How good is raw garlic to kill bacteria and fight tumors?

type

status

date

slug

summary

I. Peking University study: long-term garlic consumption reduces risk of death from stomach cancer by 34%

The saying goes, "Garlic is a treasure, eat it often for good health", which is actually quite true.

Garlic contains many vitamins, proteins and minerals, and has more than two hundred essential nutrients for the body. But what is most notable about garlic is its powerful antiseptic ability and its ability to boost the body's immunity. It is said that the allicin in garlic is even anti-cancer, but is this credible?

A 22-year follow-up study published in the British Medical Journal by a team of researchers from Peking University showed that 7 years of garlic supplement intake was associated with a reduced risk of death from gastric cancer, similar to 7 years of vitamin supplement intake and 2 weeks of H. pylori eradication, but not with a reduced incidence of gastric cancer.

Researchers selected 3365 volunteers aged 35 to 64 years from Linqu County, a county in Shandong province with a high incidence of gastric cancer, to participate in the study. Of these, 2258 of all subjects were positive for H. pylori infection and 1107 were negative, and the subjects were randomly divided into 4 groups: H. pylori treatment, vitamin supplementation, placebo group, and garlic supplementation group.

The researchers conducted a 22.3-year (1995-2017) follow-up, during which 151 subjects had new gastric cancers, including 94 deaths from gastric cancer. 79% of new gastric cancers and 81% of gastric cancer deaths were from H. pylori-positive subjects. After adjusting for factors that may affect gastric cancer incidence and death, the researchers found:

From the results of the experiment, it appears that garlic was effective in reducing the risk of death from gastric cancer, but not the risk of gastric cancer.

Gong Jianzhuang, deputy chief physician of the Department of Gastroenterology at Zhengzhou Central Hospital, said that the allicin component in garlic produces allicin by the action of allicinase, which can inhibit Helicobacter pylori, a gram-positive bacteria. But allicin ≠ garlic, and the amount of allicin contained in garlic is very limited.

There is no direct evidence that there is a direct and definitive relationship between eating garlic and fighting cancer, and it is not scientific to rely solely on eating garlic to fight cancer.

II. Is it credible that garlic choking causes cancer?

Many people like to choke the pot with onion and garlic when cooking, which is not only fragrant but also flavorful, but there is a legend that "garlic choking can cause cancer", is this true or not?

The rumor that garlic is carcinogenic originates from the fact that garlic produces acrylamide during cooking, which is a class 2A carcinogen, and therefore, garlic is carcinogenic. But does this logic really hold true?

Acrylamide is not only produced when cooking garlic, it can be produced once the food is heated at a temperature of >120°C. What is clear is that acrylamide is a moderately toxic pro-neurotoxin that has been shown to cause neurological damage in both animal and human studies.

As for carcinogenicity, it is classified by the WHO as a Group 2A carcinogen, meaning that it has been found to be associated with the development of cancer in animal studies. However, there is no clear evidence of the same carcinogenic effect in humans.

Acrylamide has been compared within recipes of some cancer patients and healthy people by scholars in Sweden and the United States, and no significant difference was found in the increased risk of cancer from foods containing acrylamide.

So does garlic choking cause cancer or not?

It's not possible to talk about toxicity in complete isolation from dose, and international standards have a clear range for this. Assuming that a person weighing 50 kg wants to produce acrylamide at dangerous levels, they would need to eat at least 32.7 kg of choked garlic in a short period of time, and to reach a lethal amount, they would need to eat at least 9092.2 kg of choked garlic, which is clearly not doable.

Three, is it better to eat garlic raw or cooked?

There are all sorts of ways to eat garlic, and some people find it more powerful and nutritious to eat it raw. Some people can't handle the pungency of raw garlic at all and choose to cook it every day.

Garlic has a variety of health benefits, but none more so than allicin. Allicin requires allicin and alliinase to come into contact with each other, and is produced when the two components come into contact with each other after the garlic is crushed. However, allicin tends to lose its effect when exposed to heat, so it is generally recommended that garlic be eaten raw.

When eating garlic, it is recommended to puree the garlic and take care to leave it for 10-15 minutes to allow the allicin and alliinase to come into full contact with each other before consumption. Be careful not to eat garlic on an empty stomach or in large quantities, just eat 2 to 3 cloves at a time.

For people who suffer from acute and chronic gastritis, the elderly and the infirm, it is not recommended to consume raw garlic on a daily basis, as it can easily bring adverse stimuli to the body and threaten health.

Garlic is a common food, and it is not possible to eat garlic to fight cancer and cure diseases.