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Difficulty digesting garlic?

Anyone else out there having trouble getting garlic through you? My digestive system has always tended towards the weak side, but I thought that others might be having similar difficulties due to the nature of garlic itself. Just looking for some thoughts.

Thanks everyone,

-Dave:)

Comments

  • Wow! I was just thinking of starting a thread about this topic. I love garlic! I never had any reaction to cooked garlic. Raw garlic seems to give me an upset stomach ( not quite nauseous ) and a headache. I’m so sad because it makes so many raw dishes taste sooo yummy. I thought maybe it was an allergy that would go away once I was raw for a while, NOPE. I have heard that some consider it a toxic food, I wonder if we are just more sensitive to it’s toxins then other people…

  • I am the same way. I love roasted gooey garlic but tend to have problems with high quantities and/or raw garlic. It makes my stomach bloat beyond belief and gives me the ree ree. Even when I’ve taken garlic pills I had the same reaction. It must be associated with the high sulfur and or allicin levels.

  • Thanks for the input guys. It could be that we’re more sensitive, but the reaction my body goes through is definitely never a subtle one. Unpleasant symptoms often carry over in to the next day! When giving my stomach a good wash (a yoga technique for cleansing that involves drinking and then regurgitating a quanitity of warm, salted water) on those mornings, I often that the garlic remains undigested in what comes up. And this is most often 12 hours or more from the time of consumption! I too never had any trouble with cooked garlic, but raw garlic seems to be a much different story. Maybe we should start soaking our garlic :)

    -Dave:)

  • Yep. Take it slow, mix it with food. As the body detoxes over time, more awesome garlic will be easier to take. Stay with it. That’s why fresh garlic is on my “4 greats” list.

  • jenny2052jenny2052 Raw Newbie

    I’m extra sensitive to raw garlic, too, and it makes me so sad to admit that to myelf! I love the taste of garlic, but every time I eat it I regret it soon after. As soon as I’ve eaten it, I even find just the smell on my hands nauseating. I was thinking about maybe pickling it in apple cider vinegar to see if that might make it easier on my system. I know some would say just to give it up altogether, and I have cut way back on it, but I always miss it and end up trying it out again.

  • elizabethhelizabethh Raw Newbie

    I read in my Ani Phyo book that when people have trouble digesting garlic it is actually the middly vein part of the garlic causing the problem. Maybe try cutting it out and see how that works?

  • I’ll try that, I hope it works.

  • I also read about the green vein in the Ani Phyo book. Also, Frederic Patenaude mentions that it’s actually the mustard oil in raw garlic, onions and leeks that is an “irritant that greatly upsets the digestive tract.” The mustard oil is oxidized by cooking or long exposure to air. He suggests:

    1. Chopping the onion or garlic and then rinsing them with warm water
    2. Dehydrating them to evaporate some of the mustard oil
    3. Chopping them in a food processor, where they will lost a lot of mustard oil through oxidation
    4. Make a substitute of chopped garlic flowers mixed with sunflower oil
    5. Use garlic or onion greens (simply plant garlic or onions, even indoors, and use the greens or flowers)

    I’ve not tried any of these methods myself just yet. I do notice that garlic does remain on my breath for quite a while, though, which he mentions affects a lot of raw foodists!

  • Dido to getting the green vein out. Personally, I’ve never had trouble digesting garlic, but nonetheless, I tried deviening it. Hope that works.

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