How best to tap health benefits of garlic
By Sade Oguntola - updated: Thursday 31-07-2008
GarlicSeveral experts have stressed the need to eat more
garlic because of its many health benefits to the
body. Researchers found that eating garlic can reduce the tension within the blood vessels as well as decrease cholesterol levels, thus easing the burden of heart disease.
According to researchers in the 2007 November edition of Molecular Nutrition Food Research, garlic produces improvement in persons with physical fatigue, systemic fatigue due to cold, or tiredness of indefinite cause, suggesting that garlic can resolve fatigue through a variety of actions in human. It also prevents blood clots, cancer and bacterial infections.
Meanwhile, to get the best of garlic, it is better to use fresh garlic than the dried, chopped or powdered form. Researchers in Japan reported that fresh garlic maintains higher levels of its key healthy ingredient, allicin, than preserved versions and so may be better for you.
In the new study, Toyohiko Ariga and colleagues compared allicin levels in extracts of fresh garlic after one to two weeks of storage in water, alcohol, and vegetable oil. Garlic stored in water at room temperature lost about half its allicin in six days and garlic in vegetable oil lost half its allicin in less than an hour. The garlic lost its ability to kill bacteria (antibacterial action) as allicin broke down. However, allicin broke down into materials that are still believed to have some ability to prevent cancer and blood clot formation.
Much as consuming large amounts of raw garlic may be good for your heart, it may not be too idea for your social life. In order to get the best of garlic, without missing out on their impressive health benefits, they can be crushed and then baked slightly according to Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists and collaborators in Argentina.
The researchers wanted to know if cooking reduced garlic’s blood-thinning effects. They also wanted to see what impact crushing the garlic before cooking had on its ability to break up artery-clogging platelets.
After boiling, baking and microwaving both crushed and uncrushed cloves of garlic and evaluating them for their antiplatelet activity, the scientists learned that lightly cooked, crushed garlic provides most of the health benefits found in raw garlic. The only exception was microwaving, which stripped garlic almost entirely of its blood-thinning effects.
The researchers contend that while heating might be generally blamed for reducing garlic’s antiplatelet activity, it is the crushing that enables the beneficial compounds to be freed in the first place.
In addition, some other Penn State researchers pointed out that microwave heating or roasting garlic can diminish or destroy its anti-cancer activity - unless the herb is chopped or crushed, and allowed to “stand” for at least 10 minutes before cooking.
The research was the first to show that as little as one minute of microwaving or 45 minutes of oven roasting can completely block garlic’s ability to retard the action of a known cancer-causing agent in rats. Garlic’s anti-cancer activity was retained, however, if the herb was first chopped or crushed and allowed to stand for 10 minutes before being heated. In the case of roasted whole garlic, anti-cancer activity was partially retained if the top of the bulb was sliced off prior to heating.
The researchers said this at a conference on “Recent Advances on the Nutritional Benefits Accompanying the Use of Garlic as a Supplement” at the Marriott Newport Centre, Newport Beach, Calif.
Why the standing period? According to them, this is to enable an enzyme that is naturally present in certain garlic cells to come in contact with and act on chemicals in other cells.
Chopping or crushing the garlic opens the cells and enables the enzyme to start a reaction that produces chemicals called allyl sulfur compounds that possess anti-cancer properties.
If garlic was heated or roasted immediately after crushing, the enzyme will be de-activated by the heating process and garlic’s anti-cancer effects blocked.
However, there is a word of caution when using garlic to treat childhood ailments. According to a review of data conducted in part by the University of Alberta, while using garlic to treat children for various ailments appears to be generally safe, more research needs to be done on its specific effects. Their findings were published recently in Paediatrics in Review.
Dr. Sunita Vohra, an associate professor of paediatrics at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada said, “Data are insufficient to recommend precise dosages when treating children” despite its longtime use in many cultures for its purported pharmacological benefits.
The data review revealed that garlic tablets did appear to aid upper respiratory tract infections, resulting in a 1.7-fold reduction in ill health compared with placebo. Garlic applied briefly to warts also proved effective with resolution reported in all children after three to nine weeks of treatment.
Since there were no significant improvements when using garlic to treat cardiovascular disease in youngsters, it was said that more studies would be needed to explore the plant’s effects on blood pressure and cholesterol concentrations in children at cardiovascular risk.
As with conventional medical treatments, there is potential for adverse effects with garlic use. Adverse effects of garlic described in studies involving adult and children were generally minor.
Though garlic’s pungent smell on both the breath and body was the most commonly reported, the most serious adverse effect of garlic was associated with its direct application to the skin. Three studies in children reported second-degree burns when raw, crushed garlic was directly applied to children’s skin to bring body temperature down and to treat viral diseases.
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