Garlic is a powerful spice, both in taste and in the health benefits it can confer. The nutritional benefits come not only from the traditionally measured vitamins and minerals, but also from a variety of other compounds called phytochemicals that scientists have only recently begun to study. Typically used as an ingredient to flavor other dishes, garlic can also be consumed on its own as a way to improve health or taken as a supplement in pill or liquid extract form.
Basic Nutrition
A single clove of garlic, one serving, weighs approximately 3 g and contains about three calories. There is 1 g of carbohydrate and 3 mg of sodium in a single clove. Garlic contains no fat, no cholesterol and no protein. Garlic contains small amounts of the nutrients calcium, manganese, choline, folate, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and vitamins C, A and K in each clove.
Sulfates
Garlic is one of the few foods containing sulfur compounds which give garlic its characteristic strong scent while also providing beneficial activity within the body. Garlic has three different groups of sulfur-containing compounds: thiosulfinates, sulfoxides and dithiins. Specific compounds within these groups include allicin, alliin, allixin,S-allylcysteine, ajoene, 1,2-vinyldithiin and thiacremonone. Some major activities of these compounds include helping maintain blood pressure, lowering cholesterol, preventing cancer and preventing blood clots.
Phytochemicals
While many of the studies into the nutritional components of garlic have focused on the activity of its sulfur-containing compounds, there are other phytochemicals that confer health benefits as well. Quercetin, luteolin and kaempferol are flavonoids in garlic that provide anti-inflammatory activity and act as antioxidants to scavenge and neutralize free radicals in the body that could contribute to cancer if left unchecked.
Health Benefits
Garlic consumption has an overall cardioprotective effect on the body, according to World's Healthiest Foods. The spice also may contribute to weight loss by regulating the formation of fat cells in the body. Garlic has strong antibacterial and antiviral activity that can help prevent or shorten the duration of infections. Garlic is also anti-inflammatory, which might confer protection against diseases such as arthritis and asthma.
Considerations
Processed garlic extract loses some of its potency, but whole, cut or crushed garlic retains the compounds that benefit health for up to 2-1/2 days. When garlic is eaten with foods high in iron and zinc, it can help boost the bioavailability of those minerals, explains an article in the July 2010 issue of the "Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry." This is especially important when eating plant sources of iron and zinc, since the body tends to have more difficulty extracting these minerals from vegetarian sources than from meat products.The beneficial properties of garlic work even better if the garlic is allowed to sit for a few minutes after chopping or crushing it and before cooking or adding it to other ingredients that might change its pH, explains World's Healthiest Foods.
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