Drink this garlic, ginger, and lemon infusion to help bring down cholesterol and break down these fatty deposits in the arteries. Here, we look at what cholesterol is, how it impacts the body and how each of these ingredients can play a significant role in enhancing cardiovascular assistance. First, how to get this infusion ready!
What you need:
- 4 lemons
- 1.32 gallons of water
- 4 Garlic cloves
- 1 small ginger root (1.5 inches)
How to prepare it?
- Peel the garlic and split the cloves in half.
- Thoroughly wash the lemons and cut them into small pieces without peeling them first.
- Mix these ingredients with warm water that has been boiled.
- Divide the mixture into three separate glass containers and fill them up with the remaining warm water.
- Seal them and store them in the refrigerator for three days.
- After three days have passed; strain the contents of the container and put it back in the refrigerator.
You may want to drink the liquid warm, but it is not recommended that you boil it as this will deactivate allicin, the active ingredient in garlic. Even though you can either blend or chop the garlic and ginger into small pieces, chopping may be preferred because this retains the allicin material that is released for a very short period after crushing and triggering. For this reason, it is worth encouraging to chew the chopped garlic! Since much of the flavanoid is in the lemon peel, you might want to consider purchasing unwaxed organic lemons, grating and then adding some peel.
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The Role of Cholesterol:
You’ve probably heard of good cholesterol and poor cholesterol but what exactly is it and what is the difference? Cholesterol is a fatty, waxy substance produced in the liver, known as a lipid and vital for the maintenance of each cell, vitamin E and hormone production as well as for the bile production that helps us digest our food. The following explanation clarifies why it can be a little misleading to think in terms of good and bad cholesterol, when in fact both are important for the proper functioning of body. Cholesterol is pumped throughout our body and transferred to our cells in our blood where it interacts with protein to become a lipoprotein in order to support cells and fulfill its different body functions. Here’s the main distinction, as cholesterol binds to protein it can either become an HDL (high lypoprotein content) or a low density LDL (lipoprotein).
LDL, also referred to as bad cholesterol, brings the cells in the blood to bind and remove all the cholesterol they need. HDL, commonly referred to as good cholesterol because of its protective role, then take over a sort of clean-up mission, pick up any excess cholesterol in the bloodstream as it circulates and return it to the liver for reprocessing. It is significant, since too much LDL cholesterol is known as the primary cause of atherosclerosis, the condition in which plaque in the arteries is narrowing and building up. As cholesterol builds up in the walls of the artery, there is a high risk of cardiovascular health, because blood flow can be limited to the heart and brain, with the risk of a clot forming elsewhere.
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From this, it can be seen that it is not really a question of bad or good cholesterol per se, but it is more a case of preventing the accumulation of fatty deposits. Hence, it is best to avoid too much cholesterol in our diets with the liver generating 80% of the cholesterol we need and only the remaining 20% coming from the food. Reducing saturated fats, usually found in meat and dairy, and replacing them with the non-saturated fats found in plants and fish is advised to minimize our intake of cholesterol.
What Role Do Lemon, Garlic and Ginger Play in Cardiovascular Health?
Lemons
It has been found that citric flavonoids are beneficial for the general cardiovascular safety. In particular, lemon juice contains significant amounts of flavanones, hesperidine and eriocitrine, with hesperidine having a cardioprotective action and specifically eriocitrine has been shown to have a lipid-reducing effect. Other citric fruits, oranges which contain the flavonoid narinjin and limes have been shown to have a similar beneficial effect.
Garlic
Long renowned for its cardiovascular health benefits, there is clear evidence that garlic lowers cholesterol. Many studies affirm the ability of garlic to cause changes in blood lipids, reducing levels of both cholesterol and triglycerides. This is thought to be due to the active ingredient allicin and its breakdown into organic polysulfides which in turn help to generate hydrogen sulfide ( H2S), the compound was understood to be responsible for strengthening cardiovascular health. However, some results of these studies were incoherent, causing speculation as to how much of the active ingredient content allicin is available in some forms of supplementation. Yet another test with a fresh garlic clove eaten every day yielded excellent results with a reduction in serum cholesterol levels by 20 per cent.
Ginger
Despite the use of ginger for health purposes going back thousands of years and having origins in Ayurvedic medicine, its metabolism and mode of action for possible therapeutic effects are still relatively little is understood. That said, numerous studies have been carried out which have shown that it is beneficial not only for digestive problems, nausea, pain, inflammation and as an anti-carcinogenic condition, but also for cardiovascular safety.
Animal studies suggest the ginger’s potential to reduce LDL cholesterol levels and decrease aortic atherosclerotic lesions from lipid build-ups. Because ginger is known to have anti-inflammatory properties, it also makes sense that it may help with the atherosclerosis-elated inflammation that causes the arteries to widen. In another double blind, controlled clinical study in 2008, it was found that volunteer patients who took ginger powder had significantly reduced lipid content.
How to consume it:
- The first few days you should just take a soup spoon full of this mixture a half hour before each meal.
- If you have no side effects you can increase this to two soup spoonfuls a half hour before each meal.
- Continue to increase the amount until you can take 50 ml, three times a day. In other words, you should not take more than 150 ml daily.
