Why I Don’t Eat Toxic Garlic Or Onions

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Onion and garlic is actu­ally toxic, believe it or not.

We all know vampires don’t like garlic… but maybe there’s some­thing behind this immortal crea­tures disdain for garlic that we’re over-looking. Think about it: most of us mortals fear the dreaded “garlic breath” after eating Italian food before getting close and cozy for some face time with a mate. For a good reason too, because most people find onion and garlic breath to be pretty repulsing. So we know that if anything, having garlic and onions before the big date is a major faux pas… but is there more to it?

The answer is, yes.

Before we get into the science, let’s just think common sense. How many people get bad breath after eating apples, pineapple, berries, celery, carrots, orange juice, or even simple bread? You don’t hear any girls running away in terror back to their friends saying “OH NO, BREAD BREATH!“I think it’s a safe bet that most people with good hygiene don’t.

In fact, you even see couples feeding each other straw­ber­ries and kissing each other with fruit… but not onions. There’s nothing sexy or sensual about running an onion peel over a women’s breast and lips …unless I suppose you have a alliums fetish (good luck having that up on your online dating profile).

Why is that? Well first let’s tackle what bad breath is first. According to Wikipedia:

Halitosis (bad breath) is a term used to describe notice­ably unpleasant odors exhaled in breathing. […] In most cases (85–90%), bad breath orig­i­nates in the mouth itself. The inten­sity of bad breath differs during the day, due to eating certain foods (such as garlic, onions, meat, fish, and cheese), obesity, smoking, and alcohol consumption. Since the mouth is exposed to less oxygen and is inac­tive during the night, the odor is usually worse upon awak­ening (“morning breath”).

Tongue bacteria produce malodorous compounds and fatty acids, and account for 80 to 90% of all cases of mouth-related bad breath. Tongue bacteria produce malodorous compounds and fatty acids, and account for 80 to 90% of all cases of mouth-related bad breath.

See, even the defi­n­i­tion mentions garlic and onions increase bad breath!

Now everyone knows that certain foods just aren’t good for you. Also, I’m sure people know of certain foods that cause people in a 10 ft radius to run away, plug­ging their nose in fear. So to me, it only seems logical that if you’re eating a food that causes such an unpleasant response to you and those around you, it might not be so good for you.

If some­body doesn’t bathe and they smell like ass, chances are you don’t want to be around them. Why is that? Why do we find THAT smell to be so offen­sive? It’s simply because evolu­tion says those smells tend to corre­late with people that are often:

• unhealthy (not living a clean lifestyle)
• diseased (again, not clean, sickly)
• toxic (smells indi­cate the body trying to detox)
• low-status (can’t afford basic hygiene maintenance)
• low-selfesteem (doesn’t bother to keep them­selves up)
• unfa­vor­able mating mate­rial (not the best chances of survival)

It’s basi­cally natures warning system for ourselves and others that we should either change what we’re doing to get healthier, or to stay away from some­body that can possibly pose a threat to our well­being. It’s nature and human instinct — not super­fi­cial polit­i­cally correct nonsense. It’s logical, and makes total sense.

With all the being said, now that I’m very healthy with a low toxic load, I find people that eat loads or garlic and onions to reek (kind of like leek — oh so clever). Not only their breath, but you can smell it in their sweat. The body is trying to detox it anyway it can, and if it’s that offen­sive, chances are it’s prob­ably not the best food for you (or them).

So I did some research and found a few really inter­esting things:

• They contain allicin. It is anti­ fungal as well as antibi­otic, that is most likely used to prevent the plant from being eaten by fungus, bacte­rias, and other animals. Farmers can strate­gi­cally place them in their gardens to prevent animals from getting at other crops. If animals instincts tell them to avoid them… how are we so much smarter?
• Onions can induce anemia in animals (Pierce, KR. Et al. “Acute hemolytic anemia caused by wild onion poisoning in horses.” J Am Vet Med Assoc. 1972 Feb 1;160(3):323–7.)
• Reiki prac­ti­tioners explain that garlic and onions are among the first substances to be expelled from a person’s system – along with tobacco, alcohol and phar­ma­ceu­tical medications.
• Back in the 1980’s, in his research on human brain func­tion, Dr Robert [Bob] C. Beck, DSc. found that garlic has a detri­mental effect on the brain. He found that in fact garlic is toxic to humans because its sulphone hydroxyl ions pene­trate the blood-brain barrier and are poiso­nous to brain cells.
  
  Dr Beck explained that as far back as the 1950s it was known that garlic reduced reac­tion time by two to three times when consumed by pilots taking flight tests. This is because the toxic effects of garlic desyn­chro­nize brain waves. “The flight surgeon would come around every month and remind all of us: “Don’t you dare touch any garlic 72 hours before you fly one of our airplanes, because it’ll double or triple your reac­tion time. You’re three times slower than you would be if you’d not had a few drops of garlic.“
  
  In my research that chem­ical is NOT found in red onions, so that’s consid­ered more “safe”. 
• The Taoists real­ized thou­sands of years ago that plants of the alli­a­ceous family were detri­mental to humans in their healthy state. In his writ­ings, one sage Tsang-Tsze described the Alliums as the “five fragrant or spicy scented vegeta­bles” — that each have a detri­mental effect on one of the following five organs — liver, spleen, lungs, kidneys, and heart. Specifically, onions are harmful to the lungs, garlic to the heart, leeks to the spleen, chives to the liver and spring onions to the kidneys.
  
  Tsang-Tsze said that these pungent vegeta­bles contain five different kinds of enzymes which cause “reac­tions of repul­sive breath, extra-foul odour from perspi­ra­tion and bowel move­ments, and lead to lewd indul­gences, enhance agita­tions, anxi­eties and aggres­sive­ness,” espe­cially when eaten raw.
• According to Ayurveda, India’s classic medical science, foods are grouped into three cate­gories - sattvic, rajasic and tamasic - foods in the modes of good­ness, passion and igno­rance. Onions and garlic, and the other alli­a­ceous plants are clas­si­fied as rajasic and tamasic, which means that they increase passion and igno­rance.
  
  Rajasic and tamasic foods are also not used because they are detri­mental to medi­ta­tion and devo­tions. “Garlic and onions are both rajasic and tamasic, and are forbidden to yogis because they root the conscious­ness more firmly in the body”, says well-known authority on Ayurveda, Dr.Robert E.Svoboda.

I’m part Italian, so giving up garlic and onions for me was pretty diffi­cult on a cooked food diet. It wasn’t so bad now that I eat mostly raw, but you’d be suppressed how many recipes call for garlic and onions. Now I’m sure a little bit of seasoning here and there isn’t gonna hurt me — but gener­ally speaking, I don’t add any if can avoid it.

When I did my initial garlic and onion detox, I had some incred­ible results. First off, it helped with my dark circles under my eyes a little bit (though I did detox from regular peanuts as well). Second, and most profoundly, all that garlic and onion was detoxing through my nose! Let me explain. Every time I took a shower and washed my face, I could liter­ally smell the onion garlic scent on my fingers.

I was perplexed  …maybe it was just residual smell from my fingers.

It wasn’t. Each day I got into the shower, I would rub my nose and the natural face oils would get on my finger. I would smell my fingers and BOOM! That smell again. I could smell it on my nose from my nose too. Yeah I know this sounds kinda weird and gross, but that’s the whole point of it. My entire body was detoxing the garlic and onion through the sweat on my nose. It was so bizarre.

After I think about 2 weeks, it finally went away, and I no longer smelled garlic and onions on my nose. Crazy. Though to me, it meant my body was trying to remove what­ever toxins were built up, and it was all finally out of my system. That shit doesn’t happen when you eat apples. You don’t go through 2 weeks of “apple nose” when you stop eating them. Proof enough for me that they weren’t so good.

As of now, knowing that red (purple, super high color on the energy spec­trum) onions don’t have that same toxic chem­ical as the story above about pilots and reac­tion time, I do at times add it to guacamole or other dishes. Since it’s such a potent thing for me, I only need a tiny amount to add that extra kick.

I have to admit that I have a really extremely healthy, low toxic lifestyle (sad that it’s consid­ered extreme), so I’m hyper in-tune and aware of myself and others, thus I prob­ably notice a more drastic chance from some­thing as simple as removing 2 foods from my diet than an average person on the SAD. While I do acknowl­edge there may be some health bene­fits to these foods, for me, my immune system is so strong and I get plenty of what I need else­where, that the cons of eating these foods greatly outweighs the bene­fits for me, person­ally. For others at certain times in their life, it may be good — I have no idea.

Who knows, maybe you would see a differ­ence in your body odor, breath, and agility by removing (or at least greatly reducing) these foods as well! Be sure to let me know if you’ve had any expe­ri­ence with this, and what your results were.

…I guess those vampire hunters really were onto something.