10 important reasons why you should eat garlic
While most people stay away from this relative of onions due to its strong smell, the health benefits derived from this spice surpass the garlic breath.
Onions, despite the bad rap it gets for causing bad breath, is one of those herbs that is not just used as a spice, but also as a medicine due to the presence of a chemical called allicin.
This powerful chemical is the reason why garlic is so healthy, however it is also what makes garlic smell so much, but the benefits of garlic are completely worth the bad smell.
The health benefits of eating garlic include:
- Alleviating many conditions related to the heart and blood system, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, coronary heart disease,heart attack, and “hardening of the arteries” (atherosclerosis).
- Preventing and treating colon cancer, rectal cancer, stomach cancer,breast cancer, prostate cancer,lung cancer, prostate cancer and bladder cancer. A study supports this as it found that middle-aged women were 35 percent less likely to develop colon cancer when they ate fruit, vegetables, and garlic as part of a well-balanced diet.
- Building the immune system, thereby keeping colds away.
- Preventing and treating bacterial and fungal infections.
- Treating fever, coughs, headache, stomach ache, sinus congestion, gout, rheumatism, hemorrhoids, asthma, bronchitis, and shortness of breath.
- Fighting stress and fatigue.
- Maintaining healthy liver function.
- Fighting inflammation with some of its compounds, these may "naturally reduce pain and irritation by mimicking the way pain medications work (at least in animal and test tube studies)," according to health and research published in the Journal of Medicinal Food.
- Fighting food poisoning. A study found that a garlic compound is 100 times more effective than common antibiotics when it came to fighting Campylobacter, a bacteria commonly found in raw chicken, that can cause nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.
- Preserving and cleaning foods.
The health benefits are clearly numerous and worth getting over your fear of its bad smell.
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