Food Type: Vegetable
Age Suggestion: 6 months +
Nutrition Rating:
Poop Friendly: Yes
Common Allergen: No
garlic
Is garlic
healthy
for babies?
Absolutely. Garlic is rich in nutrients that are critical for babies at this stage in their development, notably vitamins B6, C, and calcium, as well as copper, manganese, phosphorus, and selenium. What’s more is that garlic varieties abound with phytonutrients like sulfur-based compounds including allicin, ajoene, alliin, and many more.3Collectively, these nutrients offer anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antimicrobial, and anticancer effects; plus, garlic may promote healthy cholesterol levels and heart health, as determined in plenty of studies. Garlic – both raw and cooked – also is particularly beneficial for the gut due to its natural prebiotic content – in other words, fuel for beneficial gut bacteria. When pinched for time, garlic powder or granulated garlic is a totally appropriate alternative for flavoring foods, and still offers plenty of nutrients.
It's a fact
The use of garlic as both food and as a remedy goes back into prehistory. For thousands of years and across many cultures’ garlic is highly regarded for its many culinary uses and significant health benefits. Garlic is found in Ancient Egypt, dating at least as far back as when the Giza pyramids were built and was one of the basic elements of nutrition. Well-preserved garlic cloves were found in the tomb of King Tutankhamen (14th century BC). Garlic was given to the laborer’s in order to increase their stamina and strength, as well as to protect them from disease.
There is a reference to garlic in the Old Testament, recounting how the Jews, on their journey to the Promised Land, missed some of the foods that they consumed while in Egypt. "We remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt, the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic." Numbers 11:5
Garlic only recently became a staple of North American cuisine. In the early part of last century in the United States, garlic dishes could only be found among the ethnic cuisine of cities’ working-class immigrant neighborhoods. By the mid-Twentieth Century, garlic slowly worked its way into common use in American cuisine. By the 1990s, the trend of “authentic ethnic cuisine” in the US saw the use (and sales) of garlic skyrocket. Currently, the United States consumes over 250 million pounds of garlic each year.