If you are into the habit of separating onions in your food only because you don’t like to eat them, it’s high time you should change your habits. Onions provide many amazing health benefits. Onions are essential members of the food groups that act as overall health boosters just by consuming them.
According to recent research, on being compared to some other vegetables and fruits, onions not only provide a high nutrition punch, but also contain other essential vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. Every serving of one onion offers:
Manganese – 0.2 mg (19% RDA)
Vitamin B6 – 0.2 mg (10% RDA)
Vitamin C – 11.1 mg (19% RDA)
Potassium – 219 mg (6% RDA)
Folate – 28.5 micrograms (7% RDA)
Along with the various nutrients mentioned above, onions also contain many other chemical constituents. Of these constituents, the two most powerful antioxidants that stand out all others are sulphur and quercetin. As a matter of fact, onion is the richest known source of quercetin. Therefore, it is considered as the most significant source of antioxidants.
Benefits of Onion For The Body
Although onions are notoriously known for tears and bad breath, they provide amazing antibacterial and therapeutic properties besides adding an excellent taste to your palates. These properties detox and cleanse your bodies to eliminate various diseases.
In addition, onions also provide numerous other health benefits for our body.
1. Helps With Diabetes
Onions are a good source of quercetin. This compound is said to bring down the risk of contracting diabetes by a good 20%.
[ Read: How To Get Rid of Diabetes ]
2. Anti-Microbial And Anti-Bacterial Properties
Onions are a great source of sulphides and thiosulfinates. Both these ingredients help in prevention of diseases like bacillus subtilis, E.coli, and salmonella.
3. Excellent Detox
Onions contain two amino acids packed with sulphur – cysteine and methionine – which are simply great to detox the body from heavy metals like lead, mercury, and cadmium. In addition to this, onions also contain a high amount of vitamin C which is again an amazing antioxidant.
[ Read: How To Detox Your Body For Overall Fitness ]
4. Supports Heart Health
Onions are considered as one of the heart healthy foods. Well, the quercetin contained by onions makes it good. It lowers the blood pressure significantly in hypertensive adults. Besides, this amazing vegetable is considered too possess excellent heart-protective properties that are equivalent to those contained by red wine. Onions help to maintain healthy blood pressure, inhibit the hardening of arteries while maintaining the elasticity of arteries.
5. Improves Oral Health
Although raw onions lead to bad breath, they are actually amazing. Just chew a raw onion to strengthen and eliminate bacteria responsible for tooth decay. About 2-3 minutes of chewing an onion can kill most germs in the mouth.
6. Prevents Cancer
Onions, when combined with turmeric, also prevent the risk of cancer. This combination creates a synergistic effect that helps to reduce the size as well as a number of precancerous hosts inside your intestine, thus reducing the risk of colon cancer. Furthermore, onions also aid detoxification of potential carcinogens, found in the onion’s cell wall.
7. Acts As A Blood Thinner
Onions assist the blood thinning process through thiosulfinates contained in them. These thiosulfinates provide the pungent odour and are also responsible for teary eyes when cutting the onions. In addition, this compound of sulphur prevents the blood platelets from aggregating and thus works as a natural blood thinner. The clustering of platelets in the blood increases the risk of a heart attack or stroke significantly. Eating raw onions can provide the highest content of thiosulfate as compared to cooked onions as cooking reduces the quality of this compound notably.
8. Anti-Inflammatory
Onions are also great to reduce inflammation. They contain organo-sulphurs, antioxidant compounds that aid to fight inflammation. Inflammation in the body can lead to diseases like asthma, heart disease and arthritis. Regular consumption of this compound through onions and garlic can help to prevent the development of heart diseases in future. Moreover, these compounds also reduce inflammation in blood vessels, an indication of heart ailment, by keeping the blood platelets separated and inhibiting the production of toxic elements.
9. Rich Source of Fibre
Fibre is a component contained by all plant-based food, onions included. Fibre consumption through diet aids regulation of blood sugar, reduction of bad cholesterol, promotion of healthy functioning of the intestines, and maintaining proper body weight. Furthermore, onions also contain a special form of fibre, called fructan, a soluble fibre that turns into gel-like substance in the colon and converts to fatty acids. These fatty acids further act as natural laxative that stimulates bowel movements. The fructan contained in onions helps to promote the growth of good bacteria in the intestines, thus helping to fight any type of colon infections.
10. Skin Benefits
This amazing vegetable also provides excellent skin benefits in addition to the various health benefits. Onions are packed with antioxidant vitamins A, C and E that can work wonders for your skin. Some of the most important skin benefits provided by onions are:
- Complexion Enhancement
Onions help in blood purification and also facilitate essential flavonoids that help vitamin C in its functioning. Onion consumption and topical application of onion juice helps to keep the skin healthy and glowing. - Treats Acne
Onion contains antibacterial, antimicrobial, and anti-inflammatory qualities that can work wonders for your skin. It is also a powerful antiseptic that provides protection to the skin from acne-causing bacteria along with other skin infections. All these qualities make onions perfect for use in the treatment of pimples and acne. - Anti-Aging Benefits
Onions provide amazing anti-aging benefits. The high content of anti-oxidant vitamins A, C and E help combat the damage caused by harmful UV rays. Onions also prevent the free radical damage responsible for premature aging of the skin. In addition, onion is one of the richest sources of quercetin, an amazing and probably most powerful antioxidant to keep the skin wrinkle free. Furthermore, the sulphur and vitamins also provide protection to the skin while keeping it soft and supple. All these anti-benefits of onions are attributed to the high content of sulphur rich phytochemicals. Just massage your skin with fresh onion juice to improve the blood circulation and thus the overall appearance of your skin by making it look more radiant and youthful.
However, excess of anything is not good. Similarly, excessive intake of onions can also pose some side effects besides the amazing nutritive values. These side effects can include significant fall in blood sugar levels, skin irritation, gastric burning, bad breath, and heartburn. Therefore, eat a quantity that is healthy and helpful. Any more than that can be harmful in one way or the other.
How big a fan of onions are you?
Share your views in the comments below!