Another Good Reason to Eat Garlic by Melissa Schwartz
By Melissa Schwartz
The benefits of Garlic have been exploited since ancient time for varying reasons that range from warding off vampires to treating aliment such as influenza and fungal infections. The old tale that garlic fends off vampires is questionable, but I can attest that it does keep urban deer at bay if eaten raw and in a large quantity.
Last night I made a Middle Eastern inspired meal of lamb, flatbread, and hummus. Since I had never made Hummus, I decide to try my hand at it. I started by using my pestle to crush several garlic cloves in the mortar. I intended to put some of the garlic in the goat yogurt, but forgot and just proceeded to add the chickpeas, lemon, and salt. I had just finished a long strength routine before I began cooking, so when the flat bread came out of the oven, I immediately dipped it into the hummus and had a bite. Wow, was I surprised! It reminded me of the first time I had eaten a whole raw garlic clove in an attempt to fend off a cold. Two issues can be traced to the overwhelming potency of the mixture. One, the obvious, I had not taken the extra cloves out. And two, I remembered I had bought organic garlic, which in this case was much stronger then the garlic I usually buy.
This morning, I immediately noticed the affects of last night’s dinner as I was preparing for my workout. The smell of garlic on my skin and in my mouth was overwhelming. I work out early, so there were no worries of meeting anyone on the street other than the usual urban deer. However, as I finished up my specific strength workout, I realized that the deer were also absent from the streets. Usually, I have at least one incident of a deer darting out from behind a car in front of me. Furthermore, last fall I had a close call with a deranged buck during the seasonal rut. I don’t know what he thought I was, but he chased after me down the street. I was forced to double poled as fast as I could and I finally dove behind a fence in a last ditch effort to escape him. So this morning, I was happy the deer were keeping their distance even if I did stink of garlic.
The lessons learned from my cooking adventure are three fold. One, Middle Eastern food taste great and is really healthy, but does not always make you smell the nicest. Two, when using raw garlic (especially organic) a little goes a long way. And three, deer really don’t like garlic.
