BBC: Do you like garlic?-2

Here's Sonal Ved, a Mumbai-based cooking- show host and author of many books on Indian cuisine, explaining another reason why Jains avoid garlic to BBC World Service programme, The Food Chain:

According to Hinduism also, garlic is considered a food which is called a 'tamasic' food. It is believed to stimulate desire, passion, aggression. And that's why they abstain from eating those kinds of food: because it is believed to impact your spiritural growth and also your mental clarity. 

Janis abstain from eating garlic. If you abstain from dong something, you choose not to do it. For example, you might abstain from tobacco or alcohol because you know they're bad for your health. 

Like the Ancient Greeks, Jains believe that garlic stimulates sexual desire. The verb to stimulate means encourage it or cause it to develop and grow. 

Modern medicine has confirmed some of these ancient beliefs about the health benefits of garlic, including reduced blood pressure and better gut health. OK, Neil, isn't it time you revealed the answer to your question?

Yes, Beth, I asked you which variety of garlic grew in the former USSR.

And I said fire. Was I right?

You were absolutely correct. 

Fire or Georgian fire is a hot, white garlic from the Republic of Georgia in the former Soviet Union. OK, let's recap the vocabulary we've learned, starting with versatile, an adjective meaning to have many different purposes or uses. 

The phrase, it's unimaginable is used to say that something is difficult to imagine because it would be so good or so bad. 

An ailment is an illness or health problem. 

An aphrodisiac is a food or drink believed to increase sexual desire. 

If you abstain from something, you choose not to do it. 

And finally, to stimulate means to encourage something or cause it to grow.