18 Apr Health Tip #3:Garlic/Lemon Cocktail

This tip came to me from an on-line search, in the winter of 2016/2017, after stress and a virus sent me into a vertigo/high blood pressure spin. Frantically I searched the internet for information and remedies, and there I found a recipe for this amazing lemon/garlic cocktail. Details of making at the end.

Garlic(Allium sativum) seems to have originated in lands around the Mediterranean Sea, where today, many countries in this region include garlic in their popular dishes. However, historically, references to garlic use in this area are mostly medicinal.

There are many nay-sayers to garlic as a medicine; Wikipedia’s Garlic offers a short segment on Folk Medicine and then states that there is no evidence supporting such claims. On the other hand, the German language Wikipedia for Knoblauchis friendlier and claims that Garlic is an antibiotic, although there is no evidence of garlic as a prevention or cure for cold symptoms. This followed the statement that ingredients of Garlic lower blood pressure and work against sclerosis in the blood vessels. Garlic contains high levels of sulfur compounds: allicin, diallyl disulfide and s-allyl cysteine.

With regards to the other main ingredient, lemons, public opinion and modern medicine apparently view lemons more favourably than some fifty years ago. I recall arguing with a first-year medical student, summer of 1975, about laboratory Vitamin C and lemon juice. At that time Scientists recognized only the Vitamin C contained in lemons as being beneficial to health, and they felt that they could manufacture a product with that same Vitamin C, and that this product was less expensive, more durable and absolutely predictable in quantity of Vitamin C in each tablet, and who knows how many grams of Vitamin C each lemon contains. The medical student could not accept the unmeasurable, and therefore rejected my claims that something more in the living fruit juice, or a half-lemon tied gently, yet firmly, to sole of my foot, improves my health.

In 2023, a Bing search of lemons first offer is Six Evidence-based Health Benefits of Lemons.

Research indicates that eating fruits and vegetables rich in Vitamin C reduces the risk of heart disease or stroke. Again, I suggest that raw or lightly-cooked vegetables are consumed, not a tablet alleging to contain the same thing.

Aside from this, we now understand that lemons contain fiber and plant compounds that lower some risk factors in heart disease, in particular their impact reducing blood cholesterol levels. Hesperidin and Diosmin seem to be the compounds lemons use to help lower cholesterol.

Although we add to our bodies’ nourishment simply by including garlic and lemon in our salads, this recipe makes a storable and easy-to-take tonic the quickly provides your body with everything listed above. In order to make this tonic, you need:

A blender     

A one gallon jar with a lid 

4 lemons 

4 heads of garlic. 

1 gallon of boiling water 

 Cut the lemons in quarters and remove seeds; put in blender. Separate the heads of garlic into individual cloves and peel them. Remove just the hardest of the peel and the ends. Put the peeled garlic in the blender. Add a cup or so of the boiled water to make blending easier. Blend the mixture, adding more  water if it is too stiff. Transfer blended lemon/garlic to 1 gallon jar and add remaining water until jar is nearly full. Use some of the boiled water to rinse the blender thoroughly. Let this steep for two days. Strain through a sieve into a container wide enough to avoid spills. Use a funnel to pour back into the 1 gallon jar. This will keep several months in the refrigerator. If you have two refrigerators, keep the large container in your back-up fridge and keep a smaller jar handy in the main kitchen fridge.

By adding this beverage to your diet, which I hope will provide noticeable health-benefits, you will also assume the risk of either an allergic reaction to either garlic or lemon, or both. Reactions are rare and usually not severe. One adverse reaction to lemon juice can be frequent urination. On this subject, I refer to my first experience, when I made and drank this tonic. It tastes like unsweetened grapefruit juice. And I felt right away inside that it was good for me. So, for about four days in a row, I drank 3 or even four ounces. The fourth night, I woke up and urinated four times, about every ninety minutes. This was most unusual, because I rarely get up in the night, and if so, only once. And these were not irritable squirts; these were complete emptying of a very full bladder. It probably was what my insides wanted, but I cut back on the garlic/lemon. With things in good shape, I like about 2oz every other day before dinner.