Garlic (Allium sativum) is a vegetable belonging to a class of bulb-shaped plants, which include chives, leeks, onions, and scallions. Because it contains countless vital nutrients – flavonoids, oligosaccharides, selenium, allicin and high levels of sulfur (just to name a few) – eating garlic regularly has been proven to provide unbelievable health benefits.
In this article, I will cover garlic health benefits, garlic uses, garlic research, how to grow your own garlic and some great tasting garlic recipes!
Some of the most profound garlic benefits include:
- Cancer killer
- Anti-fungal
- Anti-oxidant
- Anti-inflammatory
- Anti-viral
- Immune booster
But raw garlic benefits don’t stop there…
Garlic Studies and Research
Garlic ranks only 2nd to turmeric, in the amount of research backing this super-herb. At the time I wrote this article, there were over 4,400 peer-reviewed articles that evaluated garlic’s ability to prevent and treat a wide spectrum of diseases.
And do you know what all this research revealed?
Eating garlic regularly is not only good for us; it has been linked to reversing the 4 major causes of death worldwide including heart disease, stroke, cancer and infections. Other than the most extreme, rare situations, I don’t see why every person on the planet shouldn’t be consuming garlic in their meals. It’s extremely cost-effective, super easy to grow and tastes absolutely fantastic!
To give you a taste of the research out there, I want to share some of the studies highlighting just how versatile and powerful garlic can is.
5 Medicinal Health Benefits of Raw Garlic
As your about to see, raw garlic benefits the body and is used as an effect form of plant based medicine in many ways.
1. Garlic Benefits for Men and Women Hair Loss (Alopecia)
One clinical trial has been conducted to test what a survey has shown to be a growing practice in Turkey; using garlic to treat baldness. Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences researchers from Iran tested how garlic gel applied on the scalp twice a day could affect people taking corticosteroids for alopecia.
They discovered that garlic “significantly added to the therapeutic benefits of seen in the improvement of alopecia.” Although the study didn’t test it directly, I would like to suggest that applying garlic-infused coconut oil as a standalone treatment might even be more beneficial because it mitigates the risk of absorbing harmful corticosteroids in the skin. Hopefully, some studies will be conducted to test my theory!
Also, to naturally thicken hair and to stop hair loss, you may try adding rosemary essential oil to your shampoo or trying this homemade rosemary mint shampoo recipe.
2. Raw Garlic for Cancer
In the words of the NIH National Cancer Institute, “Several population studies show an association between increased intake of garlic and reduced risk of certain cancers, including cancers of the stomach, colon, esophagus, pancreas, and breast.”
Although the doses and varieties of garlic varied in each study, evidence suggests that increased garlic consumption as a whole was found to decrease cancer risk up to 54% compared to eating minimal amounts!
3. Garlic for High Blood Pressure
An interesting phenomenon of garlic is that is can control hypertension on patients who are taking medications, and that medications are ineffective at lowering their blood pressure.
The study proving this was published in the scientific journal Maturitas, and evaluated 50 people with “uncontrollable” blood pressure. It was uncovered that simply taking 4 capsules of aged garlic extract (960 mg) daily for 3 months caused their blood pressure to drop by an average of 10 points!
Along with garlic if you want to lower blood pressure, check out this article on the foods and supplements to lower blood pressure.
4. Raw Garlic Benefits Heart Disease
When German scientists took an aqueous garlic extract and evaluated how it affected heart disease, they observed that it strongly inhibited calcium binding to cholesterol, which is responsible for arterial plaque formation.
Essentially suggesting that garlic can prevent heart disease caused by clogged arteries, there are multiple studies encouraging that healthcare practitioners should view garlic as a “possible candidate drug against atherosclerosis.”
Probably the most amazing characteristic of garlic is that it has been shown to literally reverse plaque buildup in arteries, not just slow it down like the study above suggests.
Only a few substances on the planet are known to do this (magnesium, vitamin K2, pomegranates), and if research can confirm these findings, garlic may very well prove to be the #1 way to reverse heart disease – the primary cause of death on the planet!
5. Raw Garlic for Colds and Infections
Experiments have shown that garlic (or specific chemical compounds found in garlic) is highly effective at killing countless microorganisms responsible for some of the most common and rarest infections including: tuberculosis, pneumonia, thrush, and herpes:
- MRSA (Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus)
- Ear infections
- Pseudomonas Aerigonosima
- Mycotoxin-associated aflatoxicosis
- Helicobacter Pylori infection
- Klebseilla infection
- Mycobacterium Tuberculosis
- Clostridium
- Herpes Simplex 1 and 2
- Parainfluenza virus type 3
- Human rhinovirus type 2.
- Group B Streptococcus Infection
This research is especially promising because microorganisms are becoming resistant to drugs at unheard of rates, causing a rise in Super Bugs that are nearly unstoppable!
Also, along with raw garlic, using garlic oil for ear infections is an excellent home remedy.
Best Way to Consume Garlic
According to Sayer Ji, researcher, lecturer and Founder of Green Med Info, garlic is best derived raw for microbial properties, although cooked garlic still has a lot of value.
In fact, the antioxidant value is equal (or sometimes even higher) when cooked, which is counterintuitive because cooking most foods denatures (destroys) most of the nutritional content.
Traditional cultures that don’t typically struggle with these types of diseases receive a regular intake of garlic in their diet and don’t require medical interventions because heart disease, cancer, and inflammatory-based illnesses are easily preventable when eating the right foods as God intended.
Raw Garlic Side Effects
However, according to Ji, because industrialized cultures have deviated from this traditional way of life so drastically, people experience toxic build at such extreme levels that garlic should be used wisely.
Ji cautions, “If people are on medications and are self-treating with garlic, things can go badly” and recommends:
- Consume garlic in culinary doses.
- Eat traditional recipes.
- Avoid taking raw garlic in massive amounts.
How to Grow Garlic at Home!
Garlic is one of the more simple crops to grow and thrive in different zones all across the U.S. For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, we should plant our cloves during the fall season and harvest them in late spring/early summer.
Plus, don’t throw away any leftover cloves from your next curry dish! Garlic clove food scraps are amazingly simply to regrow. Plant them root-end down in a sunny spot in your garden and trim off the shoots once the bulb produces them.
Garlic Recipes for Healing
If you want to harness the healing power of garlic, then try adding it to some of your favorite recipes and here are a few of my favorites you can try:
Spicy Garlic Heart Health Juice
How about you? Do you eat fresh garlic to prevent disease? What are your favorite recipes?
So how much garlic should you eat a day? 1 clove, 2 cloves? more?
2 cloves is a good amount
When my blood pressure is up I eat a couple of raw cloves and lay down and rest. When I get up my blood preasure is down. It works great with colds and flu.
I’d heard a story of a guy who cured a tooth absess by chewing on raw garlic…good stuff! The more the merrier in homemade salsa!
dr.axe many many thanks for health tips.(i am a diebetic person and iwants your help,can you give me some tips for diebeties like garlic that i can use easy.if possible please mail me
You can find some great tips on natural remedies for diabetes here: https://draxe.com/diabetes-natural-cures/