Whether you love it or hate it, garlic is at the core of cuisines worldwide. Its bitter and complex flavor makes it a great addition to a variety of savory dishes. More importantly, garlic benefits include medicinal properties and potent healthful compounds that work together to support every system within your body. So what makes garlic such a powerful medicine?
How Garlic Works
This well-known spice had remarkable healing qualities by virtue of the phytochemical allicin. In fact, allicin has been found to have profound antioxidant, antibiotic, anti-hypertension, anti-cancer, and lipid-lowering (cholesterol) effects. (1)
Allicin doesn’t exist in its pure state in raw garlic; it is produced when a clove is broken and accounts for the pungent aroma—a defense mechanism for the plant as it grows.
It’s necessary to crush or mince garlic and give it a few minutes for enzymes to go through the process of creating allicin in order to reap its medicinal benefits. Additionally, cooking garlic at high heat destroys this powerful compound.
Following are 15 ways that garlic benefits that improve human health—all without a prescription.
15 Proven Garlic Benefits
Eat at least raw 2-3 cloves each day to get the most of these effects.
1. Kills Anthrax
This is a killer bacterium that afflicts humans and other animals. Allicin from fresh-cut garlic eradicates this (and most other) bacteria better than most pharmaceutical antibiotics. (2)
