Bad breath means good health

It's one of the biggest clichés in alternative medicine: Garlic is good for you.

For once, I'm not going to argue. It's true: This smelly little bulb does indeed pack a nutritious punch. It increases the body's production of hydrogen sulfide, which helps protect against deadly cancers in the breast, prostate, and colon.

And this year, in an incredible study at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, researchers discovered yet another benefit of hydrogen sulfide: It can protect your heart, too. When researchers injected hydrogen sulfide into mice, they found that it prevented the heart muscle damage caused by a heart attack.

Are you waiting for me to drop the other shoe? OK, here it goes: There's a catch. A slice or two of garlic bread each week won't give you these kinds of results. In fact, the amount of garlic used in the last study works out to be about two medium-sized cloves of garlic … per day. To you and me, that sounds like a lot of garlic. But in countries like Italy, China, and Korea, some folks consume up to twelve cloves a day.

"But wait!" you say. "What about garlic powder pills?" Sorry, but the research shows that these pills have a spotty track record in effectiveness. Sure, they won't make you stink the way raw garlic will, but you won't get any health benefits, either.

So what can you do?

Don't worry. It's actually fairly easy (and tasty) to jack up your garlic consumption to five or more cloves a day simply by using it every time you cook. The secret is in the preparation.

When you're preparing garlic, chop or crush it and then let it sit for about 15 minutes at room temperature. This will trigger an enzyme reaction that will significantly increase garlic's most critical health benefits.

You may also want to make a habit of working garlic into your snack habits, too. Fresh hummus is a great place to start.

Most importantly - DON'T OVERCOOK IT! Garlic is like all healthy foods: The more you burn, boil, or baste it, the less healthy it becomes.

And please have some common sense and don't worry about how you may smell after wolfing down this much garlic. It's foolish to pass on the many health benefits of garlic because of a little bit of bad breath. Besides, I haven't met a clove of garlic yet that's stronger than an Altoid.