Six reasons garlic is an amazing healing superfood Saturday, August 03, 2013 by: PF Louis

(NaturalNews) There’s a lot of data available in Natural News article archives and studies posted on science.naturalnews.com that confirm the validity of garlic’s “magic” with several health matters.

It seems very few take advantage of the small amount of raw garlic needed to preserve good health. Even when plagued with colds, flu, and other pathogenic sourced ailments, the antibiotic, antiviral virtues of garlic are mostly ignored.

Perhaps most can’t fathom how such a small food item can offer so much. But probably the taste of raw garlic or the breath’s odor from chewing it is the major turn-off.

Some sidestep the taste and smell of garlic by using garlic extract supplements. Kyolic is an aged garlic extract brand that is often used in clinical trials for garlic.

Small thin slices of a clove can be inserted in all types of food arrangements, making it easier to consume than just gnawing on a whole clove. But taking a clove with a spoonful of raw honey works too. Chewing parsley or cilantro minimizes garlic breath and adds another healthy component.

Whatever way one chooses, consuming two to four cloves of garlic daily offers more health benefits than most realize.

Six solid health reasons to use garlic daily

1) An active garlic compound, diallyl sulphide, is able to break through the tough membranes of bacteria better and faster than powerful antibiotics with dangerous side effects such as ciprofloxacin.

Comparative analysis was was done in two separate studies using raw garlic extracts on two types of food poisoning bacteria. So eating garlic can prevent most food poisoning bugs from sending you to the hospital. [1]

2) Animal (in vivo) testing has demonstrated garlic’s ability to minimize diabetes issues. It was determined that garlic influenced insulin activity rather than directly lowering blood sugar. [2]

3) In case fighting off food poison better than pharmaceutical antibiotics without side effects didn’t impress you, maybe its ability to wipe out the bacteria, yersinia pestis, which causes bubonic plague or black death, might get your attention.

Though bubonic plague is not common these days, there have been some isolated cases recently in Europe. But the point is that garlic’s antibiotic, antiviral, and anti-fungal power has a curative effect for many pathogenic diseases.

By consuming garlic daily, you provide your body with prophylactic (preventative) pathogenic protection to prevent actual infection. [3]

4) Cardiovascular health is enhanced with garlic. Garlic has demonstrated the power to lower blood pressure and homocysteine counts. Homocysteine levels are considered stronger markers for heart problems than cholesterol counts.

Garlic also dampens cholesterol oxidation, which actually causes most of the problems generally blamed on cholesterol.

Cholesterol that’s not oxidized is important for building nerve and brain tissue, as well as serving as the first level of converting UVB sun rays to vitamin D3. So limiting cholesterol oxidation makes more sense than limiting cholesterol.

Garlic dilates blood vessels to lower blood pressure, removes triglycerides, dissolves internal clots and arterial plaque, and prevents oxidation of important lipids that lead to cellular destruction. All without side effects, of course. [4]

Garlic also functions as a blood thinner, which some say is adaptogenic because it allows clotting when needed even while thinning. Aspirin can’t do that.

5) Garlic is a powerful anti-oxidant that bolsters the immune system, and it’s a cancer fighter. Several compounds other than garlic’s antibiotic allicin, including sulfur, selenium, and others contribute to cancer cell apoptosis (cellular suicide) which cancer cells don’t normally like to do.

Even if not diagnosed with cancer, most of us have some cancer cells floating around. It’s not a bad idea to keep them from gathering together. [5]

6) In the 1970s, Robert I. Lin, president of Nutritional International in Irvine, California, used garlic to detox lead from children successfully. That’s not a well know attribute of garlic, but it’s another reason everyone should use garlic often in our polluted environment. [6]