Apple cider vinegar before breakfast, a shot of amla juice at sunrise, twenty minutes of oil pulling even before you’ve brushed your teeth — our feeds are full of little rituals that guarantee undoing years of bad habits. The promise is hard to resist: one spoonful of a concoction and the rest of the week is forgiven.
The latest contender on this list is garlic that has been ‘fermented’ in honey. The recipe is simple enough: mix together a few garlic cloves with honey in a jar, cover it and leave it alone. Within days, tiny bubbles appear and the honey turns almost translucent. Those who swear by this fix claim it does double duty: helping keep coughs and colds at bay, while soothing a sore throat when symptoms strike. Considering the cooler weather setting in and the subsequent pollution making its annual assault on our lungs, the potion does seem to have obvious appeal. But does it actually work? We investigated.
Garlic and honey both have their advocates individually, but together, Dr Devesh Tiwari, a pediatrician and nutrition and wellbeing expert, isn’t convinced. “There’s no scientific evidence to this,” he says. More importantly, he advises against trying to ferment garlic and honey at home. “It's not safe to do that at home as there are high chances of microbial contamination.” As Indians, we know a thing or two about fermenting batters and brewing kitchen potions, but leaving dosa batter to rise overnight or setting a jar of kanji out in the sun is not quite the same as fermenting garlic in honey. These are time-tested practices, each with its own method and conditions. Fermentation is not simply a matter of waiting for bubbles to appear. Black garlic and lacto-fermented garlic are made under controlled conditions and while some forms of processing may improve garlic’s antioxidant profile, their health benefits have yet to be established in clinical studies, cautions Dr Tiwari.
Dr Shanthi Ganga, Ayurvedic physician and HOD at Swastik Wellbeing Sanctuary explains that both these ingredients have ‘ushna virya’ or heating potency. “Taken on an empty stomach, they are in fact likely to upset the gut lining, particularly for someone who already has digestive problems and could make ulcers worse,” she warns. We’ve seen this enthusiasm for home remedies play out before: raw lauki juice, ginger every morning and an excess of papaya leaf juice during dengue season. Each arrives with the promise of a simple fix and each seems to find its audience, but as Dr Ganga reminds us, too much of even a good thing does the body no favours. Garlic, she adds, has its place in Ayurveda as a ‘rasayana’ or rejuvenating food. But her preferred place for it? In the dal.
Garlic has long earned its place in our kitchens, whether in a chutney or golden-fried for a tadka. Perhaps this familiarity lends it a certain credibility along with the excitement of turning an everyday ingredient into a wellness ritual. Chef Meenakshi Sharma, who develops slow-wellness menus at The Seven Doors House, a restored 1932 Portuguese-Goan estate in Goa, says this honey fermentation process softens garlic’s sulphurous and pungent flavour giving way to sweeter and tangier notes. As bubbles appear in two to four days, the garlic’s flavour profile is altered, but that doesn’t establish any added health benefits.
Garlic can carry spores of clostridium botulinum, which can produce a dangerous toxin under certain conditions. If you must, Sharma outlines precautions for preparing the mixture, including using a sterilised glass jar, keeping the garlic cloves fully submerged in honey and releasing built-up gas regularly. However, even these cannot guarantee safety at home. Dr Tiwari warns that honey’s natural antimicrobial properties do not make the mixture risk-free and that no validated home method can reliably establish that it is safe for consumption.
For a sore throat, the simplest remedies are the ones worth sticking to. Dr Ganga says Ayurvedic texts prescribe honey water, rather than more elaborate combinations taken on an empty stomach. Honey mixed with warm water may help soothe throat irritation, while garlic is best reserved for your favourite dish's tadka — and if the cough refuses to leave, consult a doctor.