h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Try puting a few unpeeled cloves of garlic in a small dish of water, then microwaving for a few minutes.

(a) The skin comes off easily, and (b) the cloves become soft and succulent and can be eaten whole as soon as they are cool enough

When you have a cold, try eating a raw clove of garlic. It will sort out your blocked nose etc in no time !

There are fairly persistent accounts that eating lots of garlic will keep you generally healthier. I didn't research these, so they're not included in the entry. Perhaps a future guide entry can be on "medical benefits of garlic". I know in my own case I find hot chili heavily laced with garlic to be an excellent cold remedy. Of course, we eat so much garlic on a regular basis around this house that it's hard to eat much more when we're sick!

It will also help keeping people at quite an enjoyable distance..
Too many times I'd eaten so much garlic with my meal that the day
afterwards my colleagues would use nose plugs..

Anyone who doesn't like the smell of garlic probably isn't worth getting to know all that well anyhow.