on board yet.
Speaking of the French, Alexander Duma wrote in the eighteen hundreds,
provincial cooking is based on garlic. The air and Provence
is impregnated with the aroma of garlic, which makes it
very helpful to breathe, and I read a lot of
places that it was very It was regional, regionally popular
(23:34):
in France and Italy, but not but not widespread. Louis
Pastor noted that garlic was an extremely effective bacteria killer
in eighteen fifty eight. John Guns eight seventy eight Homebook
of Health prescribed garlic for infections, as a diuretic for asthma,
and just generally for good health. And as we move
(23:54):
into the twentieth century, we see garlic used to treat typhoid, fever, cholera,
and diphtheria. In nineteen eighteen Beirut. That same year, in
France it was used to treat Spanish fever, and during
the nineteen seventeen eighteen flu upidemic in the US, people
going out would wear garlic necklaces. Wow, I can't imagine
that happening today. British citizens were tasked with supplying as
(24:17):
much garlic as they could as an antiseptic for soldiers
during World War One. And as for that Russian penicillin thing,
Russian physicians had a long history of prescribing garlic for
respiratory issues, especially in children, but also as sort of
a prep for pilots, even into World War Two when
penicillin had been invented, hence Russian penicillin. Yeah. Also, garlic
(24:40):
vodka apparently was used for the flu. I love that
so many people's like concept of medicine is like, put
this thing that we think will help into this alcohol
that we're drinking. Yep, extra healthy. Okay, So how did
it become as common as salt, at least in the
u US for for food for seasoning? Right? Yeah, how
(25:02):
how did we get over this? It's just a medicine concept. Remember,
it wasn't super popular and in the early twentieth century.
In the U S. It was viewed as cheap an
ingredient used by poor immigrants. I believe we mentioned in
a previous episode Italian immigrants were deresive Philly called garlic lovers.
This even comes up in It's a Wonderful Life, Yeah evil,
(25:24):
Mr Potter calls the Italian immigrants George Bailey gives loans
to George Bailey's garlic Eaters. Gone over my head. I
seen that movie once, so I don't know. I never
picked up on it. It was also used to discriminate,
discriminate against Jewish people and Koreans. Seriously, it's upsetting. Um.
(25:44):
There was this whole concept of Jewish stink and sweet
smelling Christians. If a Jewish person converted and was baptized,
they could get rid of their inherent bad smell. And yeah,
this concept was so entrenched that the Nazis issued garl
bold buttons you could wear to show the world just
how anti Semitic you were. Wow, it is horrible, yeah, yeah,
(26:10):
but but it did. Those those negative perceptions did start changing.
They did towards the end of the war actually, and
this changed um. Thanks to food writer James Beard. He
wrote of a garlic chicken recipe calling for not one,
not two, not three, but forty forty cloves of garlic.
He prescribed garlic as a faithful friend for almost any
(26:34):
type of seasoning, used with discretion. One theory about about
how garlic became a little bit more popular and widespread
in the US is that as soldiers were coming back
from wars overseas World War one and two, specifically through
the first half of the century, they were bringing with
them a taste for garlic. Dozens of recipes called for garlic,
(26:55):
and Clayborne's nineteen sixties New York Times cookbook in the
sixteas and seventies, Julia Child advised reviewers to no longer
look at garlic as suspiciously foreign, probably subversive, and certainly
very lower class um. From the nineties through today, American
garlic consumption has more than quadrupled, a surge larger than
(27:18):
for any other vegetable during this time. Theories for why
this is include the rising popularity of foods and restaurants
based on other cultures, good press about the potential health
benefits of garlic, and demand for those garlic dietary supplements.
Garlic production has been down in recent years, though not
due to lack of demand, but rather due to changing
(27:40):
weather patterns. As hardy as garlic is, mild winters prevent
bulbs from developing as robustly as normal, and this likely
applies to every type of produce that we talk about, y'all.
But but like, yes, climate change may affect garlic production
going forward, making it more rare and expensive. Yeah. Well
that's an upbeat note to end this history slash modern
(28:03):
day segment. Yeah, but it does segue nicely into science science. Yes,
but first quick break for word from our sponsor, and
we're back, Thank you sponsor. So I'm going to start
(28:26):
the science section here with a cooking tip. Um. We
mentioned earlier that one of the flavor compounds that makes garlic,
you know, garliccky, is called allison. And this compound is
not found and whole cloves of garlic. It's made by
a chemical reaction when the tissue of the clove is
disrupted by being crushed or cut. When that happens, an
(28:49):
enzyme called alan as acts on this amino acid called
alan and converts it to allison. So if you want
a strong, a stronger garlic flavor, crusher, chop it, and
then let it kind of sit and hang out for
up to fifteen minutes before you use it, thus allowing
this enzyme to do its work. And I'm glad you
(29:10):
mentioned at this, because a lot of times that's a
stepf I'll dish your gard oh like now that I
know it might flavor. Yeah. Also, the smaller and more
disrupted that you make your garlic via chopping and crushing,
the more intense the flavor will be. The more uh,
those compounds will get to interact with each other and
do the thing. Uh. It might seem unintuitive, yes, but
(29:34):
sliced or whole clothes will impart a more mild flavor
to a dish. Also, temperatures above a hundred and forty
degrees fahrenheit that's about sixty degrees celsius will inactivate that
enzyme alan ace. So yes, cooking garlic, cooked garlic, what
will be more mild than raw garlic something that we
all probably knew but yes mentioned why yeah, and oh
(29:58):
hey speak ging of this compound, Allison. Some researchers think
it's also the reason why garlic can have health benefits
as an antioxidant. When alison breaks down during digestion. A
couple of things that are produced are are sulfuric compounds,
(30:18):
which can stabilize the free radicals that some researchers think
can cause damage to your cells and thus contribute to
conditions like cancer and heart disease and and free free radicals.
Free free radical uh sidebar yeah for radicals. UM is
the fancy name for atoms or molecules in your body
that react easily with other atoms or molecules because they
(30:41):
have at least one unpaired electron. Think of it. Think
of it like you're at a party, okay, and some
people are walking around with a drink in one hand
and a plate of ordinars in the other, but some
people are only carrying a plate. The people carrying just
a plate can more easily shake hands with or like
awkwardly side hug someone that they bump into. They are
(31:02):
the free radicals in this scenario. Antioxidants are technically their
molecules that can prevent free radicals from being created in
the first place by preventing oxidation. Antioxidants, yes, but the
word is sometimes also applied to molecules that stabilize free radicals.
In this scenario, it's that latter thing. The the sulfur
compounds are like a host at the party who comes
(31:24):
by with a tray of drinks hands one to the
person holding just a plate, and then it becomes harder
for the partygoer to interact or to react. In chemistry terms,
I'm gonna start calling people at parties free radicals. He's
being such a free radical now. However, garlics exact usefulness
(31:45):
as a medicine is still debated, and basically more research
needs to be done to to see exactly how it
has these properties that it's been used for for you know,
thousands upon thousands of years, and and how we can
best harness that harness the power of garlic harness anyway, Yeah,
(32:07):
so some some research has indicated that incorporating garlic in
your diet may help prevent certain types of cancer, like
colon and stomach cancers. Dietary supplements of garlic, by the way,
have not been shown to have the same effect. Um
Garlic does act as an anticoagulant in your blood, which
can help prevent plaque build up in your arteries and
(32:29):
also help prevent blood clots of both of which can
lead to heart attack. And stroke, but its levels of
effectiveness are uncertain. M there's as of yet weak evidence
about whether it helps lower high blood pressure. It might
be it might be more of a preventative thing than
like a fixed an issue thing. Um. Again, eating garlic
(32:51):
in your diet may be helpful, but talk to a
doctor before attempting to fix anything, especially with a garlic supplement. Um. Definitely,
also don't take garlic supplements if you're on another prescription
blood thinner or if you've just had surgery, because since
it can act as an anti coagulant. Yeah. Yeah, yeah,
bleeding can happen bad times. Um. Garlic supplements can also
(33:14):
interfere with a few medications, so yeah, always always check
with a medical professional before using dietary supplements. There's some
conflicting evidence about whether garlic helps lower bad L d
L cholesterol levels. Okay, fun conflicting yeah. Um. There have
been preliminary studies into whether garlic supplements have antibiotic properties
(33:37):
that can help prevent or fight the common cold. They
have seemed to work better than placebo, but more studies
need to be done, and preliminary studies indicate that garlic
gel may have antifungal properties when applied topically to help
treating ringworm, athletes, foot, and jock itch. Garlic does not, however,
(33:58):
seem to help with another type of fungal infection, yeast infections.
And now I get to say for the second time
in one episode that you should not put things in
your vagina that were not meant to go into your vagina.
Self cleaning, oven eating, eating garlic or supplements doesn't seem
(34:23):
to help either though. If if you if you have
a yeast infection that you can't get rid of, see
a doctor. Don't don't try all the things that the
Internet tells you to try, just really really talk to
a doctor. There there are a few non medicinal or
non traditional medicine ways of trying to knock out yeast infections.
So if that's the thing that you're looking for, a
doctor can help you with that as well. Anyway, Okay,
(34:46):
one more, one more word about supplements. Okay. There are
four basic ways that garlic can be processed into supplements,
and those methods, as you would imagine, vastly influence what
kinds of stuff you'll get out of the supplement. And like,
remember that one of the most promising compounds in garlic
only happens when you crush garlic cell walls to let
(35:06):
a reaction happen and then begin to digest the resulting compound.
All right, So if you're going to do for a supplement,
do some research. What I read seems to indicate that
garlic oil masserrate capsules are the way to go. But again,
talk to your doctor. There can be adverse effects, way
(35:27):
worse than just getting a little bit stinkier. Yeah, and
speaking of how do you get rid of that garlic breath?
Oh yes, I and another addition of annie is terribul
in relationships. I almost broke up with someone because I
was too embarrassed to tell him that I didn't want
to kiss because I just had hummus. Garlic was really overpowering.
(35:50):
But you know, eventually I had to admit it, and
he was like, why didn't you just say that? Anyway, Um,
the internet tells me that to get rid of garlic breath,
apples lemon juice are green too, not altogether, although I
guess you could go that route, but you know, I
don't know if it's a serious issue. There's more to
(36:10):
be found online, So let's end this episode with why
we're all really here? Yeah? Yeah, vampires the food stuff
vampire sidebar. I am so excited. Oh oh yes you
(36:31):
should be. Is there any truth to this whole garlic
keeping away vampires business? And if you're not sure what
we're talking about in popular culture, Vamparalore from Mexico, the Philippines, Germany, Hungry, Austria, Portugal, Armenia.
I mean, I'm sure there's more right there right in
if you've got some. They are all repelled by garlic.
(36:52):
All these types of vampire, all these vampires from all
over the place, and these are like independently occurring mythos,
Like it's crazy. I love it. Yeah. Going back to
some of the first vampire stories out of medieval Europe,
vampires have detested garlic. One book I read claimed that
as recently as the nineteen seventies, a church in Romania
(37:12):
handed out garlic for eating to eat out any potential vampires.
The reason for this is thought to be possibly based
on garlic allergies or it's antibiotic and anti fungal properties
that we have just detailed have been there throughout history. Um.
I also read that in Romania they celebrate St. Andrew's
(37:33):
Day on November twenty nine, which also goes by the
Night of the Vampire. Vampires another undead are thought to
gather near crossroads and abandoned buildings on this day, So
people eat a lot of garlic. They perhaps place cloves
of garlic around windows and doors, or maybe they make
a garlic paste and spread it on the door in
a shape of a crucifix. Some young people celebrate by
(37:55):
guarding the garlic. Okay, yeah, Each young woman is tasked
with ringing three clothes of garlic to an agreed upon spot.
All of these are gathered in a pot, and this
pot is watched over by candle light by the house's
oldest female occupant all night. Once the sun comes up,
the pot is taken outside and is the centerpiece for
a dance. Then the garlic is split up and used
(38:18):
as sacred symbol to protect against illness or spells. Listeners,
please right in if you've seen this or experience it,
or if there's any truth to it. Yeah, that's that's amazing.
Oh my goodness. Well, anyway, we are in like friends
(38:39):
because there has been research into the very question of
garlic's anti vampire properties. Wait what Yeah, in a group
of intrepid scientists lacking actual vampires, got the idea to
use blood sucking leeches to test this out. The leeches
were given the option of a garlic smeared hand or
(39:00):
a clean, non garlic smeared hand, and and two out
of three of the cases the garlic hand was the
preferred choice. But wait, it was more. While the leeches
may preferred the garlic hand, when they went that route,
they only attached for fourteen point nine seconds, as opposed
to the forty four point nine seconds they hung on
(39:21):
to the other hand without the garlic. Oh weird. Interesting.
The study concludes vampires are feared everywhere, but the Balkan
region has been especially haunted. This study indicates that garlic
possibly attracts vampires. Therefore, to avoid a Balkan like development
in Norway, restrictions on the use of garlic should be
(39:44):
considered food for thought. Garlic vampire research. It was so
fun and there was a lot of it. I convinced it.
And I'm sure you're like, really, but I did. There's
a lot of it out there. Oh. I adored humans,
and and especially scientists humans who do research like that.
(40:07):
That's wonderful. Yeah, it was. It was very entertaining. That
is our garlic episode. Yeah it was. It certainly was
um and it brings us to our listener male. The
first one is kind of kind of related to vampires.
(40:29):
It's from Maja, who is a registered dietitian. As she
wrote in about our fan diet episode. I get questions
about these on almost daily basis. But the most interesting
one you haven't mentioned, I got from my mom when
she asked me about the Moon diet. Yes, the Moon
diet one's intake would be based on the cycles of
(40:52):
the moon, with the idea that the gravitational pool from
the Moon will have an effect on the water and
our pool toxins from your body, among other beliefs. Hmm,
someone needs to go back to physics class to learn
that gravitation doesn't work that way and that your body
already has organs that allow for detoxication. Needed to say,
(41:13):
I cringe when I read about it and thought you
might too. I did. I literally, Yes, it was a
deep cringe. Emily wrote in about our yogurt episode to begin,
I was incredibly giddy when I heard you guys mention
Bulgaria's part in yogurt My husband is Bulgarian, and many
people do not realize that yogurt is not all about Greece.
(41:33):
Yogurt is a huge part of Bulgarian culture. I had
to be a quick study under his mother to learn
all of the ins and outs of yogurt making. So
many Bulgarian dishes and drinks are centered around yogurt. They
use it in a similar way that Americans would use
sour cream. One of the things I wanted to point out, though,
is that Bulgarian yogurt tastes nothing like American or Greek yogurts.
Most of the yogurts that we find at our grocery
(41:54):
stores are not made with the same cultures. She listed
a couple, but oh, that's a lot of Latin Okay.
In order to be considered Bulgarian yogurt, it must have
this particular bacteria combination. What I'm trying to say is
Bulgarian yogurt is this special gem that very few Americans
ever experienced. When my husband's family came to America, they
were horrified at the sugary, fruity gunk that was sold
(42:16):
as yogurt. Luckily, my mother in law came to the
rescue by teaching us how to make yogurt from the
yogurt that we bought. Now we always have a gallon
of Bulgarian yogurt in the fridge, and I can make
all of his favorite dishes, soups, drinks, and sides. Making
your own yogurt sounds complicated, but it is worth it.
My best advice is to keep trying. I had a
few batches turn out strange, lumpy, cheesy, etcetera. But those
(42:38):
were great opportunities to research what went wrong and perfect
my process. I look forward to hearing more podcasts and
learning new things from you too. I'm going to include
a few Bulgarian recipes below, and I highly recommend that
you try Bulgarian yogurt. And she totally did Yeah, and
I really want to try it. Yes, I wonder how
it can be imported. I need to work this out.
(42:59):
She said she found some in uh Tescaloosa, Alabama, which
I believe is near where she lives, but it was
really expensive, prohibitively expensive. So she included the recipes. Um,
and if we can remember and we'll post him and
(43:19):
you can try him. Yeah. Yeah, So thanks to both
of them, Yes for writing in YouTube can write us.
Our email is food stuff at work dot com. We're
also on social media. You can find us on Facebook
and Twitter at food Stuff. Hs W stands for how
Stuff Works. We're also on Instagram at food Stuff. Thank
(43:40):
you all so much for listening. Thank you to our
super producer Dylan Fagin, who I would be looking at
if he were in the room with us, but he's
still out recording another podcast, Dylan, How could you? Dylan?
Are you a villain? Oh No, he's lovely. He is.
He's very lovely anyway. Yes, thanks, thanks to all y'all.
(44:04):
We hope that lots more good things are coming your way.
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Anney Reese
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