All foodies out there will be happy to hear garlic does not only taste amazing, it also has a slew of proven benefits that will contribute to your overall health. This plant has a distinct flavor that adds a kick to sauces, roasted vegetables, fried dishes, stakes and salad dressings. Read all about the potent health benefits of garlic if you need a few more reasons to add it into your diet.

1. Allicin

The biggest health benefit of garlic is owed to its unique compound, allicin. This gives garlic its one of a kind smell and taste. But there’s more to allicin than delighting our taste buds. Allicin is a sulfur compound that is created whenever garlic is bruised, crushed, chewed or chopped. This compound has the ability to act as an antibiotic.

At the same time, allicin enables the body to prohibit germs from thriving and reproducing. One milligram of allicin powder is said to have the potency of penicillin. The potent compounds have been found to keep a stable weight and even help with weight loss.

2. Heart Health

If you want to keep strokes and heart attacks at bay, you should start eating raw garlic as often as possible. Cardiovascular diseases are the biggest threats. The silver lining here is that garlic can protect your heart from hypertension and high blood pressure, with a recent study proving that garlic supplements have had an important impact on decreasing high blood pressure.

Garlic health benefits on the heart are owed to the plant’s ability to reduce free radicals. Garlic can boost blood circulation, decrease cholesterol and even slow down atherosclerosis, which facilitates strokes and heart attacks.

To keep a healthy heart, eat one or two crushed cloves in the morning. Garlic capsules are also beneficial, but they should only be taken after consulting with a doctor.

3. Common cold

If you didn’t believe your grandma’s garlic home remedies for a cold could make you feel better, you were wrong. You can add garlic tablets or garlic supplements to the list of natural remedies for when you have the sniffles. Garlic can boost the immune system, making the body stronger when faced with a cold.

A study has found that patients who consumed garlic experienced cold symptoms for only 1.5 days, as opposed to the full 5 days experienced by the patients who received the placebo. The dual action of garlic makes it a must in the cold season when the common cold spreads from one to another with the speed of lightning.

If you’re not particularly keen on fresh garlic, you can consume it cooked with ginger or onions for even more active ingredients to fight off the cold.

4. Highly nutritious

If you’re in the habit of counting your calories, you’ll be surprised when you’ll run the count for garlic. There’s more to the tiny cloves than meets the eye. Despite their size, they are loaded with nutrients and they don’t have that many calories either.

One ounce of garlic (or roughly 28 grams) packs 23% of the needed daily intake of manganese, 17% Vitamin B6, 15% Vitamin C, 6% Selenium and one gram of fiber. Additionally, garlic also contains small amounts of copper, calcium, potassium, iron, Vitamin B1 and phosphorus.

What about the calorie count? The ounce of garlic we’ve just analyzed has 9 gr of carbs, 1.8 gr of protein and only 42 calories.

5. Bone health

Although there are no human trials to back this up, rodent trials have uncovered that garlic has the ability to decrease bone loss. The active ingredients in garlic can increase estrogen, which leads to minimizing bone loss.

Garlic extract taken on a daily basis has been found to decrease markers of estrogen deficiency in menopausal women. While there is still no proof to sustain garlic can help with bone health in men, women can reap garlic health benefits and keep osteoporosis at bay by combining an active lifestyle with a nutritional meal plan.

6. Inhibits cancer

A slew of vegetables and plants do an awesome jobs of preventing various cancers. Cucumbers keep ovarian and prostate cancers at bay, while garlic can prevent lung and digestive system cancer. This is owed to the allyl sulfur compounds that have the ability to decelerate the cancerous cells’ development.

It has been found that the best way to keep your body protected against cancer is to consume it raw. Cooked and processed garlic, as well as supplement pills, are not as efficient in defending the body against cancer.

7. Prevents Alzheimer’s