Garlic is a popular and key ingredient to a lot of dishes from all over the world. It has been used in almost every household kitchen for the last few hundred years and will be used for a thousand more. Closely related to onions, shallots, chives, leeks, Welsh and Chinese onion, garlic is a species of bulbous flowering plant in the Allium genus. Little did we know that garlic doesn’t only make your food taste amazing, it can also help with weight loss. Not a lot of people know that aside from enhancing a dish’s flavor, garlic has also properties that would help you lose weight effectively.
Garlic is usually consumed or added to dishes already cooked by sauteing, baking, or roasting. Because of this, raw garlic consumption is something people are hesitant about doing, often worried about their safety. Most dishes call for cooking garlic or using it in powdered form. By cooking it, the garlic’s natural aroma, texture, and taste become more subtle. This gives the dish it was incorporated in a milder, softer, and creamier hint of garlic. But people should know that garlic can be consumed raw. Despite its tendency to have a pungent smell and stronger taste, raw garlic is totally safe to consume. Raw garlic is great for pesto for your pasta, for sauces like aioli. It is also a great addition to your favorite salad dressing and dips. Furthermore, you’d be able to receive beneficial compounds from eating raw garlic and improve your overall health versus consuming cooked garlic.
So what is in raw garlic?
Packed with the sulfur-containing compound called allicin, garlic has many health benefits when consumed raw. When fresh garlic is chopped or crushed, the distinct taste and smell we all know are caused by allicin. A number of studies suggest that allicin may be able to protect you from cancer and other health conditions like heart disease. Allicin can also enhance your immune system functionality. It is encouraged to consume garlic in its raw form for when it is heated, boiled, roasted, or pickled, its allicin content might be significantly reduced. So in order for you to maximize the health benefits, you can get from garlic, consuming it raw is the way to go.
The efficiency of garlic in weight loss has been proven by several studies and to demonstrate the effectiveness of how consuming raw garlic hold some promise for weight loss and weight control, here are a few things you should know about:
- Boosts Your metabolism
Consuming garlic on a regular basis helps boost your metabolism. An enhanced metabolism helps your body burn more calories, and that will increase your energy levels. And by that, you lose more weight.
- Regulates Your Appetite
Controlling your hunger will definitely help you lose weight, and that’s where eating raw garlic comes in. Garlic is very well-known to have appetite-suppressing qualities. When you are less hungry, that also means you eat less food. And eating less food obviously helps you maintain your calorie intake.
- Burns Body Fat
Burning excess fat is honestly a hard feat to accomplish. If you are trying to lose weight, you definitely have to burn the excess fat your body doesn’t need. Consuming raw garlic regularly can help you burn fat as it has a significant effect on the said mechanism based on a study conducted by examining the effects of garlic on blood lipid profiles and obesity which resulted in a suggestion that garlic may have a potential benefit in preventing the said condition.
- Body Detox
Consuming raw garlic may help your body to detoxify, specifically by helping you get rid of toxins in your digestive system. A healthy digestive system helps you regulate your body weight by making it easier for you to lose weight.
- Boosts Liver Health
Although not as well-known a benefit as the examples above, consuming raw garlic is a great way to boost liver health. Your liver metabolizes fats, and studies have shown that people with fatty liver who add raw garlic to their diet had shown significant weight loss. To further your weight loss journey, consuming raw garlic is very helpful.
Adding raw garlic to your diet will not only give you a ton of health benefits, but it will also give your weight-loss journey a tasty kick. Some of the best ways to incorporate garlic in your cooking are:
- Adding minced garlic to your salad dressing.
- Adding minced garlic to your breakfast egg dishes( scramble or omelet)
- Adding minced garlic to your baked or sauteed veggies.
- Adding 2-3 cloves in your guacamole.
- Adding minced garlic on top of your buttered toast.
There are a lot of other ways to consume raw garlic, you can eat a few cloves on an empty stomach in the morning or have it mixed with warm water and drink it straight up. But we all know raw garlic doesn’t taste so good on its own. So here are a few raw garlic infusions you can try at home if you want to receive the boatload of health benefits you can get from eating raw garlic without sacrificing your taste buds:
- Garlic and Milk
Although it sounds off-putting at first, garlic and milk have several significant benefits for weight loss. You can make this concoction by crushing raw garlic and mixing it with water. Then, boil fresh milk for 10 minutes or so. Add the garlic mixture to the boiling milk( you can put turmeric powder and black pepper if you like). Let it boil for a few minutes, take it out of the heat, and drink it before it gets cold.
The milk in this concoction increases fecal excretion, thus helps you lose weight. And the piperine from the black pepper promotes the fat-burning process.
- Lemon, Ginger and Garlic Tea
Finely chop two cloves of garlic and add them to a small amount of crushed ginger. Add lemon juice to the mixture and mix thoroughly. Then add this mixture to a warm glass of water. You can add a teaspoon of honey if you want it a bit sweeter, then boil the mixture for a few minutes before drinking it. Consuming this tea regularly will help you lose weight. The lemon juice in the concoction helps burn body fats and the ginger not only contains fat-burning qualities but it can also reduce the risk of heart disease by managing blood pressure.
- Peeled Garlic Mixed With Honey
Peeled garlic is rich in phenylpropanoid antioxidants, this helps your body to detoxify and to boost fat burning. This means unpeeled garlic has even more health benefits than raw garlic. Making unpeeled garlic with honey is easy, just put cloves of garlic in a jar, pour honey into it, and mix them well. Leave the jar in a refrigerator overnight and you can consume the concoction the morning after on an empty stomach.
Consuming garlic raw is the best way to receive its health benefits. It will help you improve your immune system, digestive system, and most important of all, eating raw garlic helps you further in your weight loss journey.
Sources: https://www.verywellfit.com/can-garlic-help-you-lose-weight-4151104 https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/can-you-eat-raw-garlic#How-To-Peel:-Garlic https://www.healthcanal.com/life-style-fitness/raw-garlic-for-weight-loss https://m.timesofindia.com/life-style/health-fitness/weight-loss/how-to-use-garlic-lahsun-for-weight-loss/amp_articleshow/69229343.cms https://www.ndtv.com/food/weight-loss-how-to-use-raw-garlic-to-lose-weight-and-burn-belly-fat-1934885?amp=1&akamai-rum=off © 2016-2021 by DietFind.com, a LIVenture LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission of LIVentures LLC.
Author: Vence Barnes
A promoter of physical fitness and healthy lifestyle through my writing.