It has been reported by the XinHua news agency that the price of garlic in China is soaring. In Shandong province where the price of garlic used to be 0.2 yuan / kilo has now 9 yuan / kilo. This severe rise in price reflects a severe demand for garlic, on the Chinese belief ( little medical evidence that garlic does protect a person against viruses, including A H1N1. This also happened in China with the SARS outbreak, not so long ago. A school in HangZhou is said to have bought 200kilos of raw garlic for the students to eat it at lunchtime, to prevent A H1N1 from infecting the school ( I wonder what happened, besides a lot of bad breathe ) thereafter. I must emphasize that we are talking about raw garlic here. Cooked garlic is useless. I am sure that there is some sort of smart business men involved too, hoping for a quick buck. China is one of the world's largest producer of garlic.
Looking at it medically, it is true that garlic is a sulphur containing flavinoids, with some medicinal properties. Of the many touted, perhaps the one that is best documented is the cholesterol lowering and anti-inflammatory effects of garlic. There is reasonable medical evidence that garlic is good for the heart. Along with this, it has also been reported thatgarlic may also ontain anti-oxidant and anti bacterial properties. There are also mention of some anti-viral properties. As I search around, these claims are shrouded in vague language, and nothing very scientific.
I suppose, if your loved ones can stand garlic-breathe, there is no harm to take some raw garlic daily, in the hope of protecting your heart and also, maybe ( and this is a big maybe ) protect you against A H1N1. It is certainly safer than the A H1N1 vaccines. I hope that the cost of Malaysian garlic does not increase under the guise of rain and poor harvest. It is all business afterall.
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