Most people might not give much thought to garlic. It’s not something people are eating as a main part of their meal, but rather something that gets added to food to enhance it’s flavor. Maybe the first thing you think about when you hear the word garlic is stinky breath. Although it might not seem like the thing to eat during a romantic meal, there’s no denying the many health benefits that can be achieved by adding it to your diet on a regular basis.
Garlic comes from a family of foods that also include onions, leeks, chives and shallots. Much of garlic’s health benefits come from an active compound called allicin. This is what gives garlic its pungent smell and distinctive spicy taste. You might not realize it’s spicy taste until you’ve had it by itself, which might be a little too much for some people. Luckily it’s easy to add to lots of different recipes.
Health Benefits of Eating Garlic
- Eating garlic boosts your vitamin intake. You’ll get a small percentage of your daily vitamin B-1, or thiamin (plays a vital role in the growth and function of various cells) and a modest amount of vitamin C (antioxidant).
- Garlic helps you get your daily recommended intake of vitamin B-6. This supports your metabolism by helping you break down the protein, carbohydrates and fats that you eat. It also supports good mental health. Vitamin B-6 helps you make serotonin and dopamine, known as mood boosting hormones.
- May support bone health by minimizing bone loss due to increased oestrogen levels. However, more research needs to be done to determine if this holds true for humans.
- Studies also suggest the consumption of garlic may give some relief from the inflammatory symptoms of osteoarthritis.
- Garlic has been shown to have antimicrobial and antifungal properties.
- It may reduce the risk of heart attacks. Several studies suggest that garlic makes the cells involved in blood clotting less likely to clump together and accumulate on artery walls. In other words, garlic acts like an anticoagulant and by doing so reduces the risk of heart attacks.
- Garlic may have anti-cancer properties as well
How To Get The Health Benefits?
It’s possible that cooking garlic may reduce some of it’s medicinal properties, making it best to add it late in the cooking process. If you don’t mind eating it raw that’s the best way to go when you’re consuming garlic for better health.. You don’t even need to consume that much of it to reap the benefits. The recommended daily amount is just ½-1 whole clove per day (around 3000-6000mcg of allicin).
Garlic poses few safety issues and allergies are rare, so most people shouldn’t have any trouble eating it. For those of you that just don’t like the taste, I recommend that you start adding small amounts of it to foods you like. Eventually you may come to enjoy it. After all most of us have come to enjoy a larger variety of foods since when we were younger, hopefully.
Some of the benefits above are still being researched and are still speculative, but since there’s no downside of consuming garlic, I say just go ahead and make it a goal to consume garlic on a regular basis just in case. I don’t know about you, but for me eating foods that serve to benefit my health makes me enjoy them even more.
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