Garlic can be a tasty addition to any meal, but did you know that it also has significant health benefits? A report by The World’s Healthiest Foods describes how garlic can be major source of nutrition for your diet.
Garlic contains sulfur compounds, which happen to give garlic its unique odor. However, these compounds, such as thiosulfinates, sulfoxides, and dithiins can also be helpful to the human body, especially by preventing health problems from occurring.
Some of the positive contributions of garlic include:
- Reduced cholesterol of between 5-15% in the body.
- Protection of blood vessels from inflammation.
- Prevention of blood clots.
- Lowered blood pressure.
- Prevention of arthritis.
- Improvement of iron metabolism in the body.
In addition, garlic may have properties that help you to prevent and control infections. Some research that shows garlic can help the fight against cancer. There is also preliminary research into garlic’s anti-inflammatory properties and ability to combat obesity.
There are a lot of vitamins and minerals in garlic that the human body needs to stay healthy. These include:
- Manganese
- Vitamin B6
- Vitamin C
- Copper
- Selenium
- Phosphorous
- Calcium
- Vitamin B1
To get the most nutritional benefit out of garlic, The World’s Healthiest Foods says to use raw garlic when preparing meals. For those who have problems tolerating raw garlic, they suggest adding it towards the end of cooking food. This way, the flavor and nutrients are at their best. Heavily cooking garlic though, can cause it to be less effective and lose many of its positive attributes.
Want to know more about garlic, its health properties, chemical breakdown, and ways to include it in your meals? Check out The World’s Healthiest Foods article. They also have a “Food Rating System Chart” that provides a full nutritional profile of garlic.
Read the full article here: Garlic.
