It’s not a coincidence at all that we’re talking about the health benefits of garlic. Garlic benefits is actually the second most searched term on Google, when it comes to super foods. It’s a super food known to every cuisine in the world.
People have been using it as medicine, as well as food. Some don’t mind the facts that it has a very strong smell and leaves you with a bad breath. They simply focus on the many health benefits of garlic, so let’s see exactly what those are.
Consuming garlic on a regular basis has a lot of health benefits, and helps us fight against, and prevent certain diseases. It has even been proven to help prevent the four biggest causes for death, which are: stroke, heart disease, infections, and even cancer.
So never mind its strong smell and start eating it right away! Soon after you start implementing it in your daily diet, you’ll see the amazing results we’re talking about. Once you start eating it on a daily basis, you’ll get used to its smell and taste. You’ll probably even regret not including it in your diet earlier.
We’ll go over the most important health benefits of garlic in order to get you even more interested in implementing it in your diet. You’ll soon see its importance and how big of a role it plays in preventing many diseases and health problems.
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Garlic vs. heart disease
You can use garlic both as a treatment and prevention of heart and metabolic disease, such as thrombosis, atherosclerosis, hypertension, hyperlipidemia and diabetes. We can see positive effects from its consumption both in animals and in humans.
Garlic works quite well in preventing heart problems. That’s mainly because it’s awesome at reducing coronary artery plaque in patients with metabolic syndrome. It also helps prevent the forming of new plaque, helping you avoid further cardiovascular diseases.
READ MORE: Coconut oil is ‘as unhealthy as butter and beef fat’.
Garlic vs. cancer
Scientists have found a link between the gradual increase of garlic intake and the reduced risk of some cancers, including cancer of the colon, breast, esophagus, stomach and pancreas. But how could garlic actually have the ability to lower your risk of these types of cancer? Garlic, as awesome as it already is, has one more ability. That’s the ability to block the forming of cancer, and even stop the activation of substances that cause cancer. It even has the ability to enhance DNA repair.
A study conducted between 345 patients that had breast cancer, but had started gradually increasing their intake of both garlic and onion, found that they showed amazingly positive effects, and drastically improved their health.
Garlic vs. high blood pressure
There have been numerous studies on this subject. Most of them admit that garlic can have a significant impact on reducing blood pressure. It can even help you avoid the problems and diseases associated with it.
One study actually showed that aged garlic in the right doses worked better in lowering blood pressure than the drug Atenolol did. Note that doses need to be quite high (4-5 cloves a day) in order to obtain the desired effects.
Garlic vs. Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease
What contributes to the aging process, and all that comes along with it, is the oxidative damage that occurs due to free radicals. That’s where garlic actually steps in. It’s loaded with antioxidants, which help lower the oxidative damage that might have occurred. Scientists have seen such a positive outcome in using garlic to fight against Alzheimer’s disease and Dementia that they believe the cure to Alzheimer’s might even lie in garlic.
Garlic vs. Diabetes
Garlic is marvelously successful at improving the overall health and condition of diabetics. Not only that but it also helps them avoid the possible complications that come along with it. Such complications would be neuropathy and atherosclerosis. Other than the fact that garlic is very successful at helping diabetics avoid future complications, it also helps regulate their blood sugar levels, help them fight against infections and reduce LDL cholesterol levels.
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How to use it
Although it’s best to eat most fruits and veggies raw, it’s perfectly fine to use garlic both cooked and raw. Cooked garlic offers the same health benefits as raw garlic does, if not more (its antioxidant value may increase when cooked).
You can include garlic in almost every meal, salad, sauce, stew, or soup.
There is one way to up the garlic benefits, no matter if you’re eating it cooked or raw. The way to do this is by letting the garlic sit chopped or crushed for 10 minutes before you eat or cook it. The chopping or crushing of the garlic allows for some of the garlic’s allin to convert to allicin – which is very effective in killing many microorganisms, and even fighting off the common cold.
