Garlic Booms on the Back of Flu Panic

by Geoffrey Lean

What was the best investment you could have made in booming China last year? Shares? No. Gold? Try again – because garlic beat them both.

During 2009, the price of the pungent plant shot up elevenfold, making some investors stinking rich. This was largely because it is popularly believed to cure swine flu. That’s rubbish, of course: although the vegetable does provide remarkable health benefits (lowering blood pressure, protecting against heart disease and perhaps preventing gastrointestinal cancer), it is useless against a virus.

Mind you, the Department of Health might want a few cloves to ward off those after its blood for raising the alarm over what has turned out to be a blessedly mild pandemic. Commentators who were not convinced that swine flu represented a serious risk are accusing the authorities of “terrorism” and “mad scientist syndrome” and lambasting them for spending millions on vaccines and anti-viral drugs.

Read the rest of the article

January 18, 2010

Copyright © 2010 Daily Telegraph