Garlic For Health

It's long been known you should eat garlic for health. Its virtues were expounded by the father of medicine himself, Hippocrates, and Greek athletes would feast on garlic before competing in the first Olympic Games. But, although the folk lore surrounding this famous bulb goes back further than even Ancient Greece, the health benfits of garlic have never been fully explained.

Now the mystery might be about to be unraveled. Researchers at the National Academy of Sciences have shown eating garlic appears to boost the bodies natural supply of hydrogen sulfide.

I recall that hydrogen sulfide -- which smells of rotten eggs -- was something we terrible teenagers made in the chemistry lab at school, to let off "stink bombs" in class, in the hope of being let out early. I regret to report the teacher not only kept us in the class longer than normal, he also refused to allow the windows to be opened!

But, just to say all the health benfits of garlic can be attributed to one chemical, however odorous, is probably a simplification.

As with all food, trying to isolate what provides its therapeutic effects is a daunting task. This is particularly so in the case of garlic, which can safely be described as pleiotropic. That's because it appears to act in more ways than one to benefit the body.

The reason why you should eat garlic for health springs from about 200 different chemical compounds, including, vitamins A and C as well as potassium (valuable in controlling high blood pressure), phosphorus and selenium (a mineral vital for the immune system) as well as about 32 different sulfur compounds in addition to the hydrogen sulfide.

As you can imagine, the ingredients that give garlic its characteristic smell are all members of the sulfur family.

But, whatever the intricacies of its chemical makeup, garlic perfectly encapsulates the huge advantage of "letting medicine be thy food": it gives a unique and vibrant flavor to your food whilst you eat garlic for health.