Garlic is a bulbous root vegetable which belongs to the same family as onions, which was estimated to be the 3rd most popular herbal supplement in 2016, and for good reason.
Firstly, garlic is particularly high in rare sulphurous compounds, including thiacremonone, allicin, and allinase. Because sulphur is one of the main ingredients for glutathione, the main antioxidant manufactured by the human body itself, garlic can increase your glutathione levels sharply, and with it, enhance your brain health, enrich your skin, and protect your muscles.
Secondly, allicin and its cousins have unique powers of their own, with allicin breaking down during digestion into an antioxidant called sulfenic acid, one of the most powerful ever discovered.
Then there’s the mental benefits, improving memory, depression and cognition. Garlic is even believed to reduce the risk of dementia when consumed consistently, including both vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
To obtain garlic, you can cut up fresh bulbs and add them to recipes, but convenient supplements are also available. Some offer specific forms of garlic which aren’t easily available in grocery stores.
That’s why today, we’re going to discuss the 8 best ones. Firstly, a warning: garlic is extremely safe, but side effects among the intolerant may include nausea, vomiting or heartburn. Discontinue supplementation if you experience such problems.
Let’s get started:
One – Pure Mountain Botanicals
Firstly, Pure Mountain Botanicals contains a highly concentrated dose of white garlic bulb, the same easily purchasable garlic in your local grocery store. The garlic itself is organic, with guaranteed freedom from toxic pesticides and herbicides. The dosage is a powerful 500mg per capsule, beating several weaker brands easily.
The additives list, meanwhile, is similarly pure. The only ingredient other than garlic is the vegetable cellulose capsule, with the cellulose sourced from southern pine rather than soy. Pure Mountain Botanicals is free from any suspicious additives like magnesium stearate, croscarmellose, corn flour and maltodextrin. The capsule count is also high, at 90 per bottle, giving you a worthwhile 3 month testing supply.
Pure Mountain Botanicals is also carefully processed, to retain each of the vital sulphurous compounds in the raw garlic bulb, with no harsh extraction methods like chemical solvents used. This brand is even packaged in a dark amber, glass bottle, the ultimate type of jar for keeping UV radiation away and keeping the garlic intact and pure.
Pure Mountain Botanicals may be the greatest garlic supplement available today, whether for skincare or brain health.
Amazon link: Pure Mountain Botanicals Full Spectrum Garlic Pills.
Two – Solaray
The garlic itself is well-extracted, being organic white garlic and extracted using no harsh chemical solvents like hexane. The ingredients list is pure, with only vegetable cellulose for the additives. There’s no magnesium stearate, corn flour, or croscarmellose in sight.
According to reviewers, Solaray also has a milder odour than average, clearly resembling garlic, but without being overwhelming. The dosage is actually slightly higher than Pure Mountain Botanicals, at 560mg per capsule. It’s a similar story for the capsule count, with 100 capsules and 100 days of garlic goodness.
The garic itself is even organically grown, certified by USDA. Garlic is actually among the least contaminated vegetables with agrochemicals, being naturally resistant to pests thanks to its pungent odour, but organic farming guarantees its purity and can also make the plant more nutritious. Yet another advantage is Solaray’s normal sized, easy to swallow capsules.
Solaray cannot be beaten for an affordable, yet extremely potent garlic supplement.
Amazon link: Solaray Organic Garlic Pills.
Three – Doctor Mercola
This fermentation increases the sugar content of the garlic, giving it a sweet taste, and softens the texture into a chewable jelly, but most importantly, the fermentation significantly increases the antioxidant count of black garlic compared to white garlic. It’s estimated that black garlic contains two times more antioxidants than fresh garlic, including numerous phenols and flavonoids. With these antioxidants comes extra acne-clearing, brain-sharpening, and mood-enhancing benefits.
Black garlic has been renowned as a health food in Japan, South Korea and Thailand for centuries, and Doctor Mercola’s brand contains it. You receive 406mg of fermented black garlic per capsule, along with the safe hydroxypropyl methylcellulose capsule and organic rice hull as additives.
Doctor Mercola is even standardised to contain 0.6mg of s-allylcysteine, one of the strongest medicinal compounds. The capsule count is a high 60, while Doctor Mercola is free from all suspicious additives like magnesium stearate and corn flour.
Doctor Mercola is top quality for if you want to experiment with the potentially rewarding black garlic.
Amazon link: Dr. Mercola Fermented Black Garlic.
Four – Peak Performance
This supplement is incredibly pure, as the additives are listed solely as “cellulose and water”. Additionally, the dosage per capsule is a huge 800mg, easily beating Doctor Mercola, which is very powerful itself. The only downside is containing only 30 capsules, but with such a powerful dosage, you could simply take one every two days.
Peak Performance also states that their garlic has a high s-allylcysteine content, at 1.2mg per capsule. This sulphurous compound is found in the highest concentrations in black garlic, since the fermentation process converts much of the γ-glutamylcysteines found in white garlic into it, as well as another beneficial compound called S-1-propenylcysteine. According to studies, s-allylcysteine is strongly anti-inflammatory, scavenges free radicals with great success, and has 90%+ bioavailability when eaten.
Both Peak Performance and Doctor Mercola contain this miracle compound. Another advantage of Peak Performance is its lack of any nonsensical and potentially harmful additives like corn flour, maltodextrin and magnesium stearate.
Is black garlic what you need? Then so is Peak Performance.
Amazon link: Peak Performance Aged Black Garlic.
Five – Oregon’s Wild Harvest
As a company, Oregon’s Wild Harvest is nearly unbeatable for their dedication for purity, with their saw palmetto and cranberry brands also being meticulously produced. The garlic itself is organically grown, certified by Oregon Tilth. There’s neither pesticides nor herbicides and there may even be extra skin-clearing nutrition compared to normal.
Oregon’s Wild Harvest maintains this purity with their additives list, which reads “pullulan non-GMO vegetarian capsule and nothing else“. This brand is manufactured entirely in the USA, with no poor quality Chinese imitations. As for the dosage, it just beats Pure Mountain Botanicals, with a powerful 525mg per capsule, with the capsule count being 90 for a 3 month supply.
Oregon’s Wild Harvest is explicitly confirmed to be free from any soy, corn, wheat, gluten and magnesium stearate. Finally, this brand comes in a bottle which is confirmed to be BPA free.
If guaranteed purity is important for you, Oregon’s Wild Harvest’s garlic cannot be beaten.
Amazon link: Oregon’s Wild Harvest Certified Organic Garlic.
Six – Think Remedy
The dosage is 396mg per capsule, with each bottle containing 60 capsules for a long supply. Like Doctor Mercola, it’s guaranteed to contain 0.6mg of s-allylcysteine per capsule.
The only additives in Think Remedy are the hydroxypropyl methylcellulose capsule and rice hull concentrate, the perfect capsule filler (as opposed to corn flour). There’s also a 30 day refund guarantee, while the factory complies with the Good Manufacturing Practises (GMP) code.
Think Remedy is outstanding as a purely produced black garlic, whereas Solaray is perfect for white garlic. Which should you choose? Black garlic has the advantage of highly concentrated antioxidants, but the fermentation also reduces some of the sulphur compounds of white garlic, including allicin.
That said, the fermentation also produces new sulphurous compounds such as s-allylcysteine. Allicin also creates much of fresh garlic’s pungent aroma, which is why black garlic smells much milder, but the lack of allicin in black garlic will also prevent the glorious sulfenic acid from being created.
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Overall, black garlic wins as a source of dietary antioxidants itself, similarly to eating raspberries or pomegranate, but white garlic may just win as a way to fuel your own antioxidant production. Each will have subtly different effects on your brain and skin, so perhaps you could experiment with both.
If you do choose black garlic, Think Remedy meets every single requirement.
Amazon link: Think Remedy Aged Black Garlic.
Seven – GNC
GNC features a strong dosage of 500mg per capsule, matching Pure Mountain Botanicals in its power. The additives are the harmless microcrystalline cellulose and vegetable cellulose while the capsule count is an above average 100. GNC is also a trustworthy supplement company, with their rhodiola rosea also being very pure and effective.
GNC also boasts of having only a light odour, featuring a patented extract called New-Gar odourless garlic. A garlic with no odour is a poor sign, because it means that it’s nutritionally weak, but having only a mild odour is perfect. GNC is also confirmed to be free from any corn, soy, gluten or wheat. It manages all of this while still being relatively affordable.
GNC does everything which a garlic supplement brand should for skincare and brain health.
Amazon link: GNC Odorless Garlic.
Eight – Swanson
Swanson features a capsule count of 30, while it’s manufactured in a GMP-compliant facility for maximum purity. The additives are gelatin, rice bran, calcium palmitate, and silica, which are all harmless and in the case of gelatin, even feature the amino acid glycine as a healthy bonus.
Interestingly, this brand claims to be from Japan, the ancient home of black garlic production. The dosage is lower than Hippo Herbs, but higher than Doctor Mercola, at 650mg of black garlic per capsule. Sometimes, you’ll also see black garlic being referred to as “aged black garlic”, which is a great thing.
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Consider a bottle of red wine which you keep in a dark cupboard for years; the flavour slowly changes, becoming richer and more unique in unpredictable ways. That’s a sign of the many flavonoids, polyphenols, and other phytonutrients breaking down, reacting with each other and evolving into new sets of compounds which provide both flavour and powerful health benefits at the same time. It’s a similar story with aged garlics like Swanson, with old bioactive compounds being converted into new ones.
If you want some powerful garlic from an old and trusted supplement company, Swanson is the brand for you.
Amazon link: Swanson Aged Black Garlic.
Conclusion
If you’re interested in garlic’s powerful benefits for brain and skin health, but would rather take a simple supplement than cut up whole bulbs and invent new recipes for them, you now have all of the tools you need to succeed.
What would be a good supplement to combine garlic with? Anything that boosts glutathione. If you already have the basics of magnesium, selenium, zinc and glycine covered, that could be milk thistle or maybe NAC. You could also compliment the glutathione-boosting properties with some anti-inflammatory powers from the likes of ginseng.
Despite the massive popularity of garlic as a herbal supplement, the market is doing quite poorly, with countless additive-filled products lurking around. They usually contain the appropriate dosage of garlic, and a pure form of garlic itself, but spoil everything with unnecessary ingredients.
Luckily, every brand listed here is pure, free from magnesium stearate, and powerful enough to succeed.
NEXT: forget creams and moisturisers – discover the ultimate acne-clearing diet
Thanks for reading!
I’ve tried garlic but always seem to get digestive discomfort. Maybe garlic contains too many probiotic bacteria or something? I would like to give garlic another shot though because it is so very cheap.
It’s not probiotics, it’s that garlic and other bulbous root vegetables like onions are rich in FODMAPs. See this article: https://supernaturalacnetreatment.com/fodmaps-a-hidden-cause-of-acne-in-seemingly-clean-fruits-and-vegetables/
hello,
thank you for those vast informative facts. can you please just mention your references.
I don’t give a big list at the end of articles, instead I link to studies one by one when the time comes.