Did you know that eating garlic or taking supplements can reduce your chances of catching a cold by 70%?

 Did you know that eating garlic or taking supplements can reduce your chances of catching a cold by 70%?

Garlic, or Allium sativa, is an edible bulb related to the other alliums, such as onions, shallots, leeks, and chives.

This humble vegetable has been making our breath stinky and our food delicious for so long now that we often take it for granted.

Keep reading for some particularly pungent facts about garlic!

Garlic has shown promise as a treatment for preventing colds and the flu.

Studies have shown that garlic may reduce the risk of becoming sick in the first place, as well as how long you stay sick. It may also reduce the severity of symptoms (7, 11, 12).

One study gave 146 healthy volunteers either garlic supplements or a placebo for 3 months. The garlic group had a 63% lower risk of getting a cold. However, there was no significant difference between groups in the time it took to recover from a cold (11).

Another study found that colds were significantly shorter for subjects who ate 2.56 grams of aged garlic extract per day during cold and flu season, compared with a placebo group. Their colds were also less severe (6).

If you often get sick with a cold or flu, eating garlic may help reduce your symptoms or prevent your illness entirely.

However, a review of the evidence found that many of the studies investigating the effects of garlic on the common cold were of poor quality (11).

It’s also unknown if you need to take garlic constantly, or if it also works as a short-term treatment when you start getting sick.