Garlic Recipe for Colon Cleanse

A healthy colon should have 85 percent or more of "good," beneficial bacteria. However, unhealthy lifestyles, poor eating habits and antibiotics can destroy good bacteria, allowing "bad" bacteria to proliferate and cause health issues such as digestive problems, a weakened immune system, sluggish metabolism, poor skin and irritable bowel syndrome. There are many alternative remedies for colon cleansing, and several include garlic---a natural powerhouse.

Why Garlic?

The humble garlic enjoys many medical accolades---it can lower cholesterol, fight cancer and boost immunity. In the January 2009 issue of the international chemistry journal "Angewandte Chemie," Dr. Derek Pratt reports that garlic's active ingredient, allicin, becomes a powerful antioxidant when it breaks down, releasing an acid that captures damaging free radicals. This in turn helps reduce toxins in the colon.

Garlic is also antimicrobial, a fact underscored by an article in the February 1999 issue of the journal "Microbes and Health." The report's authors, researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science, in Israel, state that allicin in its purest form is antibacterial, anti-fungal, anti-parasitic and antiviral. This is significant, as garlic is potent against Candida albicans (one of the bad bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract) and intestinal parasites such as Entamoeba histolytica and Giardia lambia. It follows that a diet rich in garlic can help fight detrimental microorganisms in the colon.

Garlic Recipes

If garlic is good for cleansing the colon, how can you incorporate garlic in your diet on a regular basis? Fortunately, garlic is a versatile culinary herb. Chopped or minced garlic can be added to salad dressing to deliver flavor and punch. Finely chop garlic and whisk it with a basic vinegar and oil salad dressing, then drizzle over fresh lettuce and other vegetables.

Garlic can also be used to season meat and seafood for that extra burst of flavor. It can also be combined with other herbs and spices (including cayenne, curry powder, turmeric and cumin) as a dry rub on poultry and fish. Garlic adds panache to marinades too---garlic-infused marinades can be used to season food. You can then choose to grill, bake or pan-fry your seasoned meat or seafood.

Soups also do well with garlic added---vegetable soup, minestrone, lentil soup, even exotic soups like Tom Yam. What about stews? Most stews call for browning garlic together with onion to bring out the flavor of the other ingredients. Consider adding garlic to beef stew, seafood stew, curries and chili. And garlic bread, tapas, guacamole, dips, stir-fry dishes and spaghetti sauce would not taste quite the same without garlic.

How Best to Use Garlic?

Although garlic can be toasted, roasted, grilled or browned, garlic retains the highest levels of allicin when eaten raw. In addition, crushing garlic before cooking yields better health benefits: This releases an enzyme, allinase, that facilitates the formation of allicin, which then breaks down into various compounds that can help detox your colon and entire digestive tract.