While you're stocking up on good things…
Exercise is great, and eating healthy just as good. But you should also add garlic to your cholesterol-lowering repertoire. However, there's a catch: You can't have too little, and you can't have too much—your dose needs to be just right.
During one study, researchers fed lab rats doses of raw garlic ranging between 500 mg to 1,000 mg every day (they based the doses on the rats' body weight), along with a diet intended to raise cholesterol. After four weeks, the researchers saw that only the rats receiving 500 mg of garlic had shown a resistance to the effects of the high-cholesterol diet (including heart problems).
Superstition says that garlic will fend off vampires. But when it comes to the medical reason as to why cholesterol might help lower cholesterol, there has been a lot of research and speculation. For the most part, it has all been pretty vague and inconclusive. What we are pretty sure about is that garlic interferes with the way your body metabolizes cholesterol, helping to lower the amount of cholesterol released into the bloodstream, and ultimately, to your heart.
The researchers weren't quite sure why the higher dose of garlic didn't have the same benefits as the lower dose. But they said that the 500-mg dose given to the rats would be about the same as a 150-pound person eating about 12 garlic cloves (1.25 oz. of raw garlic) every day. That's a lot for even the biggest fans of Italian food.
Fortunately there are a lot of good quality garlic supplements out there. My favorite is one called Garlicforce from New Chapter. Go to http://www.newchapter.info/product/supercritical.lasso and look for it under the list of products. Another brand, Kyolic (www.kyolic.com), is also excellent. In fact, I use both of these products myself, switching back and forth between the two throughout the year.
