Wednesday Dec 3, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) -- Eating garlic and onions may reduce risk of diet-induced cholesterol gallstones, a study in the Nov 2008 issue of British Journal of Nutrition suggests.

The study showed using dietary garlic and onion at levels of 0.6 percent and 2.0 percent respectively can cut the risk of cholesterol gallstones by 15 to 39 percent in mice fed a lithogenic diet.

Vidyashankar S and colleagies from Central Food Technological Research Institute in India found that dietary garlic and onion markedly reduced biliary cholesterol and serum and liver cholesterol.

The ratio of cholesterol to phospholipid ratio in mice fed garlic and onion was 0.73 to 0.96 compared to 1.58 in groups fed only lithogenic diet.

The biliary cholesterol saturation index was also lowered in mice fed the heat-processed onion, raw garlic, heat-processed garlic and raw onion to 0.92, 1.25, 1.09 and 0.86, respectively compared to 1.9 in the lithogenic diet group.