Garlic Powder: A Potent Immunity and Cardiovascular Booster

Did you know that Garlic Day is celebrated on April 19th? It's not just us who love this root vegetable either. Way back in Ancient Egyptian times, pharos gave it to the builders of the pyramid for strength, and the Ebers Papyrus details over 20 medical uses for it! Our love for garlic isn't new, that's for certain. But it's not really surprising when you consider its many health benefits. From keeping your heart healthy to fighting colds, it's a wonder vegetable that we all need. Read on to find out more about the benefits of fresh garlic and garlic powder.

Keep Your Heart Healthy

One of the most potent benefits of garlic is keeping your heart healthy. With heart disease being the leading cause of death, this is something we should all pay more attention too. Garlic can help your heart in many ways. It's full of antioxidants that can fight free radicals, for example. Free radicals can cause damage to our cells, increasing our risk of heart diseases and other heart problems. It's also an anticoagulant. This means it thins our blood, which plays a huge part in keeping our heart healthy – and decreases the risk of stroke!

Help Diabetics Stay Safe

Ready for another heart-friendly benefit? This time, it's helping sufferers of diabetes. This is because garlic can help reduce the chances of cardiomyopathy. Cardiomyopathy is one of the biggest killers for people with diabetes. It's characterised by the thickening, stiffening, and/or enlarging of the heart muscle. Garlic is a well-known anti-inflammatory because it contains diallyl sulfide. This is essential in fighting cardiomyopathy, keeping the heart valves healthy and everything working as it should The takeaway? If you're diabetic, eat more garlic! If you're not diabetic, eat more garlic anyway.

Garlic Powder Can Reduce Blood Pressure

We're always hearing about the risks of blood pressure, and there are tons of products out there to help prevent them. But did you know that the humble garlic could be all you need? That and a healthy diet, of course. This is because garlic boosts our natural production of nitric oxide. When this increases, it relaxes our smooth muscles and lets the blood vessels dilate, reducing blood pressure. It even looks like garlic can help with both systolic and diastolic blood pressure, which is very impressive. As we all know, high blood pressure can have some very dangerous consequences, including heart attacks. We should all be doing our best to keep our blood pressure at a normal level, and eating more garlic should help!

Replace Your Nootropic

If you're taking garlic, nootropic supplements might not be needed, or not as much, anyway. That's because garlic is a natural nootropic. It can help improve your brain function, including boosting memory, creativity, and focus. If you're feeling a little foggy why not try some? To get the full garlic benefits, we recommend taking an odourless supplement. If you can brave it, try crushing a few cloves of garlic and swallowing with some milk or apple juice. Garlic's also been linked to reducing memory loss as we age, particularly from diseases like Alzheimer's. It can help improve both short-term and long-term memory, giving our brains a beneficial boost.

Fight Away Colds With Garlic Powder

If you're often sniffling and sneezing when cold season comes around, try adding more garlic to your diet. It's a natural immune booster and can help you fight off pesky germs. This is because of alliin, which is found in fresh, whole garlic. When crushed or chewed, alliin turns into allicin, which contains sulfur. Fun fact: this is what gives garlic its iconic smell and taste! Allicin has antifungal and antibacterial properties and can help white blood cells fight away illnesses. In one study, 146 people took either a garlic supplement or placebo. The study lasted for 12 weeks and saw those taking the garlic get far fewer colds – in fact, they decreased by more than half! It also improved the recovery times for those who did get colds. So, add more garlic to your meals and keep sickness at bay.

Nutritional Benefits of Garlic

Now we know what garlic can do, let's take a closer look at all the amazing vitamins and minerals it contains. These are essential to keeping our body functioning as it should. Here's what's in 2 tablespoons of garlic powder in relation to your daily values:

• Iron (6%) – Good news for vegans!
• Potassium (5%)
• Phosporus (6%)
• Zinc (5%)
• Copper (11%)
• Manganese (8%)
• Vitamin B6 (19%)
• Vitamin B1 (7%)
• Selenium (8%)

It also contains small amounts of vitamin C and calcium, amongst plenty of other vitamins and minerals.

Other Health Benefits of Garlic

As an added bonus, we thought we'd run through some of the additional benefits of garlic we've missed here. These include:

• Aiding digestion
• Reducing the risk of certain cancers
• Supporting liver health and function
• Regulate levels of blood glucose to help prevent diabetes

With so many benefits, it seems crazy not to start eating more garlic! We recommend adding it as a seasoning to your meals, both fresh and in powder form. You can also take a daily garlic health supplement to easily get some of the benefits.

Learn More About Your Health

At OnVive, we know that eating the right foods can boost your health. Just take a look at all the articles on our blog and you'll quickly see what we mean! Alongside healthy, natural ingredients, taking supplements is also an amazing and easy way to give yourself a health kick. They can fill your body with the right vitamins and minerals, giving you everything you need to get out there and take on the world.