Garlic has been used in traditional medicine around the world for thousands of years. The main health ingredient in garlic is allicin. It contains oxygen, sulphur, and other chemicals that give garlic antibacterial and disease-fighting properties.
It might not taste so great when it’s raw, but this smelly little herb can be used in just about everything in all forms. It also has remarkable benefits for our bodies, from the heart to the gut.
One of the latest health trends is to drink the juice extracted from garlic. Yes, it sounds mildly disgusting, but it’s one of the simplest and most natural ways to provide your whole body with an extensive range of beneficial nutrients.
Stay tuned to learn the 16 top health benefits of drinking garlic juice.
1. Detoxes the Body
A diet trend that has taken the world by storm in recent years is detoxing the body. Consuming raw garlic and water daily can actually rid your body of the toxins that you ingest through eating fatty foods, those that contain artificial sweeteners, those containing preservatives, and so on. When your body doesn’t have an excess of toxins weighing it down, you’re more well-equipped to combat everything from cancer to depression.
It may not taste the best, but getting some raw garlic in your body in the morning can help to get the detox process started. Mixing a cup of water with garlic juice extract will make a solution that should help you feel at your best throughout the day.
2. Keeps Blood Glucose Levels Normal
If your blood sugar is all over the place, garlic may be the answer. People with type 2 diabetes may see a benefit from incorporating garlic juice into their diet. There are over 400 chemicals in garlic that interact with your body to keep it firing on all cylinders. It boosts levels of insulin that naturally occur in the liver to help keep your sugar levels regulated.
3. Helps Patients with Tuberculosis
Garlic, as we briefly mentioned in this video introduction, contains an element called allicin. Allicin works to help prevent the replication of bacteria in the body. With tuberculosis being such a contagious bacterium, inhibiting the spread of the bacteria benefits not only those who have TB but those who don’t have it.
4. Helps Reduce Cough, Asthma, & Common Cold Symptoms
Drinking a shot of garlic juice a couple of times a day can help your pesky cough and cold symptoms go away. The phrase we’ve all heard of is “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”, but in this case, it’s most definitely garlic instead.
With cough, asthma, and colds, most of these processes are started up because of inflammation. When using raw garlic extract, which has excellent anti-inflammatory properties, you can soothe asthma symptoms and coughs.
While garlic isn’t recommended for the prevention of asthma in the absence of regular asthma medication, it’s still a great supplement to help the condition.
5. Help Reduce Cholesterol
Garlic has properties called phytosterols that help lower LDL cholesterol. It’s definitely not a replacement for cholesterol-lowering medicine, but it can help your body enhance the medication’s benefits to lower your cholesterol. This will help your heart to stay strong and healthy as well.
6. Eye Health
Garlic has antimicrobial properties that can help with your eye health. It’s rich in sulphur, which has been shown to prevent the formation of cataracts. As you get older, cataracts can become a danger, and sometimes you don’t even know you have them until it is too late.
The properties in garlic also prevent inflammation, which will help combat some diseases of the eyes, including those that occur with diabetes. If you have diabetes, you’ll know that eye health is very important, and just introducing garlic into your diet can help keep your eyes healthy.
7. Helps Reduce Urinary Tract Infections and Kidney Infections
Garlic has powerful antibacterial properties, and this can help it to stave off infections of the urinary tract and kidneys.
Kidneys are a significant waste removal system of the body, so helping to flush the body with some garlic while adding bacterial properties is always a great way to keep your health in good shape.
8. Helps Boost Your Sex Life
As we all probably know, a healthy bedroom routine is good for you. When you’re intimate with another person, your body releases a whole host of endorphins that boost mental and physical health. While it may seem a little odd, garlic is actually considered an aphrodisiac.
Fresh garlic extract in the form of a juice can help with circulation. Garlic contains allicin, which stimulates circulation to those important areas in both men and women.
9. Healthy Skin Benefits
We know by now that one of the main ingredients in garlic is allicin. Allicin is known for its anti-inflammatory properties. Anything that reduces inflammation is helpful when it comes to skin health.
A lot of people who have chronic psoriasis and other inflammatory conditions will use garlic to help with outbreaks and even prevention of outbreaks.
10. Helps Prevent Hair Loss
Garlic contains selenium, which, like allicin, is known to boost circulation. Proper circulation in the body can help hair follicles receive the nutrients they need to prevent hair loss.
Just drinking a daily shot of garlic juice can help you to keep a full head of hair for longer.
11. Boost Your Immunity
Garlic has antimicrobial, antibacterial, and antioxidant properties, all wrapped up in one herb that a handful of pills every day couldn’t provide you.
It may seem like it only matters when you have a cold or illness, but having a healthy immune system can help you to fight all manner of diseases, including cancer. By drinking a daily dose of garlic juice, you can better protect your own immunity and health and, at the same time, do a small part to cut down on the spread of common illnesses.
12. Weight Loss Benefits
Because garlic contains allicin, drinking garlic juice can help you shed your unwanted belly fat. Garlic has proven medical benefits for keeping your gut healthy. It plays a significant role in getting your body working at its best and helping you to keep the extra weight off.
Drinking garlic juice helps reduce inflammation, and garlic has natural detox properties that promote gut health. When you set out to lose weight, one of the first things people choose to do is a cleanse.
You can do a daily “cleanse” with garlic – no need to go on a full on juice or liquids-only diet for the same benefits.
13. Helps Fight Blood Clots
Blood clots can be incredibly dangerous, and put you at risk for a number of health complications. If you get a blood clot, your doctor will obviously walk you through pharmacological steps to reduce your risks of a second one, but knowing that you can also help your body naturally is comforting.
Garlic contains allicin, which can help fight the formation of new blood clots in the body. The US Government did a study on the effect of garlic’s role in fighting blood clots and recommend raw garlic in the diet.
It’s not a replacement for therapies already being used, just a way to supplement your body’s natural ability to fight inflammation.
14. Helps to Combat Cancer
Because of the allicin in garlic juice, and its other antioxidant properties that fight free radicals, garlic juice is thought to be effective at helping your body combat cancer.
Many types of cancer start with inflammation. Allicin is a natural anti-inflammatory, so you’re giving your body a boost and helping it to stay inflammation-free.
15. Ward Off Flu
Because garlic juice has antifungal, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory properties, you can ward off the flu by regularly drinking garlic juice. It is not guaranteed that garlic can save you from all illness, but any shot you have to keep inflammation at bay in your body helps combat the common cold and flu.
16. Getting Rid of Acne
Garlic contains an antimicrobial ingredient, allicin, which can help kill the acne-causing bacteria P. acnes. Many beauty bloggers rub garlic cloves straight onto their faces to get rid of whiteheads overnight, but if you have a bit more time on your hands, you can make a face mask that won’t smell great but will help to get rid of your acne, fast.
Mix your garlic juice with other skin-calming ingredients, like tea tree oil, egg whites, and honey, which work together to soothe and hydrate inflamed skin. You need those ingredients because you want to clear your acne without over-drying your skin.
How to Make Garlic Juice
Making garlic juice should be pretty simple, providing you have a food processor and you know how to chop and peel garlic! Take around 3 medium garlic cloves and peel them. Then place the peeled garlic cloves into a food processor. A chopper or blender should also work, but a food processor tends to be the easiest to work with.
Puree the cloves using a medium to high speed. Continue to puree them until you’re left with a thick, creamy liquid. You shouldn’t see any distinct chunks of garlic left over.
Transfer your garlic puree or mush into a strainer. Make sure to use a strainer with small to medium-sized gaps. A strainer with smaller gaps will allow you to separate as much of the solid from the liquid as possible, but it’ll also make the process go far slower. Medium gaps offer a nice balance between speed and quality.
Position the strainer over a bowl that has a wide enough opening to catch any liquid that falls from the strainer. Then press down on the garlic with a rubber spatula. You should see the juice running through the strainer and into the bowl. Keep pressing until you’re unable to produce any more juice.
Store the juice in the refrigerator until you’re ready to use it. Keep it in a glass bowl to prevent the odour from contaminating other foods, as well as to prevent any other flavours from contaminating the garlic juice. One clove of garlic produces roughly 1 teaspoon of juice, so you’d need around 50 cloves to produce a full cup of juice. Luckily, you only need a small shot of garlic juice every day to keep you going – nowhere near a cup’s worth!
Conclusion
While it’s hard to believe that garlic juice provides so many benefits to physical health, the proof is in the scientific evidence. It’s definitely not the tastiest of beverages to enjoy with your breakfast, but if you’re good at making sacrifices in the name of good health, garlic juice is your new morning coffee.
Just make sure not to overdose on garlic – which is possible and actually toxic. Never exceed more than 3 cloves of garlic in your juice per day.
