Wellness: Here's why you need to make garlic your best friend

A good amount of garlic in your diet can prevent you from high blood pressure and boost your immunity
Wellness: Here's why you need to make garlic your best friend

Let food be thy medicine and medicine thy food.” These famous words are of Hippocrates, also known as the father of Western medicine. He often used to prescribe garlic for his patients to treat all possible ailments and now many researchers have proven the massive health benefits of our very own superfood — garlic. It’s used in a variety of cuisines worldwide and extensively used by us in India as well. Garlic contains Sulphur compounds called Allicin, which impart that strong pungent flavour and positive health effects on human beings. Garlic is a plant from the onion family, which has a big head called a bulb.  Each bulb contains around 12 to 15 cloves. It contains a good amount of manganese, Vitamin B6, Sulphur, Vitamin C, Selenium, Potassium and other trace minerals along with fibre which acts as a prebiotic for the growth of our healthy gut bacteria.

Including garlic in your routine keeps you away from infections, heart disease, stroke and cancer. Garlic boosts immunity and prevents us from flu, common cold, cough, various infections and illnesses. A good amount of garlic in your routine can also prevent you from having high blood pressure and reduces plaque
accumulation. Garlic helps to reduce high levels of total cholesterol and LDL ie; bad cholesterol. It also exhibits antioxidant properties that protect our body from oxidative stress and cellular damage; plus reduces the ageing process. Due to the presence of Allicin —  a sulphur compound — it also helps in the reduction of heavy metal toxicity in our bodies. It improves digestion and prevents worm infestation, colitis, etc. This compound enters your body through the digestive tract and reaches all other parts of the body, where they prevent potent biological effects.

Apply garlic paste on your hair or face for 30 minutes and wash it off. It contains Sulphur which improves hair structure and reduces hair loss; also reduces fungal infections on the scalp which results in dandruff. Its antioxidants kills bacteria from skin, prevents from pimples, acne, blemishes and redness. Its anti-inflammatory effects are beneficial for psoriasis. This suggests that garlic is not only good for consumption but also is best for skin and hair application.

The health benefits of garlic are vast, but these are a few of them. Having garlic in its raw form is always better to get maximum advantage. So get your garlic added into all your savoury preparations.

The writer is Chief Nutrition Officer, Luke Coutinho Holistic Healing Systems. She is a clinical nutritionist with a focus on healthy lifestyle choices.

Photo credit: Gaelle Marcelon Unsplash

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