(NaturalNews) Garlic is one of the most essential foods everyone should have in their home. It's been used in medicine for thousands of years, and for good reason. Garlic fights disease. It has powerful antibacterial, antiviral, antiprotozoal and antifungal properties. It's many beneficial properties can help you lead a healthier life.

Nature's antibiotic

Specifically, it's the allicin in garlic that makes it function as an antibiotic. Garlic has been proven to kill a broad spectrum of bacteria while keeping the friendly bacteria in your intestines intact. Viruses susceptible to allicin include herpes simplex type 1 and 2, human rhinovirus type 2 and parainfluenza virus type 3, among others.

Another notable use for garlic is its effectiveness in removing parasites. While there are many kinds of pharmaceutical drugs used to remove parasites, they are not always 100% effective. Additionally, they have harmful side effects, and each drug is specific to the type of parasite being treated for. Garlic, however, can be used to treat many types of parasite infections. It helps boosts the immune system, helps cleanse the lymphatic system, has no harmful side effects and is very inexpensive.

More common uses for garlic are for treating bug bites, scrapes, cuts, acne, colds, athlete's foot and cold sores. Garlic can even be used as a bug repellant. If you don't mind the scent, make your own bug repellant by pressing some garlic. Add the garlic oil and juice to a spray bottle and fill with water. This mixture can be used as a bug repellant for you as well as in your garden. The garlic concoction will be gentle on your plants but will keep plant-eating bugs away.

All the benefits, no side effects

And additional benefit of using garlic as a natural remedy is there are no damaging side effects. You may experience mild effects such as bloating, abdominal pain and bad breath, but these simply indicate that the garlic is working. These "side effects" are not harmful; they're just a little annoying. Beware of garlic marketed as "odorless." Allicin gives garlic it's potent scent and is also its active ingredient. Manufacturing odorless garlic greatly reduces the amount of allicin, making the garlic of little to no use.

Garlic can be consumed in many forms. It's best to incorporate it into your lifestyle; this way you'll reap the health benefits of garlic for a lifetime. Chopped garlic sprinkled over a salad is a great way to consume it raw while adding major flavor your food. Get creative with it and challenge yourself to find ways of eating it raw, so you can experience all the health benefits.

Click here to read about more benefits of garlic written by the author, Jeanette Padilla.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.rd.com

http://macedoniaonline.eu

http://science.naturalnews.com

About the author:
Jeanette Padilla is an experienced herbalist, writer, and co-creator of Sunshine Natural Healing. Read more of her work at Sunshine Natural Healing, or follow her on Facebook