When you come down with a cold or the flu, you just want to feel better. What do you do to take care of yourself? If your doctor diagnoses influenza, he or she might prescribe an antiviral like Tamiflu. (Or possibly not.) But if you have a cold, what are your options? Many people turn to onion & garlic remedies to try to recover more quickly.
What Onion & Garlic Remedies Could Help Against Colds?
Q. I was excited to read recently that garlic can help you get over a cold. I’ll try it if you tell me how.
A. There isn’t very much research on using garlic to thwart a cold. One small double-blind placebo-controlled study found that people taking garlic capsules caught fewer colds and recovered more quickly than those on placebo (Advances in Therapy, Jul-Aug 2001).
According to ConsumerLab.com, Kyolic Aged Garlic Extract is a high-quality supplement. Testing also showed that Life Extension Optimized Garlic is potent and affordable.
Most people worry about garlic breath, although that is not a problem with aged garlic extract. One caution, though. Garlic supplements may increase the risk for bleeding, especially if people are taking anticoagulant medication such as warfarin.
Eat Onions Instead of Leaving Them Out:
Q. When I am sick with a cold I crave onions. I am not sure why and I don’t know if they actually help me get over my cold any faster.
I just read an article that is circulating on the web that farmers and their families placed unpeeled onions around the room to ward off the 1919 flu. The onions absorbed the flu virus and kept people from getting sick. Is there anything to this story?
A. We have received lots of inquiries about onions.
Here is another:
“I recently read an article claiming that if you cut an unpeeled onion in half and put it in a jar and then put it in the bedroom of a sick person, the onion will absorb the bacteria, helping the sick person get better faster. It also claimed that if you put dishes of onions around the house, the onions will prevent you from getting the flu and other illnesses.
“Have you ever heard of this and is it true or just a bunch of nonsense? My one daughter and her two children moved in with us temporarily after her divorce and we watch two other grandchildren while their parents work. All the kids, ages 5 and under, have been sick with bronchitis, pneumonia, tonsillitis, ear infections, strep throat and bad coughs that will not go away.
“We constantly clean the house and wipe things down with Lysol and other antibacterial products but even after several rounds of antibiotics, the kids still cannot get completely well and then start over being sick again. It seems they just keep passing the illnesses back and forth and it is impossible to keep them completely separated. Would putting cut up onions around the house help or just stink up my house?”
Gladys
We’re afraid that putting raw onions around the house will just stink up the house and won’t prevent people from getting sick. There is no reason to believe that flu viruses have an affinity for onions. Flies may be attracted to honey, but the viruses that cause colds and flu cannot propel themselves through the air and selectively hone in on raw onions. This is an urban legend.
Eating raw onions, on the other hand, might have some medicinal benefit. For one thing, your breath is likely to smell so strong that most people will want to keep a healthy distance. In addition, many people have told us that onion syrup is quite a good way to quell a cough.
Whether there is something special in onions that would speed recovery from a cold or the flu has not been well established. That said, any self-respecting grandmother will tell you that chicken soup IS good for the common cold and that you need some onions in the soup to provide flavor. We have also heard that a Philippine recipe for Chicken Adobo made with garlic is a great way to deal with cold symptoms.
Recipes for Onion & Garlic Remedies:
We have some fabulous recipes to fight off colds and coughs in our Recipes & Remedies book from The People’s Pharmacy.
- Helen Graedon’s (Joe’s mom) famous Chicken Recipe is on page 27. It contains 6 cloves of garlic in addition to the onion, parsley, parsnips, bay leaves and carrots.
- Chicken Adobo on page 118 has vinegar, fresh ginger, garlic and soy sauce. It is incredibly delicious!
- Coconut Chicken Soup is easy to make in a jiffy. It has chicken broth, coconut milk, ginger and red pepper flakes in addition to lemon juice, (page 26).
- And best of all, there is Ginger and Thyme broth for coughs, Thyme cough syrup and a hot toddy recipe that you will love.
We hope you find our onion recipes far more appealing (and effective) than the idea of putting raw onions around your house in bowls.
