"You do realize how all modern antibiotics came about, right? Economic incentives. There's a strong disincentive to prove that eating $3 worth of raw garlic would have the same effect as eating $30-$3000 worth of pills your company holds the patent on."
Wrong.
First, you need to define your terms. What's a "modern" antibiotic?
Penicillin? Streptomycin? Clindicin? Vancomycin?
Given that ALL antibiotics are under 100 years old, all are "modern" unless you start defining arbitrary terms and exceptions.
"But not as an antibiotic in itself."
Wrong. It was well understood that simply eating a shitload of garlic (even quantities that would gross out an Italian) would provide success much different from a placebo. The compounds IN garlic that provide the antimicrobial effect don't work that way because the human digestive system rips them apart into component pieces that have no use. Thus, your argument of IT'S ALL MONEY GRUBBING WHORES!! is as invalid as it is silly.
"And yet those all still work in the vast majority of cases. How is that, if resistance is such an issue?"
Are you really that dim? It's because we're in the BEGINNING phase of the rise of resistant bacteria, NOT the end.
Many antibiotics will remain effective in many cases for many years to come, but on a downward slope as the resistant bacteria spread and as more and more strains of once non-resistant bacteria become resistant.
The reason this is becoming more and more urgently discussed is one of prudence. It's the same reason you don't wait for the fire in your house to burn it to the ground before you call the fire department.
"Millions of tons? Synthesized quickly and easily? What's easier than growing garlic in 95% of the US, and just how much do you expect to use at a normal dose of 10-20 grams/day? 16 pounds would keep someone on 20 grams/day every day for a solid year. Processing is just breaking the bulb apart and shucking the cloves, which pretty much anyone with .05% or more Greek or Italian ancestry can do purely by instinct."
The active ingredient, the antimicrobial part of the average bulb of garlic, is roughly 0.05% of its weight, if that much. You're assuming that the supply would be constant, that the quality would be constant, and once again, that the effective ingredients in the garlic would somehow magically take on antibiotic properties when ingested that they do not, and will never, have.
Your arguments show an incredible lack of understanding of what's going on with the rise of resistant bacteria, where we are currently headed, and what the potential outcome might well be in our lifetimes.
You're also arguing from the naturopath's perspective, but totally ignoring the work that's already be done and which completely disproves your theories.
I'd say try again, but you've got no basis from which to try.
Garlic is great, but it's not a *expletive deleted*ing wonder drug in disguise that no one ever though to trying out before because BIG PHARMA CORPORATE GREED!!!!!
