Learn the Garlic Health Benefits

I know of many people who don't love garlic, but somehow every new time I hear it, I still feel shocked. I think it's because I'm half Italian and almost every dish I'd ever seen my gramma make had the magic ingredient of garlic in it.

I even have to admit that most nights, especially in the summer for some reason, I go around with intense garlic breath. I just think it's such an awesome flavoring for just about every dish.

However, there are also some amazing health benefits of garlic that most people don't know about.

Garlic is a great source of manganese, and a good source of vitamin B6, selenium, and vitamin C. It's also packed with sulfur, which many researchers believe is lacking in most diets, and which is the most abundant compound in the allium family (including onions, leeks, and other white vegetables).

Garlic helps protect our red blood cells by reducing stress from inflammation and oxygen damage, therefore helping us to maintain healthy blood pressure levels. It also helps keep blood vessels from becoming clogged with plaque and reduces the chances of developing clots inside the vessels. Research on garlic powder, oil, and aged extracts shows that one of the garlic health benefits is the ability to reduce total cholesterol and blood sugar levels. It also helps you absorb and circulate iron throughout your body.

Many people have long been aware that one of the health benefits of garlic is its ability to help reduce bacterial infections, especially from yeasts and worms. It can even work on people who have become resistant to antibiotics. Some people use it to reduce infection from burns.

Garlic has been shown to help prevent both colorectal and renal cancer. If you eat garlic at least several times each week, you are likely helping to boost your body's natural immunity to these two cancers.

There is even new research that seems to suggest that garlic helps regulate fat cells in the body by preventing them from becoming inflamed. It seems that compounds in garlic are blocking the fat cells from enlarging, therefore making it harder for the body to progress to the stage of obesity.

Here's a fun fact to boost your garlic health benefits; after you chop your garlic to use it, let it sit for a few minutes. Evidently, giving it some access to air before you turn it into dressing or sautee it will increase the nutritional benefits of garlic.

Garlic extracts have been proven not to have the same health benefits garlic in its raw form has, so try your best to use the fresh version.

When you are searching for a head of garlic, look for a bulb that has nice, tight cloves that are fully encased in their paper shell and firm when you squeeze them. If you see cracking or many brown spots on the surface of the bulb, it's more likely that your cloves will be close to rotting. Also, avoid any soft or wrinkled bulbs.

I used to be under the impression that all garlic was the same; white. However, there are actually many different varieties of garlic. If you hit the farmers market you can find many different types of garlic, from pink, purple, off-white to the regular white varieties. They can also come in many different sizes, but that won't affect the flavor, so don't just look for the biggest bulbs you can find.

Your garlic will stay fresh longer if you store it in a dark place where it won't see sunlight or get too hot. An entire bulb will last for about a month, if you store it properly. Once you break it open and start using the cloves, you'll only have a few days before they all go bad, so you get the most garlic health benefits by eating them quickly and abundantly!

• In this gardein beefless tips recipe, I make a standard Chinese style garlic sauce
• I use garlic in nearly every one of my recipes for vegetables
• You can even use garlic for cruelty-free pest control

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