Who doesn’t love garlic? Okay, maybe Count Dracula doesn’t. But the stats don’t lie: Americans consume about 2 lbs of garlic each year, which seems like an awful a lot! With the average clove weighing 3 grams, 2 lbs of garlic equals over 300 cloves.
Garlic is a member of the onion family, which includes leeks and shallots, and it’s quite versatile. In fact, it can even be made into glue! That’s right – the sticky juice that’s in garlic cloves is often used as an adhesive, especially pasting projects for fragile items like glass.
Another unexpected use was as a mosquito repellant in the 1800s. That tracks back to Bram Stoker’s heyday (which is why the author made Dracula – a blood-sucker – averse to the garlands).
Best of all, garlic is super-healthy. We tracked down five fun and healthy facts about garlic that answer definitively answers the question:
Is Garlic is Good for You?

1. Garlic has a long, healthy history
Garlic has been used medicinally since Greek and Roman times because it promotes the well-being of the heart and immune systems with antioxidant properties, and helps maintain healthy blood circulation.
2. Garlic is rich in Vitamin C for the immune system
Because of its high Vitamin C content, garlic is great for your immune system and can relieve a lot of ailments, including nausea, inflammation, joint pain, respiratory problems, and even tumors.
3. Detox with Garlic
Garlic is a top notch detoxifier because it contains a chemical called ‘allicin’ which promotes the production of white blood cells and helps fight against toxins. Best to eat it raw, so maybe add some crushed garlic to a salad dressing or mix it with tomatoes and olive oil.
4. Headaches begone
While garlic does trigger headaches in some individuals, it can actually cure them in others. According to TheHealthy.com, “Garlic and onions are good remedies for headaches,” says Lynn Anderson, Ph.D., ND, a naturopathic doctor and yoga therapist in Los Angeles.
5. Garlic helps lower blood pressure
In addition to being heart-healthy, garlic is also proven to lower blood pressure. According to Web MD, you should take 300-1500 mg garlic tablets divided into daily doses for 24 weeks to get the best results. Garlic helps you by preventing the production of angiotensin II, enhancing the availability of nitric oxide. And the pills don’t give you bad breath!
Speaking of bad breath, there are a number of fixes for that. When in pill form, the strong aroma and taste can be lessened. But if you’re going for the raw material, you should know that garlic’s telltale smell can be removed from your hands by running them under cold water while rubbing a stainless-steel object.
But if you want to avoid the situation altogether, there are great no-stink products like Dorot Gardens fresh-to-frozen cubes. Also, drinking lemon juice or eating a few slices of lemon will kill overpowering garlic breath, and rubbing fresh lemon on your hands will remove the smell from your fingers.
After reading this, we bet you’re craving something good and garlicky, right? So here’s a delicious, easy and extremely tasty recipe for those yummy little garlic knots: