Baby Boomer Health – Garlic

Welcome to this weeks edition of Baby Boomer Health – Garlic

Show Notes:

For years some people have felt that garlic is really good for you.  A recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences may have confirmed that.  Garlic seems to boost our natural supply of hydrogen sulfide.  Hydrogen sulfide is that rotten eggs smelling gas we smell near oil refineries.  In large amounts it is poisonous.  But our bodies produce its own supply.

Hydrogen sulfide in our bodies works as an antioxidant and transmits cellular signals to relax blood vessels and increase blood flow.  Maybe this is how a garlic rich diet seems to protect against breast, prostate and colon cancer.

So how much garlic do you need to eat every day to get this protection?  The equivalent of two medium-sized cloves per day.  In Italy, Korea and China – their diets are high in garlic – equivalent to 8 – 12 cloves a day.

You can eat 5 or more cloves a day if  you use garlic every time you cook.  Be sure to crush the garlic at room temperature and then let it set for 15 minutes before you cook it.  This triggers the process to increase the protection in garlic.