We’ve shared enough Italian recipes on our blog for any Neuliven Health fan to know that our team likes garlic. It can be pungent and robust when used in a salad dressing or sweet and delicious when cooked. We love roasted garlic: a tiny spray of oil a little a while in the oven and it becomes spreadable, sweet and soft. We like the way it kicks up the flavor of dishes. We love the homey smell of it cooking. Cooked garlic has fewer vitamins in it. Heat can destroy some vitamins, and some of garlic’s healthy compounds decay quite quickly, meaning that if you don’t eat a garlic clove when it’s freshly cut, it can lose potency.

We also like that it has really great health benefits. Garlic has always been known to have medicinal purposes. The father of Medicine, Hippocrates, even prescribed it to his patients. In more modern times, holistic medicine embraced garlic as a health treatment before scientists got involved and did research that found that garlic does, indeed, have health benefits.

Most of the health benefits of the plant come from the sulfur compounds that form only when the garlic has been damaged via cutting, chewing, crushing, etc.These compounds can fight the common cold, lower blood pressure, possibly prevent dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease, it may improve bone health, help your body clear heavy metals and could potentially lengthen your life. These compounds act as antioxidants in the body. Additionally, it has antimicrobial properties that help it kill bacteria, fungi and viruses.

For those of us with cholesterol concerns, one study found that garlic has the potential to lower total cholesterol up to 30 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL). It also aids arteries and blood pressure. It is believed that this is because red blood cells use the sulfur to create gas that expands the vessels. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to impact triglycerides — a known risk factor in heart disease. But, when you look at the long list of things it helps, you can hardly accuse it of falling down on the job!

Garlic is a tasty wonder! And the plant has many nutrients for something with hardly any calories. Forty-two calories of garlic (one ounce) contains 23 percent of your daily manganese, 17 percent of your vitamin B6, 15 percent of your vitamin C, six percent of your selenium and over half a gram of fiber!

If you are taking any prescription medications, you should speak to your doctor before making any significant changes to your diet or routine. Hopefully, enjoying garlic will help you feel your best!