Here's How To Eat Raw Garlic (And Why!)

Garlic is well known as a natural health remedy that has long been used to treat various ailments. It is extremely easy to source in most countries and can be consumed cooked or fresh. It is most easily included in your food or can be eaten on its own. [1]


One of the most interesting – and lesser known – things about garlic is that the way it is prepared greatly affects the availability of the various healing components. Two of garlic’s component molecules – alliin and alliinase – are present in fresh garlic but stored in different cells.

Crushing the garlic causes a reaction in about ten seconds that creates allicin – a potent animicrobial and antifungal. However allicin is unstable and degrades completely within a day, or perhaps longer if refrigerated. Allicin is also destroyed by heat. Crushing the cloves, then eating the garlic raw within the next few minutes, will provide the greatest benefits. [2]

However not many people want to just crunch down garlic cloves on their own. Way too intense. So you’ll need some recipes that enable you to handle your quota of raw garlic. We have found a great video by Mensacyclist that gives some great ideas for ways to consume raw garlic.

Here are some more ideas:

Garlic Mashed Potatoes – Boil a few potatoes and mash them. Add butter, milk/cream, parmesan cheese, salt and pepper (there’s no exact measurements, just use these according to preference). Finely chop a few sprigs of parsley and mix it into the potato mixture. Let it cool. Meanwhile, finely mince or crush / chop 2-3 cloves of garlic. Once the mashed potatoes are cooled, mix in the minced garlic. Enjoy!

Garlic Pesto – In a food processor, combine 2 cups of fresh basil with 1/2 cup of pine nuts and give it a few pulses. Add 3-5 medium-sized garlic cloves (add more if you want it to be super garlicky), and 1/2 cup of freshly grated parmesan or romano cheese. Pulse a few times more. Continue to work the food processor while you slowly add 1/2 cup of olive oil.

Add it in a constant stream. Stop to scrape down the sides, add salt and pepper to taste (I like mine extra spicy so I add a little bit of cayenne pepper) and give it a few more pulses to combine all of the flavors. If you want to balance out the flavor, you can also put a bit of honey. Pour the pesto on slightly cooled chicken or pasta and enjoy! *This recipe makes about a cup of pesto*

Credits: Off Grid | [1] Naturalblaze, [2] “Herbal Constituents” – Lisa Ganora (p.104)"