by palsoma76 » Thu Mar 28, 2013 12:35 am
There are none that are proven by science. There is some evidence that it's possible that garlic kills some bacteria and/or viruses in a petri dish, but that's a far cry from having any health benefits for a person who eats it.
My favorite anecdote (and yes, I am aware that anecdotes are not evidence, but they are amusing) about the reported health benefits of garlic is this:
Friend: Do you have any raw garlic? I have a cold?
Me: Why garlic?
F: Garlic is a natural anti-viral.
M: Really? I had never heard that.
Friend #2: Yeah, that's what he eats garlic every day. Didn't you wonder about that?
M: Yeah...
F1: Yeah, I eat a head of garlic every day.
M: Well if you eat that much garlic every day, and garlic kills viruses, and you got this cold anyway, why do you think that more garlic would kill the virus that gave you this cold? At the very least, this cold is immune to garlic. Possibly, garlic is not anti-viral.
F1: <silence>