Garlic: Strong Enough to Battle Heart Disease – Fighting Infection and Colon Cancer

When scientists in England entered the words “diet” and “anti-aging” into the search engine of a medical database, up popped studies on garlic—study after study after study.

“The accumulated knowledge over the last few years suggests that intake of garlic by humans may either prevent or decrease the incidence of major chronic diseases associated with old age, such as atherosclerosis, stroke, cancer, immune disorders, cerebral [brain] aging, arthritis, and cataract formation,” concluded the researchers.

That’s a powerful statement for a spice popularly called “the stinking rose.” But garlic works because it “stinks”—its explosive aroma is based on its most active ingredient, allicin, which transforms intoorganosulfurs, and those are the very compounds that minimize the oxidation, inflammation, and other cell-destroying processes underlying every one of the “major chronic diseases” on the researchers’ list. In addition, garlic is brimming with vitamins, minerals, and other powerful antioxidants that guard against heart disease and cancer.

In short, garlic is one of the world’s most potent natural medicines. The medical database of the National Institutes of Health contains more than 3,200 studies on the therapeutic power of garlic. Many of those studies are about preventing, slowing, and reversing cardiovascular disease—the heart attacks and strokes that kill more Americans than any other health problem.

Help for Your Heart

Back in 3000 BCE, Charak, the father of India’s Ayurvedic medicine, claimed that garlic “strengthens the heart and keeps blood fluid.”

Here in 2010, a team of medical researchers reviewed what they called the “vast scientific literature” about garlic and heart disease, and declared, “Garlic consumption has a significant protective effect against atherosclerosis.”

And when a team of researchers analyzed the garlic-rich Mediterranean diet—often equated with heart health—they figured out that if everybody ate one or two garlic cloves a day, the worldwide risk of heart disease would drop by 25 percent. (But you don’t have to eat fresh cloves to get an effect. Many studies show that dried or powdered garlic is more therapeutic than fresh.) Let’s look at all the ways garlic can help your heart.

Masking Garlic Breath

Garlic’s reputation for being a strong spice is well deserved. Even though it mellows when it is cooked, your garlic dinner can “hang around” for days. This is especially true if you eat it raw.

If you or others in your company are offended by the lingering smell of garlic, here are a few tried-and-true home remedies to diminish the odor:

• Drink red wine with your garlic meal.

• Add parsley to garlicky dishes.

• Chew on fresh parsley sprigs at the end of the meal.

• Chew a few roasted fennel, anise, or cardamom seeds.

To get the smell of garlic out of your hands after working with it:

• Wash your hands with water and lemon juice.

• Rub your hands with a stainless steel spoon, then wash both your hands and the spoon.

• Moisten your hands and rub baking soda between your palms.

Lower blood pressure. High blood pressure is a major risk factor for heart attacks and strokes. In a recent “meta-analysis” of 11 studies on garlic supplements and high blood pressure, garlic lowered systolic blood pressure (the upper number in the reading) by an average of 8.4 mm Hg and diastolic blood pressure (the lower number) by an average of 7.3 mm Hg—very significant decreases. “Garlic preparations are superior to placebo in reducing blood pressure in individuals with hypertension,” the researchers concluded in BMC Cardiovascular Disorders.

In a study from Poland, researchers found that garlic supplements not only lowered blood pressure, but also prevented DNA damage from oxidation. “These findings point out the beneficial effects of garlic supplementation in reducing blood pressure and counteracting oxidative stress, and thereby offering cardioprotection in hypertensives,” concluded the researchers in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry.

Thinner blood. People take baby aspirin to help prevent heart attacks because it “thins” the blood, reducing the risk of artery-plugging blood clots. Specifically, aspirin reduces the stickiness of platelets, blood compounds that can clump together to form a clot, a process called platelet aggregation. Garlic can thin blood, too.

Researchers in England gave people daily supplements of aged garlic extract for 13 weeks, measuring their levels of platelet aggregation at the beginning and end of the study. The garlic supplements “significantly inhibited” the percentage of platelets that were aggregating and the speed at which they were aggregating. Aged garlic extract “may be beneficial in protecting against cardiovascular disease as a result of inhibiting platelet aggregation,” the researchers concluded in the Journal of Nutrition.

Lower total cholesterol. Okay, garlic doesn’t lower “bad” LDL cholesterol. At least that was the result of a recent and much-publicized six-month study conducted by researchers at Stanford Prevention Research Center, who gave nearly 200 people with high LDL a daily dose of either raw garlic, powdered garlic supplement, aged garlic extract, or a placebo. “None of the forms of garlic used in the study had clinically significant effects on LDL,” concluded the researchers in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

But when researchers at the University of Connecticut analyzed this and 28 other studies on garlic and cholesterol in a meta-analysis, they reached a more positive conclusion. Garlic, they found, significantly reduced total cholesterol and triglycerides (another heart-hurting blood fat), even though it had no effect on “bad” LDL or “good” HDL.

Less artery-clogging plaque. Year by year, plaque can build up inside arteries, narrowing the passageway—and a chunk of that plaque can break off, clog the artery, and trigger a heart attack or stroke. That plaque-accumulating process is called atherosclerosis—and garlic can stop, slow, or reverse it.

Research in the Division of Cardiology at UCLA gave 23 people with heart disease a daily supplement containing aged garlic extract. After one year, those taking the placebo had triple the rate of plaque progression as those taking garlic. In another year-long study by the same researchers, involving a supplement containing aged garlic extract, B-vitamins and an artery-nourishing amino acid, the progression of plaque was “significantly lower” in those taking garlic. Aged garlic extract therapy, with additional nutrients, “reduced progression of atherosclerosis,” the researchers concluded in Preventive Medicine.

DURING THE MIDDLE AGES, GARLIC WAS HUNG ON DOORS AT NIGHT TO REPEL EVIL SPIRITS.

And in a German study, 142 people took garlic powder tablets daily. After four years, they had 5 to 18 percent less plaque in their arteries. “Not only a preventive but possibly also a curative role in atherosclerosis therapy may be ascribed to garlic,” wrote the researchers in the medical journal Atherosclerosis.

Elephant Garlic: A Big Mistake

If you come across elephant garlic at the market, there’s no reason to think you’ve stumbled upon something special. You haven’t, if garlic is what you’re looking for. Elephant garlic onlylooks like garlic—huge garlic, weighing up to a pound. But it doesn’t have anything like the flavor of garlic, and cooks consider it inferior. In fact, elephant garlic is botanically related to a leek and should be used like a leek: braised or baked like a vegetable or sliced into a salad.

More flexible arteries. The lining of the artery is called the endothelium, and it generates a compound (nitric oxide) that relaxes and widens the blood vessel. Researchers in New Zealand gave 15 men with heart disease either a garlic supplement or a placebo. After two weeks, the “endothelium-dependent dilation” of the arteries of those taking garlic had increased by 44 percent. And those men were alreadytaking aspirin and a statin.

Lower risk of heart attack. Russian researchers gave either a garlic supplement or a placebo to 51 people with heart disease. A year later, they calculated the supplement had reduced the risk of a heart attack by an average of 40 percent.

Colon Cancer Is No Match for Garlic

There are more than 600 scientific studies—in cells, on animals, and in people—on the power of garlic to prevent and treat cancer. Some highlights:

Preventing colon cancer. In a meta-analysis of 18 studies by researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, people with the highest consumption of garlic had a 41 percent lower risk of colon cancer, compared to those with the lowest intake.

Stopping the advance of early colon cancer. Japanese researchers studied 51 people with colorectal adenomas—pre-cancerous lesions of the colon. They divided them into two groups, giving one group aged garlic extract and one group placebos. After one year, those on the placebo had more adenomas, and garlic had “significantly suppressed both the size and number of colon adenomas,” wrote the researchers in the Journal of Nutrition.

Preventing stomach cancer. Researchers in China studied more than 5,000 people, giving half a high-dose garlic supplement and half a placebo. After five years, those taking garlic had a 47 percent lower rate of stomach cancer.

Preventing endometrial cancer. Researchers in Italy analyzed diet and health data from 454 women with endometrial cancer and 908 free of the disease—and found that those who ate the most garlic were 38 percent less likely to develop endometrial cancer than those who ate the least.

Preventing other cancers. Other studies show a link between increased intake of garlic and decreased risk for lung cancer (22 percent less), prostate cancer (36 percent less), and brain cancer (34 percent less).

How does garlic work to block cancer? Doctors from the International Agency for Research on Cancer say garlic can help:

• stop carcinogens from damaging DNA.

• boost the activity of enzymes that detoxify carcinogens.

• clean up free radicals—cell-damaging, cancer-causing molecules.

Fighting Infection

Garlic has a storied history as an infection-fighter. Louis Pasteur discovered its antibacterial activity. It was on the frontlines in World War I, helping prevent gangrene and blood poisoning. The Russians relied on it so heavily during World War II that it was dubbed “Russian penicillin.” And several recent studies confirm its power to fight bacteria and viruses.

Preventing airborne infection. Finnish researchers studied 52 airplane travelers, giving half a garlic-containing nasal spray (Nasaleze Travel) and half a placebo. Those taking the placebo had nearly three times more infections after traveling.

Preventing colds. Researchers in England studied 146 people from November to February, giving half a garlic supplement and half a placebo. In total, those taking the placebo had 65 colds, compared to 24 for those taking garlic.

And Russian researchers studied 600 children, aged 7 to 16, giving some a garlic supplement and some a placebo. Those taking the placebo had four times as many colds.

I recommend a clove of garlic a day to help reduce your risk of cold or flu—and for general good health.

Garlic Galore

There are many other possible benefits to a garlic-rich life:

Diabetes. Researchers in Russia studied 60 people with type 2 diabetes, dividing them into two groups—one received garlic supplements with timed-release garlic powder and the other a placebo. After one month, those taking garlic had a healthy drop in fasting blood sugar, from 138 mg/dL to 113 mg/dL.

There are white, pink, and purple varieties of garlic that come as hardneck (with a long thin stem) or softneck (no stem).

Prostate problems. Researchers in Italy studied more than 1,800 men and found that those who ate the most garlic were 28 percent less likely to develop benign prostatic hypertrophy—the enlarged prostate that causes urinary difficulties in older men.

Aging skin. German researchers found that taking garlic powder boosted blood flow to the skin—a must for a youthful, glowing complexion.

Oral candidiasis. Researchers in India found that garlic paste was just as effective as a conventional drug in clearing up oral candidiasis (thrush), a yeast infection of the mucous membranes of the mouth.

Sickle cell anemia. Researchers at the UCLA School of Medicine found that four weeks of supplementation with garlic extract decreased by 30 percent the number of damaged red blood cells that are characteristic of this disease.

Alopecia areata. In this disease of patchy hair loss, adding garlic gel to the standard treatment regimen improved results.

Getting to Know Garlic

As medicine and food, garlic goes way back. It was featured in ancient medical textbooks from Egypt, India, China, Greece, and Rome. The ancient Egyptians fed it to the slaves who built the pyramids, and it was part of the diet of Olympic athletes in ancient Greece. During the Middle Ages, people put it on their door at night to repel evil spirits.

Today, garlic flavors virtually every cuisine in the world—and it’s the signature spice in the cuisines of Mexico, India, Asia, Greece, and Italy.

Garlic is synonymous with Italian cuisine and goes in just about every savory dish. Well-known Italian-based garlic sauces include pesto, which also features basil and olive oil, and gremolata, which also contains parsley, and is traditionally served with the famous slow-cooked veal shank called osso bucco.

Garlic may help prevent and/or treat:

Aging

Alopecia areata (generalized hair loss)

Benign prostatic

hypertrophy

Blood clots

Cancer

Cholesterol problems (high total cholesterol)

Colds

Diabetes, type 2

Flu

Heart disease

High blood pressure (hypertension)

Sickle cell disease

Stroke

Thrush (oral candida infection)

Triglycerides, high

Wrinkles and aging skin

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Garlic pairs well with virtually all spices, but particularly well with:

Ajowan

Basil

Caraway

Chile

Coriander

Cumin

Curry leaf

Kokam

Marjoram

Mint

Mustard seed

Oregano

Parsley

Rosemary

Sun-dried tomato

Thyme

and complements virtually all savory dishes, especially:

Marinades

Lamb

Soups

Spice blends

Stir-fries

The French aren’t known for garlicky food, but they have three famous garlic sauces: Aioli is a garlic mayonnaise used in enrich fish soups and flavor vegetables; pistou is the French version of pesto and goes in a vegetable soup by the same name; and rouille is a garlic, red pepper, and saffron-based mayonnaise that is stirred into bouillabaisse, bourrides, and other fish stews and soups. Persillade is a French-inspired garlic sauce used in Louisiana cooking.

The Greeks enjoy skordalia, a garlic sauce made from almonds, olive oil, and soaked bread that is served with salt cod or as a dip. In Serbia, people consume garlic as a snack with slivovitz, a strong plum brandy.

Garlic is also a key ingredient in the popular Middle Eastern side dish hummus, which also includes chickpeas, olive oil, and pine nuts. It is also an ingredient in Tunisia’s infamous fiery condiment harissa, and in the Moroccan meat marinade chermoula. Cacik is a Turkish garlic sauce based on yogurt and olive oil, and served as a side dish.

Thai cuisine is loaded with garlic—virtually no savory dish is made without it.

How to Buy Garlic

The taste of fresh garlic ranges from mild and sweet to strong and pungent, depending on the type of garlic and where it was cultivated. There are white, pink, and purple varieties that come as hardneck (with a long thin stem) or softneck (no stem). Hardneck is the most pungent.

Ninety percent of the garlic sold in the United States is softneck white, and comes from California. Its taste is strong and pungent. All garlic, however, mellows when cooked, turning mild to slightly sweet.

According to top chefs, the best garlic comes from France, with a taste and aroma very different from California garlic. If you come across French garlic, it’s well worth trying. You can recognize it by its pink-tinged skin. Other varieties of note include Prussian white and Spanish red (roja).

For the best flavor, buy fresh bulbs. They vary in size, containing anywhere from a few cloves to two dozen. When it comes to taste, however, size doesn’t matter—taste is determined by the freshness of the bulb. For maximum freshness, look for bulbs that are plump, dry, and don’t have broken skin. Buying bulbs with large cloves makes working with them in the kitchen easier.

You can also purchase fresh garlic in a jar preserved in liquid, crushed, sliced, minced, chopped, or in a tube.

Other recipes containing garlic:

Adobo

All-American Chili con Carne

Basic Barbecue Rub

Berbere

Boeuf Bourguignon

By-the-Bay Fisherman’s Chowder

Caribbean Curry Paste

Chicken Oreganata

Chimichurri Sauce

French Onion Soup

Garbanzo Beans with Mushrooms and Toasted Almonds

Green Pumpkin Seed Sauce

Grilled Lamb Patty Pockets with Cucumber Mint Sauce

Grilled Pork Chile Adobo

Hungarian Goulash

Jamaican Jerk Marinade

Madras Beef Curry

Madras Curry Paste

Malaysian Curry Paste

Mediterranean Vinaigrette

Mussels with Thai Red Curry Sauce

Onion and Tomato Chutney

Penne and Sausage with Fennel Tomato Sauce

Pizza Spice Blend

Pomegranate Guacamole

Potato Cauliflower Curry

Prawns with Almond Hot Pepper Sauce

Shellfish in Saffron Broth

Sol Kadhi

Spaghettini with Basil-Tomato Sauce

Spicy Hash Brown Potatoes

Tabil

Tamarind Sauce

Thai Red Curry Paste

Yucatan Pickled Red Onions

Dried garlic comes powdered, granulated, flaked, ground, minced, or chopped. You can also find garlic salt and garlic juice.

You can find just about any type of garlic in most supermarkets.

Store fresh garlic uncovered, in a cool place away from heat and direct sunlight. It shouldn’t be refrigerated; it will sprout. You can also freeze fresh garlic, although that alters the taste and texture somewhat.

Untouched, fresh bulbs keep for about two weeks. Once you break open a bulb, you reduce its shelf life to about a week. Once it starts to sprout, throw it out, because sprouted garlic turns bitter when cooked.

Before they sprout, garlic cloves start to turn green. Always cut away any green (or any discoloration) on the cloves. For the best flavor, use only white flesh.

Store dried garlic, garlic powder, and garlic salt in an airtight container in a dark, cool place. Dried garlic should keep for about a year, and garlic salt will keep for several years. But when powder or salt start to clump, they’ve absorbed moisture; throw them away.

If you don’t get garlic regularly in your diet, consider taking garlic supplements, especially if you have one or more risk factors for heart disease, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, overweight, diabetes, or you’re over 65. The most-studied form is aged garlic extract. Follow the dosage recommendations on the label, or your doctor’s recommendation.

In the Kitchen with Garlic

Garlic is extremely versatile and goes with just about anything savory. It can be used raw, where you’ll experience its strong, lingering flavor. Garlic has little smell when whole, but it releases its notoriously strong aroma when crushed. When cooked, the aroma and flavor mellows, becoming slightly sweet.

To work with garlic, pull the cloves from the head. Unless you are preparing a dish in which the cloves are intended to be eaten whole, you need to remove the papery skin. This is an arduous task only if you try to peel it with a paring knife, as you would an apple or onion. Instead, do it as chefs do: set a clove flat on a cutting board and set the flat side of a chef’s knife on top, with the blade point away from you. Grip the handle securely with one hand and give the knife a good thump with the base of the palm of your other hand. The paper-like sheaths will come undone. Just pull them off and throw them away. Snip off any parts of the clove that are discolored or green, as they make garlic bitter. (Don’t use a wooden cutting board when working with garlic, as the oil will get in the wood and leave a lingering aroma.)

Roasted Garlic: Spice Heaven

If you can’t imagine eating an entire garlic bulb in one sitting, then you haven’t tasted roasted garlic—the ultimate proof that garlic can be mellow and sweet. Garlic lovers rave about roasted garlic and can’t get enough of it. They pop it clove by clove right from its skin into the mouth. Sometimes they smear it on bread. (A great idea for your next dinner party: serve roasted garlic with crusty bread as an appetizer, and let everyone join the flavorful fun.)

Making roasted garlic is simple. Keep the bulb intact, but remove the loose paper skins. Line one or more bulbs up on tinfoil large enough to completely enfold them. Sprinkle them with olive oil, fold tightly, and roast them on a cookie sheet in a 424°F oven for 30 minutes.

To dice, cut the cloves into thin slices, then into thin slivers.

Be careful when browning garlic—burning makes it bitter. When a recipe calls for browning onions or other vegetables and garlic, it’s best to start the onions first, then add the garlic when the other ingredients are already softened. Cook for just one minute.

Roast Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic

This is a classic French dish that is special enough to serve at a dinner party. Encourage your guests to eat the garlic; it’s the most interesting part of the meal. Serve with a big green salad and crusty French bread. You can substitute chicken pieces for the whole chicken, but brown the chicken pieces before putting in the oven.

1 whole chicken, about 3 pounds

1 teaspoon dried rosemary

1 teaspoon dried sage

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon dried parsley

1 teaspoon ground roasted fennel seed

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 lemon, quartered

2–3 heads of garlic with large plump cloves (about 40)

1½ cups chicken stock

1 cup white wine

1. Rinse and dry the chicken. Combine the rosemary, sage, thyme, parsley, fennel, salt, and ground pepper in a small bowl and add the oil. Rub the spice mixture into the flesh of the chicken. Place the lemon quarters in the cavity. Truss the chicken, if desired, and place in a casserole dish. Cover and refrigerate for four hours.

2. Remove the chicken from the refrigerator and bring to room temperature. Remove and separate the cloves of garlic but do not remove the skins. Scatter the cloves around the chicken. Combine the stock and wine and pour around the chicken. Place in a 425°F oven, covered, for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 375°F, uncover, and cook, basting occasionally, for 40 minutes or until an instant-read thermometer registers 175°F. Let the chicken sit for 30 minutes to let the juices settle before slicing. Serve with several bulbs of garlic on each plate.

Makes 4 servings.

Here are a few of the innumerable ways to add more garlic to your diet:

• To make garlic bread, blanch unpeeled garlic cloves in water for five minutes to soften them. Cool and remove the paper skins. Slice a loaf of crusty Italian bread lengthwise, brush the bread with olive oil, spread the cloves over top, sprinkle with dried rosemary and thyme, and bake on a cookie sheet in a 400°F oven for 10 minutes.

• Make tiny little pockets in red meat roasts with the tip of a chef’s knife. Slice a few garlic cloves and stuff a sliver in each “pocket.”

• Slice or press fresh garlic into extra-virgin olive oil to use in a marinade, salad dressing, or as a dipping sauce.

• Blanch garlic cloves as above for garlic bread and mash them into potatoes to make garlic mashed potatoes.

• Try this specialty from Trinidad: slice an eggplant into thick slices, stud the slices with garlic cloves, sprinkle with ground coriander and ground ginger, and grill until tender.

• Add a little extra spice to your salads by rubbing the bottom and sides of the salad bowl with garlic before adding the greens and dressing.