Both garlic and honey offer many health benefits, such as boosting your heart health and soothing a sore throat. But did you know that combining these two superfoods to make a fermented garlic and honey mixture can help improve your immune health?

Why make a fermented garlic and honey mixture?

If you have tons of garlic and honey at home, try making a fermented garlic and honey mixture with amazing medicinal properties. After combining these two superfoods, the natural fermentation process produces a mixture that will help boost your energy and immune health.

The fermentation process happens due to naturally occurring bacteria in garlic that will turn sugars into lactic acid. This acid is a natural preservative that facilitates the lacto-fermentation process.

Fermentation not only increases the amount of vitamins and enzymes in foods, but it also improves their digestibility.

Garlic: A superfood that boosts your heart health

Garlic is used in traditional medicine to treat various diseases and minor ailments. The superfood contains an active ingredient called allicin that helps address digestive and respiratory issues, immune issues and joint-related diseases.

Allicin contains oxygen, sulfur and other elements that are responsible for garlic’s amazing antibacterial and disease-fighting properties.

According to a medical review, chopping or crushing fresh garlic cloves releases more allicin than using the cloves whole. But chopped or crushed garlic can lose its allicin quickly, so it’s better to use fresh garlic immediately.

Garlic has powerful medicinal properties. It also contains manganese, selenium, vitamins B6 and C, as well as antioxidants like allicin.

Allicin makes garlic a powerful natural antibiotic. The antibiotic activity of garlic can be traced to beneficial compounds like diallyl disulfide, diallyl trisulfide and ajoene, a substance that is formed when allicin and diallyl disulfide combine.

According to studies, preparations of fresh garlic are effective against both gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria. The juice of the herb, when diluted to a very small degree, may also help inhibit bacterial growth.

Researchers have tried to examine the many heart health benefits of garlic and found that the antioxidants in it can also help prevent heart disease.

According to a medical review, consuming garlic helps reduce your risk of heart disease and stroke by lowering high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Garlic also helps prevent too much clotting (blood-thinning) and hardened or stiff blood vessels.

In another review, researchers discovered that the sulfur molecules in garlic can help protect heart muscles from damage and make blood vessels more elastic. This means garlic can help protect you from heart disease, blood clots and stroke.

It’s worth noting that allicin is unstable and gets quickly converted into other sulfur-containing compounds which are believed to be behind garlic’s medicinal properties.

Honey: A sweet superfood that’s good for your immunity

Honey can help eliminate bacteria like Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which causes infections in the blood, lungs (pneumonia) or other parts of the body post-surgery, and Staphylococcus aureus, the most common bacteria found in the nasal passages.

S. aureus is linked to various health problems, such as:

• Bacteremia or sepsis
• Endocarditis (infection of the heart valves), which can cause heart failure or stroke
• Osteomyelitis (bone infection)
• Pneumonia

When making your fermented garlic and honey mixture, it’s best to use raw honey. In fact, you should choose a dark-colored honey, as it contains more antioxidants than light-colored ones. A darker honey will also be more effective against microorganisms.

On it’s own, honey is very effective as a cough suppressant and demulcent — something that coats your throat and the linings of the trachea and mouth to soothe the surfaces. Demulcents include cough drops and lozenges designed to relieve irritation in the throat.

According to research, buckwheat honey is more effective than dextromethorphan, the primary cough suppressant in Robitussin, when it comes to suppressing cough.

Healing fermented garlic and honey mixture recipe

This homemade fermented garlic and honey elixir can help strengthen your immune system and protect you from colds or the flu. Take it regularly to prevent bacterial infections.

You will need a sterilized canning jar and lid.

Ingredients:

• Garlic, peeled (you will need enough garlic cloves to fill at least 3/4 of the jar)
• Raw honey

Preparation:

1. Place the peeled garlic cloves in the canning jar until it is 3/4 full.
2. Cover the garlic with raw honey.
3. Cover the mixture loosely with a lid to let the gasses escape. Store the jar in a dark room.
4. After a couple of days, bubbles will form in the mixture, signifiying that the fermentation process is beginning. Take the jar and swirl the mixture around every few days to ensure that all the garlic pieces are always coated with honey.
5. The juice from the garlic will create just enough liquid for fermentation to happen. Remember, you don’t have to close the lid all the way since gasses will continually build up during fermentation. Cover the jar loosely to let the gases escape and prevent pressure build-up.
6. The fermentation process should be done after four weeks.

Note that the honey garlic mixture should be fermented for at least one month. If you can’t wait that long, you can try the mixture before that.

The flavor of the mixture will continue to develop over time. In time, the garlic will mellow and the honey will be runnier.

Store the fermented garlic and honey mixture in a cool place. It should last for several months or longer.

How to use the garlic and honey mixture

Since the mixture is made with natural ingredients, you can consume as much of it as you want. However, the recommended dose is about one to two garlic cloves per day or one teaspoon of honey that the garlic is soaked in.

Here are some suggestions on how to use the fermented garlic and honey mixture.

• Add a teaspoon of the honey to a cup of warm lemon water for a refreshing, soothing drink.
• Add the honey to your favorite herbal tea.
• Add the honey liquid to sparkling water.
• Eat a garlic clove on a cracker or on bread.
• Use the honey as a light salad dressing.
• Use the honey garlic as a marinade for chicken, fish and vegetables.
• Drizzle the honey and garlic over cheese like goats cheese or ricotta.
• Spread the mixture over breakfast muffins, cornbread, pretzels and toast.
• Drizzle the honey garlic mixture on pizza.
• Use the mellowed garlic in hummus or white bean dip.

Try this fermented garlic and honey mixture to boost your immune system and use it to make a soothing cup of tea or enjoy a sweet and garlicky snack.