Either you love Garlic or hate it. You love it because studies show that consuming garlic is beneficial to one’s health aside from making any fried rice so yummy! Or you hate it because it stink and it can hurt your skin. But before you give up on garlic here’s more to it than the stink.

What’s hot: Garlic is a member of the onion family. Aside from culinary uses, it has been recognized as beneficial to the cardiovascular system. Garlic has allicin that gives its rich flavor and strong aroma that is one of the most powerful antioxidant. It acts as expectorant, antibiotic and anti-fungal. It is ideal for colds, infections, circulatory and bronchial disorders. Garlic may sound too good to be true in giving all these health benefits, but a group of Chemists shed light on its health benefits. In their research study, they wanted to find out if allicin is responsible for the activity of Garlic. Why Garlic contain such efficient antioxidant properties when it doesn’t have the compounds such as flavonoids found in green tea or grapes. Here’s what they did:

“The research team questioned the ability of allicin to trap damaging radicals so effectively, and considered the possibility that a decomposition product of allicin may instead be responsible. Through experiments with synthetically-produced allicin, they found that an acid produced when the compound decomposes rapidly reacts with radicals.”

For the complete story click here. Eat raw Garlic if you want stronger antibiotic and anti-bacterial effect. But cooked or raw Garlic contains antioxidant properties. Also it can be used cosmetically in treating dandruff. A Garlic hair rinse can ease dandruff.

What’s-not-so-hot: Garlic should be taken cautiously because not all people react to it the same way. It can also irritate sensitive skin. 

For me, I love Garlic! I love it in my food especially in fried rice. I also make my own Garlic tea. My Garlic tea is made of regular Lipton tea with crushed Garlic clove. I tried this because I have a persistent allergy that makes my throat itchy. I first drank garlic tea when I was having allergy attacks and all I can say is that it helped to control the coughing attacks. Now the allergy have not come back. But I made sure I also eat a balance diet, I sleep at least 7-8 hours/day, and I take multivitamins.

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