Garlic: The Super Bulb

Sam Stephens

February 2020

A quick look at some potential health benefits of garlic and why you may want to consider consuming more of this pungent superfood.

Is garlic a staple in your diet? If not, you may be missing out on some really great health benefits as well as much more delicious and flavorful food. Listed below are some of the helpful qualities of this sulfurous, bulbous superfood. 

Garlic can potentially help with cardiovascular disease by:

  • Lowering blood pressure
  • Prevent the buildup of arterial plaque (atherosclerosis)
  • Lower serum levels of cholesterol and LDL
  • Increase blood vessel elasticity. 

Garlic may also have some significant anti-carcinogenic properties. The allylsulfide derivatives in garlic are believed to:

  • Suppress tumor growth rates
  • Prevent many different cancers from occurring
  • Disrupt carcinogenic proliferation 

Diabetes isn’t safe from garlic’s beneficial properties either. Sulfur compounds found in garlic may:

  • Reduce blood sugar levels

‘Detoxing’ is hot right now, but you don’t need a fancy drink or powder to do it. A healthy liver can help you remove all of those bad ‘toxins’ and garlic can help. Garlic intake may:

  • Improve overall liver function
  • Reduce hepatotoxicity (acetaminophen-induced)

Garlic can also benefit our gut microbiome by garlic exerting “a differential inhibition between beneficial intestinal microflora and potentially harmful enterobacteria.” Good gut health can result in:

  • Improved immune function
  • Improved neurotransmitter & hormone production
  • Better digestion
  • Improved energy and mental clarity

While all of these health benefits listed above are pretty great and could drastically improve your quality of life, more research is needed to definitively prove a causal link. Like all other ‘super healthy’ foods, take these claims with a grain of (garlic) salt. 

Improve your health, add flavor to your meals, and ward off vampires with garlic. 

Reference:

Bayan L, Koulivand PH, Gorji A. Garlic: a review of potential therapeutic effects. Avicenna J Phytomed. 2014;4(1):1–14.