It is delicious, healthy, and can ward off werewolves and vampires. What more do you need to know? Find out in two minutes with this video about garlic's effects from the American Chemical Society.
Although it does not discuss that garlic is one of the high potassium foods with a potassium sodium ratio of 34, it does discuss other facts about garlic, such as why you get garlic breath. Most compounds with sulfur have a bad smell. For example, hydrogen sulfide is what gives rotten eggs their bad smell. Some of the sulfur containing compounds in garlic change to bad smelling compounds when the garlic clove is chopped. One of these bad smelling compounds is broken down in the body at a much slower rate than the rest, diallyl disulfide. It is excreted in bodily fluids such as sweat and the water vapor in our breath.
But the video also tells you how to combat garlic breath. Drink some milk or eat some parsley at the same time as eating garlic. The video doesn't mention that the milk should be mixed in the mouth with the garlic containing dish. It does not work as well when drunk afterward. The parsley only works for a short time. So another alternative is to take a sauna to sweat out the compounds.
The video mentions that garlic is good for your health, but then goes into how some of the compounds in garlic can kill bacteria. This is not the basis for the favorable health effects. Garlic had been used before the modern era of antibiotics to try to prevent gangrenous infections and as a disinfectant, but there are better alternatives today.
There have been many clinical trials with garlic's effects in medical conditions. It has been found to reduce the formation of cholesterol plaques in arteries, to improve blood lipid profiles (reducing cholesterol and triglycerides), to lower homocysteine levels, and to reduce blood pressure in treated but uncontrolled hypertension.
The sulfur containing compounds may have something to do with these effects, but many of the same effects are associated with an improved dietary potassium sodium ratio also. It is difficult to separate the effects of the sulfur compounds from the effects of the improved ratio.
What about werewolves and vampires? We are unaware of any controlled studies, so you will have to research this on your own.
To go to Youtube to watch the video, click here.
Tables Of Spices And Other Foods
To find a table with the potassium and sodium content of garlic and other spices, click here. To find a list of posts containing tables of other foods and their potassium and sodium content, click here.
