So what's the deal with onions and garlic?
Are they medicinal or are they bad for you?
Ayurveda does NOT recommend eating onions and garlic on a regular basis.
Even though they can be medicinal on occasion.
Keep watching and I'll give you five reasons why you need to stop eating them.
Hi this is Livia with Healthy Happy and Wise bringing you the latest
Ayurvedic diet and lifestyle tips.
I can already hear your brains churning and protesting.
But wait a minute. Isn't onion, and especially garlic, a medicine?
And you are right. They have many healing properties, including blood cleansing, antibacterial,
antifungal, antibiotic, and some say aphrodisiac.
But just because they have medicinal benefits, it doesn't mean we should be eating them every day.
According to Ayurveda, onions and garlic should be reserved for medicinal purposes
and not used in everyday cooking. Just as you don't want to eat
powerful antibiotics every day all your life, but only during a short period of time
in case of a serious condition, supervised by a health professional.
So unless you need something to repel insect, vampires and everyone around you,
you are better off eating these powerful vegetables only on occasion.
So here are the downsides of onions and garlic.
Downside number one.
They have such a powerful odor and taste
that they overpower everything else.
This is the result of the sulphuric compounds in all types of onions.
Basically they stink.
And so will you, when you eat them.
I'm not sure how a substance with such a foul odor can be called an aphrodisiac.
When I eat onions, and especially garlic,
my body immediately wants to detoxify it. The smell will not only come from my mouth,
but trough the pores of my skin. People around me can smell it from ten feet
away and I can smell it too. If I accidentally eat something with garlic in it,
it takes three days for my body to get rid of the smell.
But I have to admit, my body seems to be super sensitive to onions and garlic.
If you eat onions and garlic regularly,
you may not notice the smell on yourself, but people around you will.
Downside number two.
As I mentioned earlier, one of the beneficial
properties of garlic and onions is that they are antibiotic. They kill bacteria.
Which is good when you have an infection.
However, they don't discriminate between good and bad bacteria.
and they will gradually destroy the beneficial
microbes in your gut, the precious microbiome that is already
under attack from so many other diet and lifestyle factors. This is especially a
problem with raw garlic and onions. Cooking them somewhat diminishes that
effect, but they will still be harmful to your gut flora.
Downside number three.
Onion and garlic are very heating and they aggravate Pitta.
This can manifest in several ways. Pita is sensitive to hot and spicy foods,
and they often suffer from acid reflux, heartburn, ulcers, and intestinal inflammation.
For people with these conditions, eating onions and garlic is like pouring
gasoline on the fire. They can experience burning in various parts of their digestive tract.
where their sensitivity manifests.
For example, my stomach can tolerate onions, but then after 12 hours of eating it
I wake up in the middle of the night as my intestines complain about the onions
burning through them. People with leaky gut can also be sensitive to eating
onions and garlic because the delicate lining of their intestinal wall is
already compromised, and their microbiome has already been decimated.
The Pitta-increasing side effects of eating onions and garlic can also manifest in
emotional symptoms such as anger and irritability.
Downside number four.
Onions and garlic are rajasic and tamasic.
These are the subtle qualities of foods that affect our brain and consciousness.
The rajasic energy is agitating and stimulating,
the tamasic energy is dulling for the mind.
Ayurveda recommends focusing on foods that contain the sattvic quality,
which supports clarity of mind. So onions and garlic will prevent mental clarity
and slow down the functioning of your brain.
Downside number five.
Eating onions and garlic will also hinder your spiritual endeavors.
This also has to do with the rajasic and tamasic qualities.
This is why many spiritual traditions advise people
to stay away from onions and garlic. The Yogis of India abstain from it,
and so do many Buddhists and Zen practitioners.
If you are a predominantly Kapha body type,
and have a perfectly healthy digestive system,
you may be able to tolerate onions and garlic better than Pitta and Vata types.
But it would still be better to moderate your consumption.
So if you are not able to completely let go of these vegetables (some say they are addicted by the way)
there are a few things you can do. You can cook them instead of eating them raw.
You can can use less. And you can eat them less often. If you want to learn
some tips on how to substitute for onion and garlic in your cooking, check out the
link to our other video in the comments.
Remember to check out healthyhappynwise.com
to learn more about the Ayurvedic lifestyle and diet.
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Thank you so much for watching. I will see you next time.