Can You Juice Garlic?

Can you juice garlic or is it going to make you sick? Will it give you gas? And why would you even want to juice garlic.

Simple questions and honestly not too uncommon when you get deep into the health food scene. There comes a time when people who are into juicing, especially those who like juicing leafy greens and drink kale and spinach and wheatgrass become curious about garlic.

But garlic? Garlic Juice? It sounds so strong! But believe me there are lots of people who do juice raw garlic. As we will see below there are some really good reasons to juice garlic.

Can You Juice Garlic?

The first question is can you juice garlic or is it something (like an avocado, or almond) that can’t be juiced. Well, yes, the simple answer is that you can juice garlic. Garlic is similar to ginger in that it’s often used in cooking as an aromatic, but it certainly can be juiced.

Also, like ginger, garlic produces juice when it’s put though a masticating juicer. You might not want to drink a pure garlic juice, but if you’re looking to get more fresh raw garlic into your diet and you don’t eat whole cloves raw or put garlic into your smoothies like Joe Rogan, then adding a clove to your green drink is a great plan.

Why Would You Want To Juice Garlic?

There are lots of reasons that you might want to juice garlic. These all have to do with the fact that raw garlic is one of the healthiest foods in existence. It’s been used for centuries (millennia even, when you consider it dates back to ancient Rome) as a curative. Ancient Romans used to eat raw garlic before going into battle, for instance. And this has interesting ties to garlic ability to promote energy and also protect against disease. Two things very helpful for anyone who is going to march off into battle.

But more than a history lesson, raw garlic is one of the best foods for all health issues ranging from heart disease, cholesterol, cancer prevention, and immune health. And it’s the raw form of garlic that is beneficial. If you eat it raw you get the health benefits that cooked garlic is sometimes lacking.

While there is some debate as to how much more potent raw garlic is as opposed cooked garlic, there is no debate as to the superiority of raw garlic (and by extension garlic juice). So, it makes sense that you would want to eat it or, in this case, juice it.

Is Raw Garlic Juice Healthy?

Yes, as we’ve already discussed, garlic juice is health in that raw garlic is healthy. It’s a nutient in garlic called allicin that is particualry healthy. Studies all over the world have found that it’s the compound in raw garlic that is beneficial and provides all of the health benefits. It is activated when the garlic is crushed, hence why you see articles suggesting that you crush garlic and let it sit before using it. This “activates” the allicin.

And juicing raw garlic is the only way I’d have garlic juice. I would never buy garlic juice, if such a thing even existed. And I would certainly never buy roasted and cooked garlic and use this in my juicer. You run the risk of getting sick buying precooked garlic.

If you’re looking for any sort of health benefits associated with garlic (such as those covered by theLinus Pauling studies) then I would juice only raw organic garlic.

Can You Juice Raw Garlic?

Yes, you can juice garlic. It’s not like other non-juicable items such as avocados or nuts. Technically it is not too hard or too soft to run through a juicer.

And as we have discussed, you should only be juicing raw garlic. You never want to roast garlic and juice it.  The roasted garlic and any other type of cooked garlic is simply impossible to juice.

In fact, I will say it this way: If you are going to juice garlic….you should only be using raw garlic. And one step further. You should only use organic raw garlic.

What Type of Garlic Should You Juice?

You should only be using organic garlic grown in the United States (or if you’re a reader from Europe, a locally grown garlic). China is infamous for producing most of the worlds garlic, but it’s anything but healthy. Expose after expose has been written to cover the unhealthy garlic growing practices of the Chinese including bleaching their garlic.

I would also strongly reccomend that you do not buy pre-peeled garlic. While it is much easier and less time consuming to juice garlic if you don’t have to peel it, there are some serious concerns when you buy pre-peeled garlic. I would suggest you stick to buying an organic garlic in head form and peel it yourself.

Also, stay far away from minced and pre-cut garlic. That garlic is sometimes soaked in a preservative that prevents mold. You don’t want to injest any of these addidities, which is the number one reason I tell everyone to steer clear of pre-minced garlic and all pre-cut vegetables for that matter.

What Would You Juice With Garlic?

Good question. I’d stick to leafy greens and things that have a neutral taste such as cucumbers. You don’t want to mix garlic and fruit as a rule. It’s just not a good food and juice combo. There are two ways you could approach this.

1. You could go the V8 style. You could add peppers, and make it a celery and tomato heavy drink. The garlic would act like the “bite” that you sometimes find in tomato juices from black pepper. And if you’re doing it that way, you could even add some turmeric.
2. The other way to go about juicing garlic is to make it palatable by using lemon. This juice might be a kale and cucumbers. By adding a lemon, you’re masking some of the garlic flavor. And lemons unlike most fruits pair quite nicely with garlic!