Crushing Garlic Is Healthier

[Jafo232]

Daily Times - Leading News Resource of Pakistan

Garlic is used extensively in herbal medicine and it contains compounds shown to help prevent blood clots. But most studies have tested raw garlic and cooking can damage garlic’s anti-clotting compounds.

But cooking uncrushed garlic for six minutes completely suppressed the anti-clotting properties, the researchers added.

That helped preserve the compounds, although they still lost much of their anti-clotting effects after three to six minutes.

Funny, I have always thought this and now this is the second article I have seen where researchers say that crushing garlic releases increases the benefits.

Another article that I cannot find anymore was a bit more detailed and recommended that you crush garlic at least 30 minutes before you cook with it.

I figured that when you crush garlic, it all of a sudden starts to get very sticky and in my mind I always believed it to be some sort of benefit to get the live clove to do it. Seems science is thinking the same way. Every time I cook, and I know I will need garlic, I always start preparing garlic first, even if I know I wont need the ingredient for another hour.

[KYHeirloomer]

Jafo, won't bore you with all the names (there are three so similar that they confuse everybody), but the enzymes and sufurides that make up the active ingredients are released on contact with oxygen.

That's why sliced is better than whole, chopped better than sliced, minced better than chopped, etc. The smaller the individual pieces the more surface area you expose, and, thus, the more active ingredients you activate.

However, both letting the garlic sit for any length of time, and cooking it, negates the medicinal benefits. So for cooking purposes your concern is with flavor. And to maximize that, you want to chop, mince, or crush the garlic just before adding it to the cooking pot.

[Jafo232]

According to this report from Science Daily:

Their report notes that allowing crushed garlic to stand for 10 minutes before cooking may further enhance formation of those compounds before heat inactivates alliinase

Similar to New Scientist:

showed that leaving the garlic to stand allows time for the alliinase to get to work creating the blood-thinning compounds

They seem to think that letting it stand actually increases the benefit.

[KYHeirloomer]

As a blood thinner, perhaps. And ten minutes is not the same as a half hour.

What do they say happens after you cook it? The original write-up you quoted seems to support my contention that you lose the medicinal benefits after cooking.

[Cook Chatty Cathy]

I am also reading the article and it seems to say that in conclusion eating raw garlic is healthiest for the blood clot fighting properties to be obtained.

Let us know please.

My Mom suffers from Flebitis and I would like to share this with her.

[Jafo232]

Not necessarily raw, but they recommend not cooking it longer than 6 minutes (if it is crushed)..

[JungleJim]

The smaller the individual pieces the more surface area you expose, and, thus, the more active ingredients you activate.

However, both letting the garlic sit for any length of time, and cooking it, negates the medicinal benefits. So for cooking purposes your concern is with flavor. And to maximize that, you want to chop, mince, or crush the garlic just before adding it to the cooking pot.

Yes, completely agree. For cooking, I crush the garlic cloves under the flat of my chef's knife blade, then mince it. And that gives a nice garlic flavor to whatever I'm cooking.

But as both you and "Cook Chatty Cathy" mention, the health benefits of garlic come mainly from consuming the raw veggie. So with every evening meal (regardless of whether or not the cooked meal contains garlic) I have 2 or 3 cloves of fresh, raw garlic. (The local Philippine "native" stuff is best, but it is also really strong--I need to remember to take small bites when consuming that. )

[lizgirl]

Where do you buy garlic with a nice strong flavor? I noticed that recipes that call for 1 teaspoon of garlic I have to use one tablespoon to get anything out of it. I think the garlic they are selling us in the stores is a watered down version. Is there a certain name or type I can look for?

[Jafo232]

I just use fresh garlic from the produce isle. Never used jarred garlic if you want garlic flavor, it just doesn't come close to fresh.

[Mama Mangia]

Types of garlic include the mild green garlic, the purple-skinned Italian garlic and Mexican garlic, and the common white-skinned garlic = California garlic, which is the most pungent of all.


Garlic chopped into slices or larger pieces will usually add a light flavor to your dish. It's less likely to dissolve or soften, so you won't get as strong a garlic flavor as you will with crushed garlic.

Minced garlic which is less pungent than crushed garlic, but still adds great flavor for recipes that require stir-frying or sauteeing. Since minced garlic is very finely chopped into small cubical pieces, it will dissolve more easily when cooking. In stir-fry dishes especially, minced garlic adds a great deal of flavor to the cooking oil used in the frying pan.



(WebMD) Got a recipe that involves cooking garlic? You might want to crush the garlic first ? that may be the best way to preserve the herb's healthy compounds during cooking, a new study shows.

Garlic contains compounds shown to help prevent blood clots. But most garlic studies have tested raw garlic, and cooking can damage those anticlotting compounds. Crushing garlic may help prevent that damage, report the researchers, who include Claudio Galmarini, Ph.D., of the agricultural sciences faculty at Argentina's Universidad Nacional de Cuyo.

Galmarini's team found that garlic cooked for three minutes in boiling water or in an oven at about 400 degrees Fahrenheit has the same amount of the anticlotting compounds as raw garlic.

But cooking uncrushed garlic for six minutes "completely suppressed" those compounds' anticlotting effects, the researchers write.

Galmarini's team then tried crushing the garlic by putting it through a garlic press before cooking. That helped preserve the compounds, although they still lost much of their anticlotting effects after three to six minutes.




You are here: Research /
<http://genes.pp.ksu.edu/incme/images/Research_head.gif>

Research Project: Allium, Cucumis, and Daucus Germplasm Enhancement, Genetics, and Biochemistry

Location: Vegetable Crops Research Unit

Title: Effect of cooking on garlic (Allium sativum) antiplatelet activity and thiosulfinates content

Authors
[item] Cavagnaro, Pablo - CONICET MENDOZA ARGENTINA
[item] Camargo, Alejandra - UN NACIONAL CUYO MENDOZA
[item] Galmarini, Claudio - CONICET MENDOZA ARGENTINA
[item] Simon, Philipp

Submitted to: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: December 15, 2006
Publication Date: January 27, 2007
Citation: Cavagnaro, P.F., Camargo, A., Galmarini, C.R., Simon, P.W. 2007. Effect of cooking on garlic (Allium sativum) antiplatelet activity and thiosulfinates content. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 55:1280-1288.

Interpretive Summary: Thiosulfinates in raw garlic and onion account for the blood-thinning or antiplatelet qualities of these vegetables that result in reduced cardiovascular disease for consumers. Allicin is the most well-known garlic thiosulfinate. Cooking of whole garlic and onion bulbs is known to nearly completely eliminate the production of these healthful chemicals. In this study we demonstrated that crushing garlic before moderate cooking retains much of the thiosulfinate content and antiplatelet activity, but crushing garlic after cooking results in nearly no thiosulfinate production. Furthermore, we found that while cooked garlic has no antiplatelet activity, when we added a small amount (10%) of fresh garlic juice to this cooked garlic a full complement of thiosulfinates and healthy antiplatelet activiy was restored to cooked garlic. We conclude that the alliinase enzyme in raw garlic juice was able to generate these healthy chemicals in the cooked garlic.

Technical Abstract: The raw form of garlic and some of its preparations are widely recognized as antiplatelet agents that may contribute to the prevention of cardiovascular disease. Herein, we examined the in-vitro antiaggregatory activity (IVAA) of human blood platelets induced by extracts of garlic samples that were previously heated (in the form of crushed versus uncrushed cloves) using different cooking methods and intensities. The concentrations of allicin and pyruvate, two predictors of antiplatelet strength, were also monitored. Oven-heating at 200 C or immersing in boiling water for 3 min or less did not affect the ability of garlic to inhibit platelet aggregation (as compared to raw garlic), whereas heating for 6 min completely suppressed IVAA in uncrushed, but not in previously crushed, samples. The latter samples had reduced, yet significant, antiplatelet activity. Prolonged incubation (more than 10 min) at these temperatures completely suppressed IVAA. Microwaved garlic had no effect on platelet aggregation. However, increasing the concentration of garlic juice in the aggregation reaction had a positive IVAA dose response in crushed, but not in uncrushed, microwaved samples. The addition of raw garlic juice to microwaved uncrushed garlic restored a full complement of antiplatelet activity that was completely lost without the garlic addition. Garlic-induced IVAA was always associated with allicin and pyruvate levels. Our results suggest that (1) allicin and thiosulfinates are responsible for the IVAA response, (2) crushing garlic before moderate cooking can reduce the loss of activity, and (3) the partial loss of antithrombotic effect in crushed-cooked garlic may be compensated by increasing the amount consumed.


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