A team of American and Chinese epidemiologists recently came to the conclusion that eating even just a little bit of garlic every single day will help a human live years longer than they might have otherwise, according to a paper that has just been published in Nutrients.
The study was conducted over a number of years, between 1998 and 2011, with more than 2700 people participating. The average age of each individual participant was 92 years old when they were part of the testing protocol, with the overwhelming majority of them being of Chinese descent.
During the study, individuals were questioned about their overall lifestyle, their dietary habits, the foods they ate on a regular basis as well as the foods that they shied away from. They were also specifically asked about how often and how much garlic they consumed on a regular basis.
According to the information that the researchers were able to garner, individuals that consumed garlic at least five times a week (or even more frequently than that) were 11% less likely to have passed away than those that ate garlic less than once a week or not at all.
Researchers were able to conclude that frequent garlic consumption had the ability to extend overall lifespan by 3.2 years on average, though obviously a little more research is necessary to better understand exactly what is happening on a biological and biochemical level.
Diving deeper into the data, researchers segmented the individuals that participated in this test into a number of different categories. People that were in their 80s, people that were 90 or older, those that smoked, those that used to smoke, and those that never smoked were just some of the categories. Researchers also asked about whether or not individuals consumed alcohol or had abstained and if they used alcohol help frequently. They also question how often an individual consumed tea and what type of tea it was.
Interestingly enough, no matter what category an individual was segmented into garlic seemed to have a tremendous impact on their overall health and well-being.
At the end of the day, researchers in America as well as in China were able to conclusively come to an agreement that garlic obviously possesses a whole host of health boosting and health improving properties.
Garlic has long been considered a staple of all natural medicine and in particular is a big piece of traditional medicine in China. It’s used as a bit of a “cure-all”, but the research that the scientists were able to conduct certainly supports this kind of blanket description.
More research is already planned with test participants that are much younger partaking just to get a feel for whether or not garlic is more impactful later on in life or if it is important to consume it on a daily basis regardless of age (or any other factors, for that matter).
The research team is comfortable recommending that those serious about their health consumed garlic on a regular basis, ideally as a daily part of their nutrition. Octogenarians, non-octogenarians, men, women, and those with cognitive issues are all recommended to take advantage of everything that garlic has to offer.
The research team is also looking further into whether or not garlic constituents can be further studied to better understand how garlic can be used to fight back against inflammation, whether or not it can become an effective cancer treatment, and how it may help to improve the lives of those that are dealing with cardiovascular diseases or medical conditions.
The Chinese and American researchers do agree that this only begins to scratch the surface of what garlic may be capable of and that there is real need for more in-depth and more long-term study.
Sources:
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/11-proven-health-benefits-of-garlic
