by Bob Lachniet
President -
Fitness 4 Home Superstore
Garlic – that wonderful little clove of stuff used in everything for flavor, actually is also a wonderful tool for improving your health! Garlic has long been considered a herbal "wonder drug", with a reputation in folklore for preventing everything from the Plague to the common cold and flu! Herbal medicine has used it extensively, and for good reason. That pungent smell that is associated with garlic comes from the sulphur compounds in garlic. Garlic also contains a wide variety of phytochemicals, including allicin. When you cut garlic, the sulphur containing amino acid alliin is broken down by enzymes to form allicin.
Recent studies have shown that eating a clove of garlic daily can help prevent a heart attack. Argentinean researchers have found that an enzyme found in garlic called alliinase, helps improve blood flow to your heart. And, you can unleash additional amounts of alliinase by letting fresh chopped garlic stand for 10 minutes prior to cooking with it. It has also been suggested that organically grown garlic may have higher sulphur level sand hence greater benefit to health.
Studies have also shown that consuming garlic generally has the following physical effects:
• Garlic lowers blood pressure a little.
• Raw Garlic is a potent natural antibiotic and, while far less strong than modern antibiotics, can still kill some strains of bacteria that have become immune or resistant to modern antibiotics.
• Garlic helps reduce atherosclerotic buildup (plaque) within the arterial system. One recent study shows this effect to be greater in women than men.
• Garlic lowers or helps to regulate blood sugar.
• Garlic helps to prevent blood clots from forming, thus reducing the possibility of strokes and thromboses (It may not be good for hemophiliacs).
• Garlic helps to prevent cancer, especially of the digestive system, prevents certain tumors from growing larger and reduces the size of certain tumors.
• Garlic helps to remove heavy metals such as lead and mercury from the body.
In conclusion, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that you can boost your health by eating garlic on a regular basis. Let your imagination come up with new ways of incorporating them into your daily diet - ideas that will really suit you and fit in with your family eating preferences.
