Hi all,
I've had this buzzing around in my head for a long time so I thought I would state my theory here just to get some input. I'm hoping this is the right place to do it.
I am 63 years old and grew up in a time when most women did most of the cooking, even if they worked outside the home this remained true. I know that has changed today to a large degree. I do a lot of cooking myself!
I always wondered why mothers hardly ever got a cold like all the kids and dad did. (Maybe your experience is different). I have often heard women say things like "I didn't have time to get sick!" or something along those lines but my theory is this:
Since women did most of the cooking and were peeling onions and handling them, washing their hands, peeling the garlic and using things like pepper (various kinds and especially cayenne), they were constantly ridding themselves of those little critters that bring on the cold. Not only so, but most of the time they were cooking from scratch (not out of boxes, etc.) so their immune systems were already boosted.
I'm wondering what the rest of you think???

I'm in my fifties, and it's true in my case. My siblings and my father were sick with colds much more often than my mother. Also, she did often say things like, "I don't have time to get sick".

She did cook things from scratch, we had very little if any processed/boxed foods in our home. But I figure we all ate home-made foods, so we all should have had good immune systems.

She did wash her hands a lot, but I also remember her making us wash up all the time too. I think that the mental part of pushing herself to serve her family, feeling that she could not afford to be sick, or not having the time to be sick, gave her a "one-up" on staying healthy.

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"We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." ~Immanual Kant~

NatMedTalk and Beyond

Naturalman, You could be right, but I've cooked from scratch my whole
life [age 74] and I used to get 3 to 5 colds a year, even tho I prepared
fresh veggies, ate a fair amt of fruit, always salads, etc. However, one
thing I didn't use was fresh garlic, tho did use lots of onions. Since I began
eating/using several pieces of fresh garlic daily [can't recall how many yrs
now] I've NOT had even one cold nor gotten a flu bug.
I think one reason for so many colds yrs ago was lack of sleep - only about
4 hours per night was my norm. Plus, I had a much more stressful life back
then too - 4 children, hubby, job, elderly divorced parents to do for. I also
didn't take any supplements.
But, I'm soooo glad that my days of colds and flus are a thing of the past!

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May you always have..Love to Share, Health to Spare, and Friends that Care!

Those were the good old days - the 50s & 60s. We were not afraid of sunshine. We enjoyed everything cooked with fat or lard. Some families even ate mostly meat and potatoes. We never worried about washing grocery store produce - just rinse. Many grew their own and shared with the neighbors. The vegetables were overcooked. Most things were stove top fried or deep dishes in oven. I had many US southeastern fried chicken dinners and blackberry or peach cobbler pies or macaroni pies. My grandmother even had a crock of used grease on the counter, to use in future meals. Dutch family. Fresh milk. Fresh butter. Fresh eggs daily. Curds and whey. Cottage cheese. In the winter - home canned foods.

It just did not seem so sterile back then.

Pesticides? Well, I remember when the trucks would come through the neighborhoods spraying DDT for the mosquito problem. No one complained. Better than mosquitoes and ticks.

We were outside a lot as kids. There was a lot more family time. We helped with the chores.

Yes, seemingly healthy times.

__________________
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- Jim
Life is just one damned thing after another - Elbert Hubbard

I remember those days you speak of jfh and those less than sterile days were actually pretty good. I used to love the smells of grandma's house when there were pies in the pantry and date filled cookies in the making. Fresh churned butter and fresh milk. We ate those "unhealthy" meals but for some reason our immune systems could handle it.
Earlybird, you're right. Stress can knock down the immune system in a hurry. I immediately go to garlic when I'm coming down with a cold. I slice a garlic clove into capsule sizes and take one every half hour or so until things clear up. It usually takes a full day for things to get better and about three days to clear up altogether. Garlic is such a well rounded natural product.
Kind2creatures it sounds like we've had similar backgrounds. Like I said, it probably is not true in all cases, such as in Earlybird's stressful environment, but in many cases I believe the theory holds true.

Naturalman, do you just swallow the garlic bits raw? do you put them in the food as well?

Marilyn27 I just swallow them raw with water to wash it down but let me give you another way that I learned from Steven Horne AHG.
Peel a lemon removing only the yellow. You leave the white inner peel on. Quarter it and take out the seeds, add a whole garlic clove, honey or maple syrup for a sweetener (If you're diabetic you may want to go light on the sweetener). Add about 8 oz. of water, put in a blender and blend.
The only departure I make from Steven is that I like to add a few drops of liquid Lobelia.
Sip a couple of ounces every half hour or so at first, then taper off to a about that much per hour. You may have to make a couple of mixtures. Most of the time this will knock out a chest cold a hurry, sometimes overnight.
Best to you,
Naturalman

That sounds really nice! Thanks for the "recipe" I will give it a go next time I get a cold...

OH MY GOD! LMAOROFF

I read an article years ago that was talking about how chefs and people that peeled onions daily had far less colds than average. Also, (this works sometimes, not always) when I feel a cold coming on, it is time to chew a small clove of raw garlic and follow with a glass of wine.

saved1986, I'm a chef, and I peel all kinds of onions and garlic etc... and when I used to work full time in a kitchen I was sick at least 4 times each year - maybe I'm not "average" but the stress of being in a hot busy kitchen sure takes it's toll!

I was referring to the peeling onions making people cry, it supposedly has anti flu/cold properties.

I use a method that seems to work. When I feel like I am going to come down with a cold,I put Hydrogen Peroxide in both ears. This is the 3% one that you get in a drug store. The way to do it is posted on many websites.

This is based on the theory by Richard Simmons who hypothesized that cold and flu virus enter through the ear canal. This is the most common method. It is not through the nose or mouth as we have been taught.

The only proof I have is that it works for me, and a few of the people that I have told this to.

Also, I know many people who eat a diet that is high in nutrients, using greens, and some super foods, and seem immune to the common cold and flu. If they ever catch anything it lasts from a few hours to a day or two.

Then I see people who eat anything and everything and not get sick. There are many factors that come in to play. The one thing I am sure of the more you have been exposed to germs the better your system works. I would never use some of the products that protect you from germs from hand wipes to soaps with chemical additives.

Which travels faster heat or cold? Ans.: Heat travels faster because you can always catch cold.

... ...

I got teary eyed hearing about your experiences in the 50's and 60's. A part of me yearns to be there......to be in a time that freely ate lard, butter, raw milk, whole foods, lots of garden veggies and family time. I feel so alone in the way I'm raising my daughter. I cook everything and use traditional fats, egg yolks, raw cream, etc. People think I'm crazy.

Anyway, I read today about a flu pandemic in 1919 that had killed 40 million people. A doctor came upon a farmer and his family and they were all very healthy. When the doctor asked what the farmer was doing that was different the wife replied that she had placed an unpeeled onion in a dish in the rooms of the home!!!!