It may not improve your social life but eating raw garlic twice a week can apparently reduce your chances getting lung cancer by almost half. That’s the take-away from new research published online today in the journal “Cancer Prevention”. The research, done at China’s Jiangsu Provincial Centre for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that the incidence of lung cancer was reduced by 44 per cent and by 30 per cent in smokers. The key ingredient in garlic appears to be a chemical called allicin which is released when the clove is crushed or chopped. Allicin is believed to reduce inflammation in the body and act as an antioxidant reducing damage from so-called free radicals to the body’s cells. It’s not clear whether cooked garlic has the same effect.
According to Lung Cancer Canada, the disease remains the most contracted form of cancer in Canada with one in 12 Canadians developing lung cancer in a lifetime. smoking tobacco is the most common cause of lung cancer.