For years I've known regularly eating garlic or taking a garlic supplement may provide many health benefits. Garlic is a natural remedy for lowering high blood pressure and high LDL cholesterol while raising the level of HDL (good) cholesterol. It may be effective for combating atherosclerosis and it definitely contains a big dose of antioxidants such as vitamin C, selenium, germanium, manganese, zinc, calcium and different proteins.

I don't believe the claim that garlic will prevent cancer, but I'm quite certain when consumed on a daily basis it will strengthen your immunity system, which is justification enough for me to take it seriously. The problem is garlic pills give me gas and while I like garlic in food I don't want to eat it every day.

I recently discovered the answer to my dilemma while waiting in line at the checkout counter at Berkeley Bowl, which is Berkeley's great homegrown grocery store. Positioned to be one of those last second purchases you make was a bunch of sandwich bag sized packages of something I had never heard of or seen before--Black Garlic.

I picked up a package and read that the claim that Black Garlic is sweet and soft with a hint of garlic flavor, and more importantly "without smell." Costing around $3.50 for four heads of garlic, I could see that it is dry, brown and flaky looking--not very appetizing but what the heck, I decided to give it a try.

Once I was home and before putting the groceries away, I dug out the package, opened it and peeled away the dry skin to reveal a charcoal black garlic clove that was slightly moist and soft to the touch. I popped into my mouth. It tasted sweet, almost like molasses, with a hint of tamarind and it was easy to chew.

Wow, I thought, this is delicious. And the marketing message on the package was no lie--Black Garlic is odorless and will not give you halitosis. It is sticky though, tiny pieces can lodge in between your teeth much like raisins.

I've been eating a clove of Black Garlic almost every morning since and I hope to continue doing this but worry about being able to find it as I haven't seen it at any other food stores.

It turns out that the particular Black Garlic I'm eating was "invented" by a Korean-American named Scott Kim who has developed a high-heat fermentation process that turns garlic heads from Korea into Black Garlic in 30 days. Mr. Kim has applied for a patent and currently his company in Southern California is the only supplier.

Whether or not Black Garlic existed before he came along is debatable. Some people think it is an ancient Asian dish which was previously fermented over a period of years in earth jars that were buried in the ground. I've search around the Internet and haven't found anything to verify this or not.

Also, there is a claim that during the fermentation process, a naturally occurring antibiotic and anti-fungal found in garlic called "Allicine" is turned into "S-Allycysteine" which is water soluble and far easier for the body to absorb. Black Garlic supposedly has twice the antioxidant power of regular garlic.

It gets more interesting. Chefs have discovered it. Eric Ripert of New York's top rated seafood restaurant, Le Bernadin, uses it to garnish monkfish and it has made an appearance on both Top Chef and Iron Chef television shows. I tried shaved pieces of Black Garlic on deviled eggs and it was really delicious.

To learn more about Black Garlic and more importantly, how to order it or where to buy it, you can check out Mr. Kim's website, aptly named blackgarlic.com.

And if you'd like to read more, here's an interesting article which even includes a recipe for Black Garlic with Scalaps: Aged Black Garlic: A New Superfood?

To read more health and longevity articles from Dave Bunnell: my-wellness-coach.com 

posted at 07:43:41 AM