Hippocrates, the father of Western medicine, prescribed it regularly, and it was given to the first Olympic athletes in Ancient Greece to enhance performance.
Garlic has more powers that you know.
Modern
research confirms what ancient healers and herbalists intuitively knew:
that garlic is a potent weapon in the battle against disease. A 1999
study by S. Ankri and D. Mirelman shows that a compound within garlic
called allicin is responsible for garlic's antimicrobial, antiviral, and
antiparasitic activity. It's also been shown to combat drug-resistant
strains of E. coli and could potentially battle some superbugs that are
resistant to antibiotics.
So
when you're cooking at home, you want to be sure to rupture those cell
walls in those garlic cloves using your preferred method. But don't just
toss that minced allium sativum into your pot or pan. Turns out heat
neutralizes the health-giving benefits of allicin.
A
2001 study by K. Song and J.A. Milner showed that heating, microwaving,
or boiling crushed garlic destroyed all the alliinase enzyme activity
within it. However, most dishes call for cooked garlic rather than raw.
In
order to preserve some of allicin;s healing properties, many scientists
suggest chopping or dicing your garlic, then letting it stand for ten
minutes to let the alliinase do its work and form as much allicin as
possible before it's neutralized by heat.
So
the next time you're cooking, be sure to mince your garlic first thing,
then let it stand. By the time you're done getting the rest of your
ingredients ready, those crushed cloves will have a lot of allicin
moving around in their cells.
source: organichealth