Garlic has a bactericidal and anti-inflammatory effect and is good for preventing certain diseases. Because garlic can prevent and treat a variety of diseases, it is a healthy food. Scientists believe that it is appropriate to eat one petals of raw garlic per day (about 5 grams). If you eat two or three petals of cooked garlic, it is enough. You can’t eat too much. Eating too much is not good for your health.
Efficacy and function of garlic
Antibacterial and anti-inflammatory, anti-tumor
Raw garlic contains a lot of allicin, which can inhibit pathogenic microorganisms such as Shigella, Salmonella typhi, Staphylococcus, and pneumococcus. Eating raw garlic can kill germs and parasites in the body, and is beneficial to relieve acute bacillary dysentery, lobar pneumonia, wound infection and suppuration. Raw garlic is also rich in sulfur-containing compounds, which can not only inhibit the synthesis of carcinogenic nitrosamines in the body, but also directly kill tumor cells.
It is good to eat a few pieces of raw garlic a day. It depends on your physical condition. It is recommended that healthy adults eat about 2 cloves raw and 4 cloves cooked every day, 2-3 times a week. Garlic itself is a spicy and stimulating food, which contains carbohydrates, dietary fiber, vitamins, and various nutrients such as sodium, magnesium, phosphorus, and potassium, and also contains phytochemicals such as allicin. Due to the limited consumption, it is not the main source of nutrients. Under normal circumstances, proper eating by healthy people has certain benefits in improving food flavor, increasing appetite, inhibiting intestinal pathogenic bacteria, anti-cancer, preventing arteriosclerosis, protecting the liver, reducing blood viscosity, and inhibiting platelet aggregation.
But not all people can eat raw garlic. If you are allergic to garlic, you should avoid eating it raw or cooked, so as not to induce or aggravate allergies, cause rashes, fever, laryngeal edema, dyspnea, and even anaphylactic shock and other serious symptoms.
In addition, raw garlic is a highly irritating food, so some special groups should pay attention to eating it carefully, so as not to cause discomfort or aggravate the condition, specifically the following groups of people:
- Children, the elderly, and pregnant women should eat with caution;
- Those who suffer from non-bacterial enteritis, gastritis and other gastrointestinal diseases, as well as abdominal pain, diarrhea and other discomforts, eating a large amount of raw garlic will stimulate intestinal congestion and edema, resulting in accelerated gastrointestinal motility and aggravating the condition;
- For some liver diseases such as hepatitis, garlic cannot kill the hepatitis virus. On the contrary, some components of raw garlic can also stimulate the stomach and intestines, which can inhibit the secretion of intestinal digestive juices, affect food digestion, and aggravate the nausea of ​​patients with hepatitis , vomiting and other discomfort;
- Patients with eye diseases such as glaucoma, cataract, and stye should avoid spicy food during treatment. Raw garlic is pungent, which is not conducive to treatment;
- Others: It is not recommended to eat raw garlic for people with yin deficiency and hyperactivity of fire, oral diseases, etc.
In addition, it is also necessary to avoid excessive consumption of raw garlic. Long-term or excessive consumption can easily kill probiotics in the intestines, cause diarrhea, stomach pain and other discomforts, and easily damage the hemoglobin in red blood cells, which can easily induce gastritis, anemia and other diseases.
