NUTRITION WATCH

Health Benefits of Garlic

Chopping or crushing garlic and letting it rest before cooking may enhance its cancer-fighting properties.

Health benefits of chopping garlic

Cooks take note: the way garlic is treated in the kitchen can affect its cancer-fighting properties.

Although a recent study showed that less than one clove a day may cut prostate-cancer risk in half, and other research links garlic to a lowered incidence of stomach, colon and possibly breast cancers, that all depends on its preparation, says John A. Milner, chief of the Nutritional Science Research Group at the National Cancer Institute.

Garlic’s active agents—allyl sulfide compounds—are produced when the clove is chopped or crushed. This breaks the cell walls and starts a cascade of chemical reactions (which also produce garlic’s characteristic smell) leading to the desired sulfides. But Milner found that heating the garlic immediately after chopping inactivated a crucial enzyme in the chemical chain.

Chopped garlic tossed directly into hot oil, or whole garlic cooked without crushing (or at least cutting off the top), will still impart the desired taste, but little or no cancer-fighting benefits. Once the compounds develop, however, they are quite stable and will withstand the heat of cooking. Milner’s advice: “Crush or chop the cloves, then let them sit for 10 or 15 minutes while you prepare other ingredients. This will give the anticancer compounds a chance to form.”

Garlic you buy in jars, already chopped, may be just as healthful. “When chopped garlic was stored in the freezer for weeks,” says Milner, “the compounds remained active.”

—Alice Z. Lawrence

Healthy Garlic Recipes and Cooking Tips

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USER COMMENTS — Add Your Comment

Great. I use loads of garlic but not in the proper way. Thanks. I am sending the imp. advice to all I have on my mailing list.

Amitha Waidyasekera, Regina , SK

Great advice. I cook garlic a lot, love it. I use it in diabetes management.

Curtis Williams, Cincinnati, OH

How do garlic tablets compare to fresh garlic?

Karen, Dayton, OH

I have known this from childhood. Lithuanian grandparents taught me so & working for Italian physicians in NYC medical centers confirmed it so ...

Dorothee, New York, NY

Garlic is great in the fight against cancer take a row garlic and chopped in many micro pieces then swallow it with a little of milk you will see, you also don't smell but will help you fight cancer remember do it every day it works ... along with traditional treatment.

Daniela, Miami, FL

Garlic it is the best herbal treatment for many diseases, well done garlic try it and u will see result.

Ali, Sohar, OM

Taking garlic are good. In chinese tradition, is used to reduce cholesterol, and really pungent smell is good for main skin disease like acne, eczema, psoriasis and etc...! Cause of garlic contain sulfur. And anti viral bacterial effect... and good for maintain weight and etc.

MohamEd Yeong, Sri DamansAra, MY