This article has been Fact-Checked by Kendall Kennedy MS, RD, RYT
There are plenty of foods that supposedly help you lose weight. Some of them work others don’t. What about garlic, is it good for weight loss?
Humans have consumed garlic for a long while. Traces of it have been found in Egyptian pyramids and Greek temples (1).
It can be used for both health benefits and to improve the taste of certain dishes. The question is, can garlic also help you lose weight?
Can garlic help you lose weight?
Just because garlic can provide health benefits doesn’t mean it can also help you lose weight. There are a few studies that take a look at the potential connection between the two.
The first one is a mouse study. 18 mice were divided into 3 groups. Each was fed a high-fat diet to try and make them obese. One group didn’t get any garlic powder, the other 2 groups got varying amounts. After 7 weeks the 2 groups that had the garlic powder gained less weight (11% and 20%). The group with more garlic powder gained less weight (2).
The second study is a 12 week study with 30 postmenopausal women. They were divided into 4 groups: placebo, aged garlic extract, placebo + exercise and aged garlic extract + exercise. They did find a small increase in weight loss when supplementing with the aged garlic extract (3).
A third one is a study with 24 rats similar to the first study. Instead of just garlic powder they were fed a substance called “allicin” present in garlic. Allicin helped slow down weight gain (4).
The last way garlic may help you lose weight is not by burning more fat. Some people love the taste of garlic. For them garlic can flavor up their weight loss diet. This in turn can help with sticking to a healthy eating plan.
Is this enough?
The amount of research on the subject is not that big, the amount of people, mice and rats in the studies was also rather small. Mice and rat studies can provide useful data but it’s just not the same as human studies.
The studies available do make you think but they are not enough to make a good conclusion.
Garlic will most likely not hurt your weight loss efforts but its effect is probably not worth putting any effort in.
That being said, garlic can offer some health benefits so you can add it more to your diet if you want. If you’re only looking at weight loss there are plenty of other foods and habits that can help you more than garlic alone.
If you really love garlic, the taste improvement from using it can also help with sticking to your healthy eating habits.
Who should not consume garlic?
There are some groups of people who better avoid garlic or at least consult with their primary care provider before increasing their intake by big amounts:
- Allergic to the allium family (onions, leeks,…)
- Pregnant or breastfeeding women
- People with an upcoming surgery
- People with hemophilia (people whose blood has trouble clotting)
- People with a stomach ulcer
- People with diabetes
- People who take medication
For most other people garlic can provide many health benefits.
Eerst gewoon het antwoord en dan but it can be healthy for the following reasons: nutritional info en extra substances en health benefits
Other health benefits of garlic
The weight loss effects might not be clear but some positive effects of garlic on your health are.
- It can help prevent sickness like the common cold (5)
- It can help reduce blood pressure (6, 7, 8)
- It can protect your heart (9)
- It can improve cholesterol levels (10)
Don’t focus too much on garlic for weight loss
For most people it can be beneficial for their health to consume more garlic.
However, in terms of weight loss there is not yet enough evidence that garlic helps that much.
It is most likely a lot better to focus your weight loss efforts on other areas of your diet and health.
