Dragon breath may help you breathe easy. Eating raw garlic at least twice a week could cut your risk of lung cancer by 44 percent, according to new Chinese research.
The spicy herb is packed with volatile organosulfur phytochemicals (responsible for the taste that lingers in your mouth) that may help prevent gene mutations, the spread of cancer cells, and tumor growth, the researchers say. The compounds also sop up free radicals that can damage cells and lead to cancer.
People in the study ate 33 grams of garlic a week, or about 11 cloves. (11 cloves!) While that’s far more than most people will eat in a week, it does serve as a reminder of how beneficial plant foods can be for your health.
Just make sure that no study finding convinces you to focus on a single so-called “superfood.” Instead, you should mix it up. Colorado State University researchers found that despite eating one serving less a day, people who ate a wider variety of produce reaped more health benefits than those who chose from a smaller assortment of fruits and vegetables. The likely reason: The disease-fighting phytochemicals in plants vary from one botanical family to another. So the greater the variety of vegetables you eat, the more types of healthy phytochemicals you consume.
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