Crush Garlic Before Cooking: "'Stop and smell the garlic — that's all you have to do,' advised William Shatner, whose starring roles ranged from Captain Kirk in Star Trek to himself in Iron Chef USA. New scientific research is editing Shatner's advice for the millions of people seeking garlic's fabulous flavor and its reputed health benefits. Make it read: Stop and crush the garlic.
Claudio R. Galmarini and colleagues in Argentina and the United States are reporting new evidence that crushing garlic before cooking can reduce the loss of garlic's healthful properties.
In a report scheduled for the March 7 edition of ACS' Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, a bi-weekly publication, they note that many past studies of garlic and health used raw garlic. The new study joins a handful or others to examine how the heat of cooking affects the chemical compounds associated with garlic's beneficial health effects."
