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For over 4000 years, this food has been used for flavoring and for a variety of potential vitality benefits.
Despite its “stinking rose” nickname, over 250 million pounds of this food are consumed annually in the U.S. And it’s very popular in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean countries, as well as India and China.
Raw garlic by itself has many potential health benefits.* But as I recently discovered, there are different possibilities when raw garlic is aged and fermented.
Raw garlic contains vitamins and minerals, as well as phytocompounds (plant nutrients) that help nourish your body.
You may seem surprised that I refer to garlic as a vegetable. Most people probably consider it an herb or spice. But in reality, it is neither. Garlic belongs to the allium genus of vegetables that includes onions, leeks, chives, and shallots.
Raw garlic contains a wide array of phytocompounds (plant nutrients) that act together to create various responses and reactions in your body.*
And raw garlic contains:
But what makes garlic such a nutritious and potent vegetable? It has a unique hidden secret weapon, and it has all to do with a very interesting fact that a clove of garlic has very little aroma by itself.
Yet, I’m sure you’re aware of its pungent odor firsthand. It’s not until garlic is chewed (not many people enjoy doing this) or crushed in some sort of food preparation that the secret is revealed. Of course, that is when you get the very distinctive odor.
The end result of all this is a chemical reaction that creates one of the most pungent and potent antioxidants from the plant kingdom called allicin. The finer the chopping and intensity of crushing, the more allicin is produced and the greater its potency.
Unfortunately, it’s difficult to get allicin up to biologically active levels in your body. Allicin is very short-lived – in most cases lasting less than an hour. Cooking, crushing, aging, and processing garlic causes allicin to quickly break down into other compounds.
It’s through these other compounds (particularly one) where fermentation can come into play to provide a whole new dimension of potential health benefits.
How Could Garlic Ever Have a Sweet Taste?
What if I told you that there was a form of garlic, called black garlic that has a sensational taste?
You may think this is too good to be true. But I can tell you from experience that black garlic has a tantalizing taste even though the garlic essence remains.
Here are a few of the taste bud sensations you can experience from this type of garlic.
So why is black garlic black?
The black color occurs due to aging, carmelization, and fermentation. The fermentation process involves high heat and aging time. Even though the process may at first seem simple, what occurs chemically and biologically is quite complex.
Throughout the process enzymes are broken down, and proteins and sugars in garlic combine to create the distinct black color – as well as create the sweet balsamic taste and chewy texture.
There’s another very important thing that happens during the garlic fermentation process.
How could this possibly be important if it’s destroyed in the process? Well, an exciting biologically conversion takes place with the allicin that creates an even more potent antioxidant in black garlic.
I’ll explain more about this potent black garlic antioxidant coming up. But first, let’s look at some of the before and after effects of garlic fermentation.
During the raw garlic fermentation process many astonishing things take place. Just looking at the before and after effects when it comes to essential amino acids, black garlic appears to provide more potential.*
Here’s a chart showing one example of the possible fermentation outcome on essential amino acids found in garlic. Essential amino acids are those building blocks of protein not produced by your body that must be consumed as part of your diet.
Essential Amino Acids | Raw Garlic (per 100 g) | Black Garlic (per 100 g*) |
Isoleucine | 217 mg | 371 mg |
Leucine | 308 mg | 779 mg |
Lysine | 273 mg | 385 mg |
Methionine | 76 mg | 210 mg |
Histidine | 113 mg | 287 mg |
Phenylalanine | 183 mg | 461 mg |
Tryptophan | 66 mg | 102 mg |
Valine | 291 mg | 610 mg |
This is just an example of what potentially happens to the essential amino acids in raw garlic during the fermentation process. Results obviously can vary depending on the quality of the raw garlic and the fermentation process itself.
But to me, one of the most eye-opening points about black garlic is how new nutrients are created and others are enhanced by the fermentation process. Black garlic is packed with high concentrations of highly beneficial sulfur compounds, especially one in particular: Allicin-C
Black Garlic Benefits Unveiled
Before I show you some of the potential health benefits from black garlic, it’s important to know a bit more about Allicin-C.
What’s interesting about Allicin-Cis how it’s the result of a biological conversion that takes place during garlic fermentation. Even though most of the allicin is destroyed during the process, it is actually biologically converted to Allicin-C.
I’m going to let you in on something most people don’t understand. In fact, I didn’t appreciate this as much as I do now. The bottom line with Allicin-C is that it:
Here’s more on the underlying reasons why Allicin-C has…
More than Double the Antioxidant Power
The fermentation of raw garlic has been shown to improve antioxidant potency. This process that results in black garlic has oftentimes doubled or more, the oxygen radical absorption capacity (ORAC) value of the raw garlic. The ORAC is a way of measuring and comparing the estimated potency of an antioxidant.
The most prevalent antioxidant found in black garlic is Allicin-C.
A comprehensive review of Allicin-C and black garlic (in both in-vivo and in-vitro scenarios) reports its antioxidant effect is a result of multiple complex mechanisms because it:
In a nutshell, these complex processes demonstrate how potent black garlic’s antioxidant capability can be.
You Owe it to Yourself to Take Advantage of this
Order Fermented Black Garlic today!