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Onions, ginger and garlic are so famous for their healing properties that they have been named Trinity Roots. Since days of old, each of them has been attributed mystical and real healing qualities, and science has proved a lot of these health claims to be true.

Onions
Onions’ primary effect is on the blood – stimulating blood production as well as purifying the blood. Onions disinfect and take care of foreign bacteria in the body and, due to this powerful effect, are considered to be a cancer-preventative food. They are cleansing to the liver and help maintain a good blood sugar level, thereby being beneficial to both hypoglycemics and diabetics. They create heat and energy in the body and help to digest food and eliminate mucus. Raw onions aid in mental clarity.

Those who happen to be travelling to India and fear the inevitable bout of dysentery, are advised to eat half a raw onion everyday for two weeks before travelling.

Onions are best raw, but are also good cooked, used abundantly in your vegetarian dishes. Therapeutically, onions find applications in treating ear aches (cottonwool dipped in onion juice and placed inside the ear duct), colds, fevers, dizziness and laryngitis and, because they stimulate blood production, they also stimulate the production of semen. It’s said that 80 bites of food create one drop of blood; and that 80 drops of blood create one drop of semen!

Garlic
Garlic’s fame is based on its strength as a natural antibiotic. Contrary to synthetic antibiotics that kill bacteria life at random – destroying not only the “baddies” but the “goodies” too – garlic works by preventing harmful bacteria from entering the body.

Garlic’s effect is rather long-term and gentle. Fresh garlic, garlic juice and garlic extracts have been used for gastro-intestinal disorders, septic poisoning and bacterial infections. Garlic should not be cooked for a long time and rather should just be added at the end of cooking.

Garlic is known to have an effect on the sexual system too – it produces healthy semen. If we look at the function of semen, namely to create new life, we can see that it should be as healthy as it can possibly be. Garlic affects a man’s potency, “potency” however not limited to the context of sex. In the language of yoga, a man’s potency means his power of projection; how he penetrates and grasps a situation; his staying power; his positivity and radiance…

Likewise, it is a yogic art and privilege to transform one’s energy. Energy is energy; it can be used for higher or lower, or perhaps, we’d say, mundane purposes.

The lower three chakras, also called The Lower Triangle, are the centres where our “gut” energy and strength collects. While we, in terms of energy, rarely live up to our potential, there is no point in minimising it. Yoga says we should maximise our energy – and then transform it. It means that a celibate person, too can eat onions and garlic!

Ginger
Finally, ginger nourishes the nervous system, allowing it to carry more energy. It is both soothing and strengthening while providing lots of energy and, should therefore be taken when studying or working hard. It is essential though that the actual root be used, as the dried powder is practically devoid of any healing power. Ginger root is a simple remedy for period pains, healing after giving birth, lower back pain, blocked sinuses, low blood pressure and fatigue. It’s definitely a woman’s remedy.

The best ways to use ginger are:

• in cooking curries
• boiled or simply brewed for tea (enjoyed with or without milk and honey)
• and, raw. Put ginger root through a juice extractor and mix in small amounts of apple or carrot juice. If you plan to juice, use young, fresh root and peel it, otherwise your juicer will become overworked. Rather, juice quite a bit and freeze it in an ice tray, to be used when needed.

In combination, Trinity roots complement and enhance each other, working simultaneously on three elements of the circulatory system. Onions purify the blood and stimulate semen production, while garlic works on creating healthy semen. Ginger helps to reabsorb the seminal fluid into the spine to nourish the brain and the nervous system. This is a very miraculous process and semen is now called ojas. Ojas, meaning “vigor” in Sanskrit, occurs in men and women alike, although the process is different. Ojas can only mature when the sexual energy is contained and transformed to a degree. You are then able to fight off disease; you become creatively very effective, and you can look forward to a long and healthy life.

It is said that it is easier for a woman to be in higher consciousness than a man. If a woman feels secure within herself and knows her relationship with the Creator, she is automatically in higher consciousness. A man has to do yoga and meditation to lift himself out of his basic animal nature. That doesn’t mean to say women don’t need to exercise and meditate – just for slightly different reasons!