picasso’s blog

GARLIC FOR HEALTH

Garlic contains a chemical called
Allicin, which has already proved to have numerous health benefits. A team
of Israeli scientists recently used this chemical to successfully kill
cancer cells as well as malignant tumors in mice. Allicin is not present
in an unbroken clove of garlic. It only gets released when the clove is
crushed, so when using garlic in cooking, make sure you crush it and use
it. Don’t add the entire unbroken clove in your food, as though this will
give you the flavour of garlic, it will not provide you with the benefits
of its anti-carcinogenic properties. The clove needs to be damaged, so it
is more effective crushed than cut. When crushed garlic is added to a
dish, any parasites, bacteria or other microbes get killed even before the
temperature kills them, so if you are worried about eating outside food -
the safest option would be to order food with a strong garlic flavour.
Chances of food poisoning would be slim! Garlic, as we all know or should
be knowing, is a natural antiseptic, and eating a clove of garlic a day
also helps ward off most infections.

Italians and Chinese eat plenty of
garlic in their food, and have very low incidences of cancer. Pizzas and
pastas, Italian dishes rich in maida and cheese, have liberal dozes of
garlic, with the result that Italians seem relatively immune to other
problems associated with such a diet such as high cholesterol and heart
ailments. Similarly, Chinese food is rich in garlic, and the Chinese too
are statistically less prone to cancer and heart ailments.

How should you eat
the clove?

Needless to say, crushing a clove of
garlic and eating it raw would not be the most pleasant of experiences.
Garlic has a very strong flavour, and it needs to be mixed with other
foods in order to be enjoyed. The best way to eat garlic would be to add
it in food while cooking it. Allicin gets distributed throughout the meal,
providing you with the benefits of its anti-carcinogenic and antiseptic
properties.

Make sure you peel the garlic before
cooking it. Cooking garlic in its peel destroys its curative properties.
Similarly, peeling the garlic days before and crushing and storing all the
crushed garlic together to be used a little at a time may be very
convenient as a time saver, but you lose many of garlic’s potent health
properties. The natural compound of Allicin as found in garlic loses its
beneficial properties within hours because it begins to react with
garlic’s other components as soon as the clove is crushed.

Peel the garlic
and let it sit for fifteen minutes before cooking. Just before cooking,
crush it. Consume soon after.