When and how to take garlic?

I eat 5 or 6 cloves of garlic a day - when I remember! I eat garlic sometimes in the morning on an empty stomach and sometimes at night after dinner - there's no fixed time. I am looking for the best time - morning, afternoon, evening, night, after/before food, on an empty stomach?

What is the best way to take it? If the cloves are small I am able to swallow them whole (rarely). Otherwise I cut them into small pieces and take them as soon as I cut them with minimum exposure to air which changes its composition. However Dr, Weil suggests chopping the garlic and exposing it to air for 10 or 15 minutes before eating it. Does garlic exposed to air have different properties to that not exposed?

Prof. B.M. Hegde suggests chewing the raw garlic in the mouth before eating it as he claims that saliva interacts with it and produces the greatest benefit. I have tried this just once and it burned my mouth a bit but if it's beneficial I shall attempt to do it again. I am not bothered about the smell in the mouth.

'Garlic pearls' are out of the equation for me.

Thanks.

[rvmasalvad]

i have read somewhere that garlic cloves finely ground and mixed with honey ,if taken on empty stomach in the morning will be helpful.

[MikePollard]

What are you trying to achieve?

[MikePollard]

Good luck with that whilst chowing down on the standard diet eh?