Garlic and onions are more than just an ingredient in tonight's dinner. Garlic and onions also help fight infections and heal the human body. People far back in history were well aware that both of these foods had medicinal. They were consumed on a regular basis in order to protect themselves from getting sick and also as a way to help them heal quicker in the event that they did come down with an infection.

Scientific research studies support the fact that onions and garlic are worthy of being eaten every single day in order to provide optimum health benefits. Although pungent, these are not foods that should be easily dismissed. Never let the unpleasant aroma cause you to avoid them. Perhaps it would not be wise to eat onions or garlic before an important meeting or a date however.

These natural foods are full of chemicals that can help protect a person from a variety of infections, diseases and illnesses. Garlic and onions help to protect against a plethora of physical problems such as cardiovascular disease, respiratory concerns, diabetes, and a variety of cancers.

A number of tests have shown that a diet rich in garlic helps to lower the total cholesterol rate of an individual, including the bad cholesterol or LDL while at the same time it raises the good HDL cholesterol in the bloodstream. Garlic is responsible for producing cells in the blood that are deemed "natural killers" and these can help to fight off many different kinds of infections as well as deadly tumors. Garlic lowers blood pressure and it decreases the risk of developing blood clots. Blood clots are to blame for the incidence of many strokes and heart attacks.

Garlic fights bacteria and viruses and therefore helps to prevent infections and it decreases the risks of a number of different types of cancer, with an emphasis on cancers of the stomach. It is important to note that garlic is best eaten in its raw form and its medicinal properties are at their height when garlic is cut up, sliced up or chopped. Cooking garlic, especially for too long or at high temperatures is responsible for destroying some of the compound known as "allicin" in it as it is allicin that makes garlic as healing in nature as it is.

Onions have many health benefits as well. Much like garlic, onions help to increase the HDL cholesterol in the blood, especially when they are eaten in their raw state. Onions also help to decrease the bad cholesterol or LDL in the blood and they increase the ability of the blood to dissolve blood clots. Onions are excellent at decreasing the risk inherent in developing diabetes and help to fight off the bacteria that are responsible for causing many infections in the human body. Onions decrease the risk of many different types of cancers. A compound known as quercetin has been discovered in onions and this compound is extremely powerful when it comes to fighting cancer and is an excellent antioxidant.

While eating onions and garlic may not win you any fans, they will win you many years of good health.