History
There is probably no food that has been used so extensively throughout history for increasing stamina than onions and garlic.
Onions were very cheap and provided considerable rations in early Egypt for the workers while building the pyramids, and again by the Roman army in aiding extreme endurance during their long marches and battles.
Their importance though, has also be noted by many cultures, for example in a Russian garden you will often find two vegetables dominating over the others far as quantity grown, cabbage and onions!
A Russian electrobiologist discovered that garlic and onions emit a particular type of radiation that has the ability of stimulating both cell growth and cell activity, showing a rejuvenative effect on all body functions.
Russian, Japanese, German, French, English and American researchers have all successfully used garlic to treat both high and low blood pressure, intestinal worms, lung disorders, asthma, intestinal putrefaction, diabetes and against tumour formation in cancer.
Garlic and onions have been also known to exhibit antibiotic properties which has gained them the name of "Poor mans penicillin"
The health retreat menu
While I worked at the health retreat I made it a common practice to put garlic and onion in as many dishes as I could, and I did witness first hand their ability to lower blood pressure, even in only five days.
I would always take someone's blood pressure upon arrival and again on their day of departure. I found that everybody's blood pressure reduced and often by staggering amounts.
On one occasion a particular guest who had extremely high blood pressure had to go to hospital due to their blood pressure dropping so extremely low, the doctor removed them off all medication to which they had been on for 17yrs. Upon their return they had told other guests and rest assured they were all phoning their doctors for advice as they too experienced very large drops. A couple of the doctors had recommended they cease their medication while at the retreat and to come and see them upon their return for re-evaluation.
I showed some of my results to a nurse who was a lecturer at a major university. She was astounded that all this was possible over the duration of a week, and told me it was something the public needed to be made aware of. She mentioned she would get one of the universities statistician to contact me. She said, "It was miraculous that the fact that possibly a holiday and certain foods could be as powerful as medication, maybe stronger."
Kyolic garlic, an ancient fermented Japanese garlic remedy
At this point I would like to state that a particular type of garlic known as Kyolic has been studied extensively for its therapeutic properties. I had always believed that Kyolic garlic was a particular type that I just hadn't seen yet.
One day while I was at a second hand bookshop I picked up a book with the title Kyolic garlic. It turned out to be an ancient Japanese patented process of fermenting garlic over 18mths so the oil compounds would become water soluble, and remove the smell.
This garlic has throughly been tested scientifically, and be shown to dilate blood vessels, (which subsequently lowers blood pressure) prevent the development of atherosclerosis, lower cholesterol, raise haemoglobin and red blood cell count, relieve arthritis, reduce allergies, as well as exhibit strong anti fungal, anti-viral and antibacterial properties.
The Japanese have even used it for its ability to chelate and protect us from heavy metals, as well as neutralise environmental toxins reducing the bodies toxic load.
This is also a great product to take to certain countries where it is known to suffer from a stomach upset, I would consume a couple with every meal, as they are anti parasitic.
Garlic stinks
For those of you who are worried about the smell I have one suggestion, Kyolic garlic, the non smelling patented kind from a chemist. For everybody else, it tends not be offensive for those who eat it, only those who don't, while running the kitchen at the health retreat I fed it to everyone so nobody knew or could smell it on others.
A few tricks, Garlic works best when it is crushed and allowed to stand for 15 minutes to activate certain properties, for that reason I would try to add it to dishes at the end, also, it loses a lot of its medicinal powers when cooked so eat raw.
For onions, red onions can be added raw to salads with no issues, but for white and brown, I suggest cooking them at the start of a meal.
I would throughly suggest you start adding onions and garlic daily to most meals, especially the later meals in the day when a co-worker will not have to politely put up with you breathing on them.
There is after all a reason the Romans lost their empire, think of it 10,000 romans coming your way on a downwind. The enemies would have known they were coming from 50km away.