Garlic! (My favorite food!)

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Chet Day'sHealth & Beyond Weekly No. 246January 21, 2004People you care about can take charge of their health byliving naturally and eating sensibly. Help them learn howto do it by forwarding them a copy of today's H & B Weekly.To get a free subscription to this newsletter,mailto:hbweekly-subscribe@...

G is for GarlicBy Dr. Ralph Mossfrom CancerDecisions.com Newsletterhttp://cancerdecisions.comIn the palmy days before World War I, my mother would leaveBudapest with her family to visit relatives in themountains of Romania. Her grandfather would place her onhis knee and impart these words of patriarchal advice: "Eatgarlic." My great grandfather's farm was near Kolosvar (nowCluj) in Transylvania. Of course this was the stompingground of the tyrant Vlad the Impaler, the real-life modelfor Dracula. Nowadays, the Romanians run Vampire Tours forbored American tourists, but in those days the existence ofvampires was a serious matter. And so, my ancestor's adviceprobably had less to do with the health effects of garlicthan with its known ability to ward off the unwantedattention of the Undead.Flash forward to the 21st century. This month, the numberof medical publications on garlic topped 1,500, over 250 ofwhich are related to cancer. Garlic and its cousins(onions, chives, scallions and leeks) are probably the mostintriguing of all vegetables. Garlic lowers cholesterol,reduces the risk of heart disease, fights infection andboosts immunity. And, as if that weren't enough, the datais strong for the prevention of cancers of the digestivesystem, including the esophagus, stomach, colon and rectum.The NCI is sponsoring a huge clinical trial on garlic'sability to prevent stomach cancer. But why wait years forthe results of this clinical trial? You can't go wrong ifyou follow my progenitor's advice and eat garlic, alongwith other foods of the allium family.Nanjing StudyParts of China have the misfortune to be among those placeswith an inordinately high rate of cancer of the stomach andesophagus. Scientists at the Nanjing Cancer Institutecompared the incidence of several cancers among thousandsof those who ate lots of allium vegetables versus thousandswho ate little or none. ("Lots" in this case means at leastonce per week while "little" means less than once permonth.) Here is how allium vegetables prevented cancer of theesophagus:85 percent reduction for those who ate lots of scallions 75 percent for onions 70 percent for garlic 43 percent for chives The figures for stomach cancer prevention are equallyimpressive:83 percent reduction for those who ate lots of onions 78 percent for scallions 69 percent for garlic 60 percent for chivesAs you can see, scallions and onions may be even morepowerful than garlic in preventing some cancers. It is agood idea to incorporate all of these foods into yourweekly, or even daily, diet. I keep them all handy --scallions with ginger and garlic on a piece of broiledfish, sweet, red or Vidalia onions chopped up for a tuna ormesclun salad, chives for a scoop of cottage cheese thereare numerous possibilities. If you do cook thesevegetables, do so with a light touch. Always put garlic inlast when you are cooking and let it get just soft enoughto eat, never mushy. Antibacterial EffectsIt was Louis Pasteur who first described the antibacterialeffect of onion and garlic juices. In World War II garlicwas called "Russian penicillin" because it was the mainantibiotic available on the Eastern Front. It kills bothgram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. Garlic iseffective even against antibiotic-resistant strains. Iteven kills Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori), a kind ofbacteria that is implicated in the cause of some stomachcancers and ulcers. Many people avoid eating garlic since it can make one'sbreath smell pretty bad. In that case, garlic supplementsare a convenient alternative. Such products were originallydeveloped for the Japanese market, because the Japaneseregard garlic breath as a major faux pas. Later, however,it was found that aged garlic has unusual health qualitiesof its own. While Larry King is busy promoting garlicsupplements, I think the main focus should remain on alliumvegetables as foods. Now that spring is upon us, think about growing your own.Chives are easy to grow in a small herbal garden. Onionscan be raised from seed under a couple of Gro-Lites. Garliccloves should be put in the ground in the fall for harvestthe following summer. Garlic is a safe food and has been eaten with gusto formillennia. However, I once ate several raw cloves of garlicat a sitting and wound up with sharp pains in my stomach,so there is a limit. But by and large these are safe foods.You will do yourself a favor by making them part of yourdiet. Plus, there is the added benefit that if Vlad happensto drops by, you'll be prepared. Note from Chet: Be sure to sign up for Dr. Moss's excellentnewsletter at http://cancerdecisions.com/subscr.html