You could be the kind of person who likes garlic in your meals because of its aroma and taste but never imagined the precious benefits it has on your health. The good news is that garlic is actually medicinal and nutrition experts say it heals a number of diseases.

Dr Simran Saini, a New Delhi-based nutritionist and weight loss consultant, in her article, "7 Surprising Benefits of Garlic”, says the high sulphur content in garlic offers it antibiotic properties, assists in keeping the digestive system clean by flushing out toxins.

"Garlic also builds immunity against common colds and prevents heart ailments by clearing up blocked arteries; it is great for transformation and healing of skin scars and gives a glow to the skin because it keeps digestion in the best shape,” she adds.

According to Matthew Budoff, a professor of medicine at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute, garlic has as many as 40 other compounds, and a combination of them may be responsible for its healthfulness.

He says the strongest evidence for the health claims suggests that garlic may help the heart, with research overall showing about a 10 per cent reduction in cholesterol and a 3 to 8 point drop in blood pressure.

"That isn’t quite as good as cholesterol or blood pressure pills, but it’s certainly a nice effect,” says Budoff.

The fresher the garlic, the higher the concentration of its active ingredients, he explains. Though garlic can be stored for months, Budoff says it’s best to eat it within a week. "If you go longer than that, you may end up with something that’s deactivated,” he says.

"I put garlic in everything,” says Maxine Siegel, R.D., a dietitian and head of Consumer Reports’ food-testing lab.

You can use it to spice up a healthy dish without having to add any salt, but he advises ensuring the use of fresh garlic instead of garlic salt, which boosts the sodium levels.

According to Dr Dieudonné Bukaba, a nutrition expert from AVEGA Clinic Remera, Kigali, garlic has a pungent smell, and is good in certain dishes, but it is often considered a great and healthy herb because, it has the vital chemical compound allicin, which is a wonderful therapeutic ingredient with many medicinal qualities.

He adds that the allicin compound contains sulphur, which gives the herb its pungent savor and peculiar smell but the health benefits of garlic are countless, as the herb helps to fight heart ailments, colds, cough and lowers blood pressure.

Bukaba says garlic also contains manganese, Vitamin B6, Vitamin C, Selenium, fiber, decent amounts of calcium, copper, potassium, phosphorus, iron and vitamin B1,garlic is low in calories and very rich in Vitamin C, Vitamin B6 and manganese, and contains trace amounts of various other nutrients.

"Garlic supplementation is known to boost the function of the immune system, one large 12-week study found that a daily garlic supplement reduced the number of colds by 63% compared with placebo,” he adds.

The nutrition expert says studies have found garlic supplementation to have a significant impact on reducing blood pressure in people with high blood pressure, and in one study, aged garlic extract at doses of 600-1,500mg was just as effective as the drug Atenolol at reducing blood pressure over a 24-week period.

"Garlic improves cholesterol levels which may lower the risk of heart disease. Garlic supplementation reduces total and/or LDL cholesterol by about 10-15 per cent,” Bukaba explains.

He adds that garlic contains antioxidants that may help prevent Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, as well as oxidative damage from free radicals that contribute to the aging process since it contains antioxidants that support the body’s protective mechanisms against oxidative damage.

Other studies suggest that exercise-induced fatigue may be reduced with garlic and eating garlic can help detoxify heavy metals in the body.

Bukaba says at high doses, the sulphur compounds in garlic have been shown to protect against organ damage from heavy metal toxicity. "Three doses of garlic each day even outperformed the drug D-penicillamine in symptom reduction,” he says.

"Garlic may improve bone health, and some studies have shown that it can minimise bone loss by increasing estrogen in females. One study in menopausal women found that a daily dose of dry garlic extract (equal to 2 grams of raw garlic) significantly decreased a marker of estrogen deficiency,” Bukaba adds.

He says the minimum effective dose for therapeutic effects is one clove eaten with meals, two or three times a day, but warns that there are some downsides to garlic, such as bad breath and allergy.

"Garlic heals metabolism of macro nutrients (fats, carbohydrates and proteins) in the body. It has vitamins like B1 and B6 that are vital and help the body to get energy and for the body to make cells, enzymes and hormones,” says Dr Private Kamanzi, a nutritionist at Amazon Wellness Centre, Remera.

He says garlic has got antioxidants like selenium and Vitamin C that help the body to remove free radicals in the body that can cause cancers of the prostate, breasts, colon and other kinds of cancer.

"Garlic improves the health of the heart as it contains magnesium which is known to improve the functioning of cardiac muscles which helps the heart pump blood,” Kamanzi explains.

He also says garlic contains zinc that helps in the regulation of blood glucose as well as iron in the body which prevents anaemia.

"Garlic fights bacteria and fungus like ringworm where garlic juice and garlic powder can be applied on the affected area,” Kamanzi explains.

Bukaba, however, advises those with bleeding disorders or people taking blood thinning medication to talk to their doctor before increasing their garlic consumption.

He says the active compound allicin only forms when garlic is crushed or cleaved when it is raw, and that therefore, if cooked before it is crushed, then it won’t have the same health effects.

Therefore, the best way to consume garlic is raw, or to crush and cut it and leave it out for a while before you add it to your recipes.

Kamanzi advises that too much of garlic is bad since it might over dilute the blood.

He says one should not consume more than three bulbs of garlic a day and it should be eaten at least three days a week.