The benefits of garlic

It’s native to Central Asia and has been grown for 5000 years. Garlic is a member of the Lily family and is cousin to onions, leeks and chives. Elephant garlic though has larger cloves and is more related to the leek, therefore doesn’t offer the full health benefits of the regular size one. Generally speaking size is not related at all to better quality.

Natural remedies and natural therapies are always the best way to cure a disease, unless of course it’s already so advanced that requires a medical intervention. Therefore the sooner you start using natural remedies, the better.

One powerful remedy is certainly garlic. There are literally dozens of sulphur molecules in garlic and all of them have been shown to function as antioxidant. Many also provide us with anti-inflammatory benefits. Its antibacterial content is identified as allicin, the most abundant organosulfurous compound. Its antioxidant capacity is mostly due to polyphenolic compounds. Its antimicrobial and antifungal activity as well is related to the high level of polyphenols content.

Its sulphur-containing compounds are responsible for garlic’s characteristic, pungent odour.  But they are also the source of many of its health-promoting effects. Sulphur itself is also a key part of our health. Cardiovascular benefits of garlic are: lowering of cholesterol level, triglyceride reduction, blood vessels protection from inflammatory and oxidative stress. A very unique cardiovascular protection of garlic is to help prevent clots from forming inside of our blood vessels, thanks to one particular disulphide present in it, called ajoene. Ajoene has repeatedly been shown to have anti-clotting properties: it can help prevent certain cells in our blood (called platelets) from becoming too sticky and by keeping this stickiness in check, it lowers the risk of our platelets clumping together and forming a clot.

Sulphur-containing molecules are called polysulphides: once they are in our blood cells, control our blood pressure by triggering dilation of our blood vessels. And when the space inside our blood vessels expands, our blood pressure get reduced.

Preliminary studies are showing that thanks to a sulphur compound present in garlic, fat cells cannot become fully themselves from a preliminary stage called “preadipocytes”, to a final stage called “adipocytes”. This conversion of preadipocytes to adipocytes appears to be blocked: it’s particularly important because once adipocytes are fully formed, they can only reduce their size but will never disappear again (meaning it will be much easier to regain weight after a diet). Women will be interested to know that ajoene has also been successfully used to help prevent infections with the yeast Candida albicans. Let’s not forget that garlic has important anti-cancer properties. High intake of garlic have been found to lower risk of virtually all cancer types, except cancer of the prostate and breast cancer (sorry).

In order to obtain maximum flavour and nutritional benefits, always purchase only fresh garlic. Any other form (flake, powder, paste) has less health properties. It must also be plump and have unbroken skin. Avoid garlic that is soft or moldy. It’s absolutely not necessary to freeze or refrigerate it for proper storage.

….Always humble,

Angiolino

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