Garlic does a lot more than make your breath smell like sulfur: It's a widely-acknowledged source of many health benefits. Still, raw garlic's pungency can be off-putting in both flavor and odor. Roasted garlic has a markedly different, milder and sweeter flavor. Unfortunately, roasting garlic can also seriously impact its medicinal value.
Garlic As Medicine
People have used garlic in medicine for millennia. It appears in records from ancient Egypt, Babylon, India and China as much as 5,000 years ago. Hippocrates used it as a laxative, and Mohammed created garlic salve to soothe scorpion stings.
In modern times, garlic is still considered a potent medicinal herb, and people use it for both its flavor and its apparent health benefits. Research is still inconclusive, but it's believed that garlic may effectively treat a variety of conditions.
Current Research
According to the National Institutes of Health, garlic is possibly effective at lowering blood pressure, by as much as 7 to 8 percent. It appears to reduce atherosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries. Eating fresh garlic seems to reduce cancer in the colon, rectum and stomach -- though garlic supplements don't have the same effect. High doses of garlic seem to repel tick bites, while a garlic-based gel can fight fungal infections of the skin.
The University of Maryland Medical Center reports that garlic helps prevent and treat the common cold, and may lower cholesterol and slow the growth of heart disease. It may also fight roundworm and ease combat fatigue, though more research is needed.
Allicin and Roasting
While garlic's medicinal benefits are impressive, they become less so when garlic is roasted. This is due to the structure of a garlic cell: When garlic is chopped, crushed or bruised, it produces a chemical called allicin which is likely the source of many of its health benefits. When garlic is cooked, the allicin breaks down and is converted by enzymes into another type of sulfurous compound. It is believed that roasting garlic reduces not only its pungent flavor, but its medicinal value.
Recommendation
To get the most health benefit from garlic, it's best to avoid roasting it, particularly for long periods or at high temperatures. This may be difficult for those with an aversion to garlic's flavor and odor. Nonetheless, garlic is at its strongest when freshly crushed or even eaten raw.
If you truly do not enjoy the taste of raw garlic but want to enjoy its benefits, try using freeze-dried garlic tablets or taking garlic extract or tincture. Be sure that your supplement contains around 1 percent allicin or alliin.
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