Why garlic for vampires?

I’ve often wondered whether garlic was selected at random in stories to repel vampires, due to its particularly pungent smell perhaps, or if it is a metaphor for some deeper relationship between the vegetable and demonic worlds.

My hunch is that garlic was selected by the creators of vampire myths because it wards off actual vampires in the form of body parasites and worms.

I find the following info online:

Protection from Evil: Garlic has been used in various cultures, including ancient Egypt, Romania and others, as a natural repellent for insects, a natural antibiotic, and a way to ward off evil spirits and other supernatural forces, including vampires.

In fiction, garlic was most famously used as vampire repellent in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, but reappears throughout history in folklore and religious writings.

What kind of parasites does garlic kill? Garlic contains an antimicrobial molecule called allicin, which is frequently used as a natural remedy for intestinal parasites and worms.

Schistosomes

Looking up images of parasites and worms, you can’t help but consider their resemblance to demonic entities. Parasites look evil and destructive, part projection, part reality. Some have deep black eye-like features and what appear to be rows upon rows of horrible microscopic teeth. The worm Schistosoma mansoni (see image) is essentially a microscopic snake, the archetypal symbol of evil.

Story is not fiction; it is another kind of truth presented in metaphor. Certain story patterns, themes, substances, objects and foods are selected for a reason in stories, dredged up by writers over time from that eternal well of the collective unconscious.

I started consuming raw cloves of garlic every now and then a while ago. The first time I overdid it a bit and, after eating two large buds with a spoonful of honey in quick succession, swiftly succumbed to terrible stomach cramps and almost vomited. You also have to be careful about when and where you’re consuming garlic. Before a date, for instance, isn’t ideal, nor before going into work at a busy office. As soon as you get home in the afternoon is perhaps best, allowing the maximum time to elapse for the body to process the vegetable before re-embarking into the world the next day, newly parasite-free.