Surprising Health Benefits of Adding Garlic to Your Diet 

It's been known for centuries -- the lowly garlic bulb is packed with health benefits.

The ancient citizens of China knew about garlic's health properties and so did the settlers of colonial America. You see, garlic has been known to fight disease from the earliest times. Many different  cultures have known about garlic's ability to add to your health.

Garlic was fed to the slaves who built the Great Pyramid of Giza in 3000 BC. The ancient Hebrews also ate garlic. In fact, they missed it after they left Egypt. That's recorded in Numbers 11:5. “We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leaks and the onions, and the garlic."

Although avoided by the nobility, Roman soldiers ate garlic every day. Virgil, the famous poet, recommended that garlic would help restore reapers that were exposed to excessive heat.

So as you can see, garlic has been used to promote health throughout many centuries and in many cultures. Some have believed that garlic can fight the common cold as well as cancer. It is also believed by some researchers to help rheumatism and high blood pressure as well as tuberculosis.

Not only ancient cultures, but today's scientists believe that garlic can help your health.

Contemporary research is showing that garlic can fight cancer and bacterial as well as fungus infections. It appears that it can promote resistance to stomach cancer. Garlic contains substances that seem to block cancers in laboratory animals.

The name of the substance in garlic that fights cancer is allicin. This is the substance that gives garlic its unmistakable flavor.

Surprising as it may seem, garlic may be able to strengthen your immune system plus lower your cholesterol and protect your heart.

Professor of immunology and microbiology at Loma Linda University of Southern California, Dr. Benjamin Lau, has spent over 20 years researching plant chemicals.

He and his associates have published over two dozen scientific papers that discuss the health benefits of garlic. He found garlic can not only help immune function but lower cholesterol and fight cancer and other tumors as well.

There have been several other research groups as well that have reported garlic's ability to prevent cardiovascular disease.

If you are interested in adding garlic to your diet to help your health, you might consider taking it in several different forms. You don't have to eat it fresh. You could take garlic tablets instead. Whatever the form, garlic seems to be beneficial to your health

So in the light of the evidence stated above, it wouldn't hurt you one bit to include garlic in your daily diet. You might even become healthier.