The ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, known as the father of Western medicine, often prescribed garlic for treating numerous health issues.
And today, the modern science proved those health benefits of garlic.
11 health benefits of garlic:
- Garlic has Allicin, a compound which has a lot of medicinal properties
Garlic is a plant in the onion family and it is used as cooking ingredient due to the strong smell and delicious taste. But in the ancient history, it was used because of its many health benefits. It was used by the Egyptians, Babylonians, Greek, Romans, and the Chinese. The head is known as garlic bulb and contains about 10-20 cloves. The cloves contain a sulfur compound, known as Allicin, which has a lot of health properties.
- Garlic is highly nutritious but has very few calories
28 grams of garlic has:
- Manganese: 23% of the RDA
- Vitamin B6: 17% of the RDA
- Selenium: 6% of the RDA
- Fiber: 1 gram.
Garlic also has sufficient amounts of Copper, Iron, Calcium, Phosphorus, and Vitamin B1. Actually, garlic in his content has a bit of everything we need.
Garlic is high in Vitamin C, Vitamin B6, and Manganese, and low in calories.
- Garlic can fight sickness, including the common cold
Garlic can improve the function of the immune system.
A study proved that consumption of garlic on a daily basis reduced the colds by 63% in comparison with placebo.
Also, another study showed that a high consumption of garlic extract (2.56 g a day) can reduce your days of flu by 61%.
In order to reduce and prevent the flu and common cold, we recommend you to add garlic to your diet. It will be of great help!
- The active compounds in garlic can reduce blood pressure
Generally, one of the main causes of death is cardiovascular diseases as strokes and heart attacks.
Hypertension or high blood pressure, are the reasons which lead to these diseases.
Studies have proved that garlic has a significant influence on reducing the blood pressure.
One study showed that a dose of 600-1500 mg garlic extract has the same effect as Atenolol when it comes to reducing blood pressure in a period of 24 weeks.
And for the best effects, supplement doses have to be high enough, 4 cloves of garlic are equivalent to the amount of needed allicin.
- Garlic improves cholesterol levels, which may lower the risk of heart disease
When it comes to high cholesterol, it seems that garlic supplementation can help in reducing total or LDL cholesterol by 10-15%.
Garlic can lower LDL (the “bad”) cholesterol, but has uncertain effects on HDL.
- Garlic contains antioxidants that may help prevent Alzheimer’s disease and Dementia.
The antioxidants contained in the garlic can support the protective mechanisms of the body against oxidative damage.
The antioxidant enzyme in humans can be increased by high consumption of garlic supplementation.
The antioxidant properties, as well as the combined effects on reducing blood pressure and cholesterol, can prevent diseases like dementia and Alzheimer’s.
- Garlic may help you live longer
This makes sense due to the fact that garlic is very efficient in important risk factors as blood pressure.
Also, it has the ability to fight infectious disease, which is also a common cause of death, in people with dysfunctional immune systems or elderly.
- Athletic performance can be improved with garlic supplementation
Garlic was used in ancient cultures for reducing fatigue and enhancing the capacity of workers.
Also, it was used by the Olympic athletes in ancient Greece.
Even though very few human studies have been done, those made on rodent have been shown that garlic can help with exercise performance.
A study which included subjects with heart disease took garlic oil for 6 weeks. The results showed that their peak heart rate was reduced by 12% and their exercise capacity was improved.
So, garlic has the ability to improve people with heart disease and physical performance in lab animals. The benefits in healthy people aren’t proved yet.
- Eating garlic can help detoxify heavy metals in the body
Garlic has sulfur compounds which can protect the organs from the heavy metal toxicity.
A 4-week study which included employees of a car battery plant showed that the lead levels in the blood were reduced by 19% by the garlic. Also, the blood pressure and headaches were reduced.
3 doses of garlic on a daily basis can even have better effects than the drug D- penicillamine when it comes to symptom reduction.
- Garlic may improve bone health
Although there weren’t made studies on human, the rodent studies have proved that bone loss can be minimized by increasing estrogen in females.
A study which included menopausal women showed that a dose of dry garlic extract on daily basis decreases the deficiency of estrogen.
This means that garlic can be very beneficial for the bone health in women.
- Garlic is easy to include in your diet and tastes absolutely delicious
This is not a benefit of the garlic, but it is of great importance.
It will be very easy for you to add the garlic in your diet.
There are several forms of garlic including cloves, powders, smooth pastes, garlic extract, and garlic oil.
1 clove eaten with meals, 2-3 times throughout the day is the minimum dose for therapeutic effects.
However, there are some disadvantages of the garlic, as bad breath. Some people are allergic to it.
If you are taking blood-thinning medications, or you have some bleeding disorder, it is very important to talk with your doctor before you increase the consumption of garlic.
And you should know that allicin which is the active compound of garlic forms only when the garlic is cleaved or crushed. You won’t have the same effects if you first cook it before crushing it.
So we recommend you to consume garlic raw or to crush and cut it and let it stand for a while before you add it to your meals.
Source: Juicing For Health