STOP! Don’t cook that garlic... Here’s why…

Dear Healthy Friend,

I don't know anyone who doesn't like garlic. If they don't it's generally because of the dreaded “morning-after” breath. But garlic has great health benefits: It helps fight the common cold, it's a wonderful anti-oxidant and anti-bacterial, and of course it's marvellous in combating cardiovascular disease and high cholesterol.

But before you start throwing it all over your food, see what Dr Douglass recommends to get the best out of this popular, pungent product.

In the name of good health,

Taryn Strugnell
Managing Editor of Nutrition & Healing

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Eat more garlic... but make sure it's fresh! 
Dr WC Douglass
Editor of Healthier News

Like so much else, when it comes to eating right, too many people only half-understand the health benefits of garlic - so they sprinkle some garlic salt onto their food or eat something with added garlic flavour and think it's healthy.

It's not.

If you want to get any benefits at all from this potent herb, you need fresh garlic and a new study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry shows why...

In the study, researchers tested the benefits of fresh garlic versus “stale” garlic. They mashed up garlic and mixed it with water to form a kind of goo called “slurry”.

Then they fed this goo to rats. Some rats got fresh garlic slurries and others got the garlic that had been sitting around for two days. After a month of this, heart tests revealed that rats eating the fresh stuff got a much bigger benefit.

We're not rats, but the same concept applies. If you want to get the most benefits from garlic, it has to be fresh.

So instead of cooking it, chop or crush the fresh cloves and then let it sit for 15 minutes or so at room temperature to let the enzymes work their magic. Then add it into your salads, use it in spreads like hummus or throw it into your food during the final minutes of cooking.

And remember, stick to plain old garlic and not the bigger, easier to handle (and more mellow-tasting) elephant garlic, which actually isn't garlic at all.

Now you're probably wondering how many friends you'll lose if you show up with garlic breath everywhere. So that leaves you two choices: Carry a pack of breath mints or get your friends to eat more garlic too. Then no one will notice your breath - they'll be too worried about their own.

Don't trust media reports - Vitamin B12 is not dangerous

Q: I've read several of your articles recommending large doses of B vitamins for various conditions. But I thought taking too much vitamin B12 was dangerous?

Dr. Wright: I've been working with vitamin B12 therapy since 1973 and I can tell you that the only way you could kill yourself with this nutrient is if you fill your bathtub with it and drown.

Over two decades ago, there was some concern that metabolic breakdown of very large quantities of a certain form of B12 (called cyanocobalamin) might set excess quantities of cyanide loose into the body. No one’s found proof for this theory, but you can avoid even the very remote possibility of such a reaction by using different forms of vitamin B12: hydroxocobalamin or methylcobalamin. Both are just as effective - if not more so - than cyanocobalamin.