# Could milk neutralize garlic's health value? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 11, 2014, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-milk-neutralize-garlics-health-value/704321 "2014-11-11T10:10:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![squish7](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squish7/32/104_2.png) [@squish7](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squish7)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2014, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-milk-neutralize-garlics-health-value/704321/1 "2014-11-11T10:10:21Z")
Throughout history garlic has been used as a powerful anti-disease tool. Everything says that crushing garlic as thoroughly as possible and consuming immediately is the best way to reap its benefits, but doing this by chewing it is difficult, it leaves your mouth on fire. I find milk helps, but a surface form of common sense says if it neutralizes the bad flavor it may neutralize the health value. Any chance of this? ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2014, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-milk-neutralize-garlics-health-value/704321/2 "2014-11-11T10:31:47Z")
No. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2014, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-milk-neutralize-garlics-health-value/704321/3 "2014-11-11T11:22:57Z")
I bet that does wonders for your love life:) ---
**Author:** ![SDarbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/439d5e/32.png) [@SDarbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SDarbo)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2014, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-milk-neutralize-garlics-health-value/704321/4 "2014-11-11T12:11:12Z")
No peer reviewed and replicated studies to cite, but I assume milk’s ability to temper the supertaste from fresh garlic does not neutralize garlic’s benefits. If you feel milk undoes some benefits, perhaps you could posit a mechanism by which you think benefits get minimized, then people would have something to argue against or for. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2014, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-milk-neutralize-garlics-health-value/704321/5 "2014-11-11T12:48:43Z")
I feel obligated to expand on my earlier answer. Using milk to wash the compounds that irritate your mucus membranes away will have no effect at all on your ability to digest those compounds. (Also you never want to eat the garlic straight - crush it and wait about ten minutes before eating. This gives the chemicals time to react and form the pungent compound.) ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2014, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-milk-neutralize-garlics-health-value/704321/6 "2014-11-11T13:58:16Z")
What benefits are you speaking of? I am unaware of any actual peer-reviewed evidence that garlic has any demonstrated health-related properties, other than its basic nutritional value as a food. There are a lot of claims being made for it as a ‘wonderfood’, but I don’t believe they’ve yet proven out. And I sort of doubt that they will, personally. Its efficacy as a lipid-lowering agent has failed to prove out. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2014, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-milk-neutralize-garlics-health-value/704321/7 "2014-11-11T17:08:34Z")
What happens if you just rinse your mouth out with milk and don’t swallow it? ---
**Author:** ![squish7](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squish7/32/104_2.png) [@squish7](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squish7)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2014, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-milk-neutralize-garlics-health-value/704321/8 "2014-11-11T17:45:31Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > What benefits are you speaking of? > > I am unaware of any actual peer-reviewed evidence that garlic has any demonstrated health-related properties, other than its basic nutritional value as a food. There are a lot of claims being made for it as a ‘wonderfood’, but I don’t believe they’ve yet proven out. And I sort of doubt that they will, personally. Its efficacy as a lipid-lowering agent has failed to prove out. Ah, the ego of science. If it hasn’t been proven in a lab, there’s no such thing. Just plain fallacious. If you want to allude to the scientific method, then factor in here the weight of experimental data: Garlic has been used all across history by endless cultures as a powerful disease deterrent. That’s a case study of millions of people spanning thousands of years. (Google “garlic immunity” and skim through the top 5-10 results, or read the [“Historical use” section](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garlic#Historical_use) of the ‘garlic’ Wikipedia article.) I’ve been putting a lot of faith into the scientific premises that “wonderfoods” are over-hyped and unproven, but if this instance is an example of the logic/mentality behind these supposed debunkings, it makes me take a big step back from them. How can I trust a system that claims to follow the scientific method but picks and chooses the data it factors in? I can understand saying “We just don’t know _ **why** _ garlic cures all these diseases yet”, but what more thorough case study do you need than the reports of whole thriving cultures across multiple _millennia_? ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2014, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-milk-neutralize-garlics-health-value/704321/9 "2014-11-11T17:50:15Z")
The first 10 google hits on “garlic immunity” are all pretty heavily lacking any real evidence, despite hand-waving. Citing Dr. Oz does not impress. Nor does citing Wiki. Nor does an appeal to antiquity, tradition, or popularity. We will don’t know _ **that** _ garlic cures **anything** yet. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2014, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-milk-neutralize-garlics-health-value/704321/10 "2014-11-11T18:25:56Z")
And that is why I did not address the alledged health benefits, just that drinking milk willl not chemically change any “active ingradients.” ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2014, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-milk-neutralize-garlics-health-value/704321/11 "2014-11-11T19:23:34Z")
> [@squish7](#): > > How can I trust a system that claims to follow the scientific method but picks and chooses the data it factors in? You haven’t presented any data, yet. It’s not clear that there is any data that supports your case. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2014, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-milk-neutralize-garlics-health-value/704321/12 "2014-11-11T20:02:11Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **squish7** : > > Ah, the ego of science. If it hasn’t been proven in a lab, there’s no such thing. No, that’s the humility of science. Ego is insisting that you know something works just because you can’t possibly be wrong, even though you don’t have data on it. ---
**Author:** ![dracoi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@dracoi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dracoi)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2014, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-milk-neutralize-garlics-health-value/704321/13 "2014-11-11T22:35:48Z")
> [@DrFidelius](#): > > And that is why I did not address the alledged health benefits, just that drinking milk willl not chemically change any “active ingradients.” I wouldn’t count on that, though. For example, studies with iron absorption from spinach show that the foods you consume alongside can make a big difference. Foods containing vitamin C prevent the oxalic acid in the spinach from binding the iron. To address whether something similar happens between garlic and milk, we’d have to identify which compounds were providing the health benefit. (Which, of course means first identifying a health benefit at all.) I’m pretty sure that historical claims about garlic’s health benefits are based on its anti-microbial properties in food. If your stone-age family gets food poisoning less often than your neighbors because of garlic, that is a demonstrable benefit. In the modern world, though, we’re probably better off using refrigerators for that purpose. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2014, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-milk-neutralize-garlics-health-value/704321/14 "2014-11-12T01:06:35Z")
It possibly depends on the mechanism of action of the possible beneficial effect. Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner’s 2000 year old man bit had the old man claiming garlic was the secret to his long life … “Every night I eat ten cloves garlic. The Angel of Death coes knocking on my door. I answer: HALLO. WHO is it? and he goes away!” (paraphrased) Maybe it cuts down on the frequency of the [common cold](http://summaries.cochrane.org/CD006206/ARI_garlic-for-the-common-cold) but maybe because people don’t come so close? Your milk wash might might your breath stink less and neutralize the impact. Of course soical isolation has its own health costs … Might help lower [high blood pressure](http://summaries.cochrane.org/CD007653/HTN_garlic-for-hypertension) a bit (per Cochrane). The evidence that it does much good in and of itself in any form seems pretty sparse. Assuming it does there is no apparent reason (other than diminishing the health benefits gained from garlic breath keeping other people at a safer infectious disease distance) that crushed raw garlic would be healthier than eating it in foods, or if one believes (because of who knows why) that cooking it would diminish its possible effects that milk would change the nature of its impact. The best health impact of garlic to me is that it tastes great as part of many many very healthy dishes. Broccoli sauted in garlic and olive oil over pasta … Garlicky beans and greens … Roasted heads of garlic drizzled with olive oil spread on damn near anything … Chinese vegetables and tofu with garlic and red pepper … Raw? Blech. My favorite [garlic and milk study](http://herbs.ph/attachments/article/1159/The%20Effects%20of%20Repeated%20Exposure%20to%20Garlic-Flavored%20Milk%20on%20the%20Nursling's%20~.pdf): Breastfed infants whose mothers ate garlic infrequently fed more after their mothers ate garlic. 🙂 Ancient wisdom is a fine reason to investigate something. They might have been on to something. Or not. Or something that ws applicable in the time and place of then and not now. Deferring to ancient wisdom as evidence seems less than wise. But garlic at least has a good safety profile … and in foods? What’s not to like? ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2014, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-milk-neutralize-garlics-health-value/704321/15 "2014-11-12T14:56:12Z")
> [@squish7](#): > > Garlic has been used all across history by endless cultures as a powerful disease deterrent. But endless cultures have also deterred disease by making signs to ward off the evil eye, wrapping one’s throat in red (but no other color of) cloth, and sacrificing animals and/or children to the Temple Gods. Are you saying they should all be assumed to work until proved otherwise? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2014, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-milk-neutralize-garlics-health-value/704321/16 "2014-11-12T15:17:27Z")
Allicin (the “reactive” molecule in garlic) has been shown to have intriguing effects in vitro (i.e. in test tube studies) - acting as a fungicide and anti-cancer agent, for instance. Unfortunately these effects are largely unproven in living systems (a major problem is that allicin is an unstable short-lived compound that isn’t absorbed well in the human body). I love garlic, the hotter and spicier the better (I’m growing a new (to me) variety called “Georgian Fire” in the garden for next year’s harvest). But I’m under no illusion it’ll have fantabulous health effects. Might make the platelets a wee bit slipperier. > [@squish7](#): > > If you want to allude to the scientific method, then factor in here the weight of experimental data: Garlic has been used all across history by endless cultures as a powerful disease deterrent. That’s a case study of millions of people spanning thousands of years. That would be more convincing if those same millions of people across the eons hadn’t also been dropping like flies from various diseases all that time. > [@](#): > > How can I trust a system that claims to follow the scientific method but picks and chooses the data it factors in? If you think that’s the case, try countering with whatever convincing data you think you’ve found. > [@](#): > > I can understand saying “We just don’t know _ **why** _ garlic cures all these diseases yet”, but what more thorough case study do you need than the reports of whole thriving cultures across multiple _millennia_? What are these “thriving cultures”, and what are/were their mortality/morbidity rates compared to hapless modern non-garlic worshipping cultures? Besides, everyone knows it’s not garlic, but apple cider vinegar that cures all these diseases. Or vitamin C. Or changing your body pH to alkaline. Or resveratrol. Or moringa oil. Or coffee enemas. Or drinking your own urine. Or maybe they all work, I get confused. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2014, 1:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-milk-neutralize-garlics-health-value/704321/17 "2014-11-13T01:49:30Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > … Besides, everyone knows it’s not garlic, but apple cider vinegar that cures all these diseases. Or vitamin C. Or changing your body pH to alkaline. Or resveratrol. Or moringa oil. Or coffee enemas. Or drinking your own urine. Or maybe they all work, I get confused. Well that confusion might being caused by eating too much garlic, at least according to [ancient wisdom](http://absolutetruth.in/forums/topic/why-its-recommended-to-avoid-onion-and-garlic): > [@](#): > > … Taoists believe that onion and garlic not only turn your breath foul, but also your Chi or life force energy itself. That life force energy carries with it the truth of who we are, and all the possibilities for our life. When we introduce garlic and onions (among other things), we compromise our clarity about our true path. … 🙂 **squish7** seriously the idea that > [@](#): > > Garlic has been used all across history by endless cultures as a powerful disease deterrent. is a series of case studies is silly. You might as well get into one of those tiresome atheist vs beliver debates and argue that the fact that god-concepts have been used across history by endless cultures as evidence that god(s) exist. If you believe I doubt that such is a strong part of why … ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2014, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-milk-neutralize-garlics-health-value/704321/18 "2014-11-13T03:42:43Z")
> [@squish7](#): > > If you want to allude to the scientific method, then factor in here the weight of experimental [sic] data: Garlic has been used all across history by endless cultures as a powerful disease deterrent. That’s a case study of millions of people spanning thousands of years. . . . but what more thorough case study do you need than the reports of whole thriving cultures across multiple _millennia_? Hey, Astrology’s been around for, what, [four thousand years](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_astrology#Early_origins) (give or take) and (alas) it too thrives. And, I’ll raise your puny “millions of people” to billions (alas) when it comes to Astrology. Bad luck to walk under ladders? Even better. [Five thousand years](http://www.livescience.com/33507-origins-of-superstitions.html)! Okay, I admit we’re back to “millions” and not “billions” but what’s an order of magnitude among friends? Eh? Are you keeping your fingers crossed that I’ll screw up this post and make an ass of myself (well, more than usual)? Yes? Then you’re part of a practice “[spanning thousands of years](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossed_fingers) . . .but what more thorough case study do you need than the reports of whole thriving cultures across multiple _millennia_?” _I_ believe, man. I _believe_.