(5) We remember the fish that we used to eat free in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.
(י) הַנּוֹדֵר מִשּׁוֹבְתֵי שַׁבָּת, אָסוּר בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָסוּר בַּכּוּתִים. מֵאוֹכְלֵי שׁוּם, אָסוּר בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל וְאָסוּר בַּכּוּתִים. מֵעוֹלֵי יְרוּשָׁלַיִם, אָסוּר בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל וּמֻתָּר בַּכּוּתִים:
(10) One who vows [not to benefit] from those who rest on the Sabbath, is forbidden [to benefit] both from Israelites and Samaritans (Cutheans). If he vows [not to benefit] from garlic eaters, he may not benefit from Israelites and Samaritans (Cutheans). From those who go up to Jerusalem, he is forbidden [to benefit] from Israelites but from Samaritans (Cutheans) he is permitted.
The Gemara explains the next of the ordinances that Ezra the Scribe ordained: And that one should eat garlic Shabbat eve. This is due to the fact that garlic enhances sexual potency, and Friday night is an appropriate time for conjugal relations. As it is written concerning the righteous: “And he shall be like a tree planted by streams of water, who brings forth his fruit in his season” (Psalms 1:3); and Rabbi Yehuda says, and some say it was Rav Naḥman, and some say it was Rav Kahana, and some say it was Rabbi Yoḥanan who said: This is referring to one who engages in sexual intercourse every Shabbat eve.
JitkaFialováS. CraigRobertsJanHavlíček
According to a new study, men who eat garlic actually smell more pleasant and attractive to the opposite sex—not their breath, but their body odor. And if that finding isn’t counter-intuitive enough, it’s made all the stranger by the fact that only men in the study who consumed a lot of garlic—the equivalent of four bulbs a day—enjoyed the effect.
The study had three phases in which the amount and type (bulbs or capsules) of garlic given to 42 male participants were varied. The researchers collected their body odor with pads worn for 12 hours, which were subsequently sniffed by 82 women who rated their pleasantness, attractiveness and intensity.
In the first phase, the men ate 6 grams of garlic (about two cloves worth) with bread and cheese. The women who sniffed their pads didn’t rate their odor any differently than they rated the odor of men who ate only bread and cheese. In the next phase researchers doubled the amount to 12 grams, or four cloves. In this case the women judged the odor as significantly more pleasant, attractive and less intense than the non-garlic odor. In the final phase the men consumed 12 grams in capsules and the women again rated their odor as more attractive and less intense.
The results suggest that something about garlic in body odor is attractive to the opposite sex, but what and why? While the study doesn’t provide solid answers, the researchers speculate that the health-boosting benefits of eating garlic may be discernable in body odor, producing an olfactory marker of good health for the opposite sex to home in on.
According to study co-author Craig Roberts, Professor of Psychology at the University of Stirling, UK, “From an evolutionary perspective, formation of preferences for diet-associated body odors was possibly shaped by means of sexual selection. Previous research indicates that many animal species use diet-associated cues to select mates in good physical condition.”
https://www.forbes.com/sites/daviddisalvo/2015/11/15/men-who-eat-garlic-make-women-take-notice-in-a-good-way/#33b7e87a590c
The Sages taught in a baraita that five matters were stated with regard to garlic: It satisfies; it warms the body; it causes one’s countenance to shine; it increases one’s sperm, and it kills parasites that are in the intestines. And some say that it also instills love into those who eat it and removes jealousy from them.
עונג שבת במה מענגו רב יהודה בריה דרב שמואל בר שילת משמיה דרב אמר בתבשיל של תרדין ודגים גדולים וראשי שומין רב חייא בר אשי אמר רב אפילו דבר מועט ולכבוד שבת עשאו הרי זה עונג מאי היא אמר רב פפא כסא דהרסנא
The Gemara asks: With what does one delight in the day of Shabbat? Rav Yehuda, son of Rav Shmuel bar Sheilat, said in the name of Rav: With a dish of beetroot, and large fish, and heads of garlic. Rav Ḥiyya bar Ashi said that Rav said: Even with regard to a small item and one prepared it in deference to Shabbat, it is a delight. The Gemara asks: What is the small item mentioned? Rav Pappa said: Small fried fish.