Garlic and cloves: two treasures for health

What if you could achieve healthy immunity, calmer digestion and clearer skin using the spices you already have? Consider a winter night spent cooking:

you bang a clove of garlic, smelling its old-time freshness and drop two cloves into a pot filled with steam. At that instance, you start a partnership that healers from all over the world have put their trust in for generations.

Garlic has long been known as the natural village doctor inside a bulb. Smash or slice a clove of garlic and a small sulfur-rich molecule called allicin shows up for just a moment, but it’s effective at eliminating bacteria in the area.

The helpful allicin tells your blood vessels to relax and makes your liver remove cholesterol from your blood. If the winter wind causes the windows to shake, a little minced garlic in a soup can seem like a shield for your immune system.

Although cloves are sweet and somewhat floral in flavor, they have a strong reputation in their own right. The star compound eugenol works as an antioxidant defender, preventing free radicals from doing damage to skin cells or causing inflammation in the joints.

Ask someone who has added a clove beside an affected tooth: eugenol eases discomfort and fights bacteria and that’s why dentists’ guides sometimes mention an old merchant ship carrying spices in their original wooden boxes.

What results if you bring these two old acquaintances together at a meal? There are just enough similarities in what each does. While garlic activates defenses, clove with its antioxidants, helps keep them strong.

It thins out mucus and soothes the swollen areas; clove works to relieve the pain caused by that irritation. The combination of brass and strings allows the orchestra to maintain bold resistance against illness and soothe excessive inflammation.

It turns out that the duo is really easy to use. On mornings when you aren’t feeling energetic, grind two whole cloves and one garlic clove and add them to a cup of hot water for ten minutes. Stir in a little honey afterward.

The taste is strong, but often the wonderful feelings it gives— cleared sinuses, warmth in your chest and a calm stomach—let you know instantly how powerful it is. For those who like mild flavors, add minced garlic, along with a small amount of ground clove, to tomato sauces, beans or even pumpkin purée; heat melts away the intense flavor without losing most of the healthy oils.

Set a small saucepan on your lowest flame, put olive oil and some peeled garlic cloves in it and then add a handful of whole cloves. The light aroma in the kitchen after half an hour shapes ordinary dishes into something you could find at any seafront cafe.

Blends aren’t just helpful in cooking; they also add value in other areas. Blend a teaspoon of clove with a small amount of mashed garlic and apply the paste to any blemish; most people find that the paste soothes and calms the inflamed area by morning after rinsing. A swish of pre-chilled garlic-and-clove tea after brushing can make your mouth taste better and discourage bacteria from forming cavities.

Homemade remedies are worth respecting too. Due to the effect garlic has on blood clotting, people using medications for blood clotting should eat it cautiously. Fresh clove oil, being concentrated, can cause skin irritation if used without being mixed with other products. Imagining these plants as lively guests at a dinner party, you’ll see they love to be around others as long as everyone keeps the rules.

It’s exciting in a world full of new and fancy health products to trust the basics our ancestors relied on, even before modern science was developed. Put a garlic bulb and a small jar of cloves next to each other on your counter. They really tell stories from different parts of the world, support our well-being every day and remind us that simple mixtures can make the best-tasting food.