Garlic is a culinary herb and almost every cuisine in the world is using it in their food preparations. Garlic’s health benefits have also been known for centuries. It has been proved that garlic has several medicinal properties to prevent or treat a wide range of conditions.
Lowers Cholesterol Naturally
Garlic is one of the foods that lower cholesterol naturally. It inhibits cholesterol production. According to latest research garlic effectively reduces the blood cholesterol levels and it does it in two ways. First it slows down endogenous cholesterol synthesis, i.e., self-production of cholesterol by your body. Including garlic in your diet along with reducing calories could then help lower cholesterol.
Secondly it helps your body transplant fats from the tissues where they are stored to the blood stream which enables them to be eliminated from your body.
Research shows that garlic preperations may effectively lower total cholesterol by 11-23mg/dLand LDL cholesterol by 3-15mg/dL in adults with high cholesterol if taken for longer than two months. The same analysis shows that garlic has marginally positive effects on HDL cholesterol. No significant effects were found on the level of blood tryglycerides and garlic preperations were generally well tolerated with very few side effects.
Strengthens the Immune System and prevents infectious diseases
Garlic has a key place in the list of immune boosting foods. It strengthens the immune system and prevents infectious diseases. Immune system is our body’s main line of defense against diseases. When our immune system is weakened, our body fails to fight against invading organisms and will become susceptible to a variety of bacterial, fungal and viral diseases.
Immunity can be compromised by poor diet, environmental pollution, stress, diseases, and abnormalities at birth and even the natural process of aging.
Scientific experiments has identified something that stimulate the immune the immune system and one of them is garlic. Recent studies involving garlic and the immune system show that garlic is effective in strengthening the overall immune system and its functioning.. Studies also show that garlic strengthens and empower the individual cells of the immune system. Thus the use of garlic has been proved effective against infectious diseases.
Side Effects of Garlic
- It is noticed that some individuals are allergic to garlic.
- It may reduce platelet aggregation. So People taking anticoagulant medications are cautioned about consuming garlic.