Garlic lovers rejoice. Here's some good news for your heart and your breath.

Lightly cooking garlic to help soften the smell won't rob it of those heart-protective compounds known as thiosulfinates. So you can cut back on the mints and start feeling better about baking, boiling or sauteing it. Just don't microwave it.

When researchers set out to see how various preparation methods affected garlic's ability to break up clusters of artery-clogging platelets in the bloodstream, they tried boiling, baking and microwaving both crushed and uncrushed garlic cloves.

Lightly cooked crushed garlic aced the test -- as long as it wasn't cooked in the microwave. This cooking method sapped the garlic of all its good-for-you attributes. No matter how you serve it up, always crush garlic first. Crushing the cloves is what releases the beneficial thiosulfinates in the first place.

Source: www.RealAge.com