Cholesterol 2, Garlic 0
For: Sniffing Out the Truth About Garlic,
September 2002
Garlic supplements remain very popular, and modern science has taken the curative potential of garlic seriously. There have been hundreds of garlic studies in the past decade alone. But as we've previously reported, the results of this research have been inconsistent and hard to compare. Moreover, most of the studies have been seriously flawed. Probably the No.1 claim made for garlic is that it lowers blood cholesterol. Not so, according to two well-designed studies published in June.
One study, appearing in Archives of Internal Medicine, used a popular garlic powder tablet (Kwai); the other, in the Journal of the American Medical Association, used a garlic-oil preparation. Both involved people with elevated cholesterol levels, were placebo-controlled, and lasted 12 weeks. Neither found any effect on blood cholesterol.
In spite of heated claims, plus a deluge of advertising, wishful thinking, and misinformation, there's no clear evidence that garlic supplements have any health benefits. Of course, garlic can't hurt you, either. We suggest that you use garlic not as medicine, but to enhance the flavor of other foods—if you like it, that is.
And by the way: There are large differences in chemical composition among various garlic supplements. Interestingly, these two studies used two entirely different types of garlic supplement, yet neither had any effect.
UC Berkeley Wellness Letter, September 1998
