Overview
Onions have been regarded as one of the foods that have healing effect for many years world over. Today we are going to look into depth the different health benefits of eating onions. Onions contain a high amount of flavonoids and polyphenols that have been identified by scientist as key factors in fighting disease. There has also been some possibility that onions help in fighting or preventing occurrence of cancer. Onions come in different colors and sizes but they all contain these important elements.
Health Benefits
We are going to look into depth the different health benefits of eating onions. The following are some of the health benefits of eating onions:
Rich Source of Sulfides important for Detoxification
There are many health benefits of eating onions, they contain the four major sulfides that include : diallyl sulfides: DMS (diallyl monosulfide), DDS (diallyl disulfide), DTS (diallyl trisulfide), and DTTS (diallyl tetrasulfide). Also present are a wide variety of sulfoxides, including (+) S-methyl-L-cysteine sulfoxide (MCSO), (+)-S-(1-propenyl)-L-cysteine sulfoxide (PRENCSO), S-methyl-l-cysteine sulfoxide, S-propyl-l-cysteine sulfoxide, and S-propenyl-l-cysteine sulfoxide.
These sulfides are important for fighting diseases making onions an important diet source of sulfides. These sulfides will help bind poisoning heavy metals that accumulated in the body and thereby reduce their potency to cause disease. These heavily metals may be taken in the diet over long period of time and become toxic over a long period of time.
Richest Source of quercitin
Antioxidants play an important role in the oxidation of free radicals that predispose the body to cancer and therefore onions are a very important source of a crucial antioxidant quercitin. In fact onions health benefits are all tied to this single factor that they are rich in quercitin.
Quercitin has been found in many researches to have the ability of to thinning the blood, lowering cholesterol, raising the amount of the HDL cholesterol (good cholesterol), preventing blood clots, fighting asthma, preventing chronic bronchitis, diabetes and atherosclerosis.
Help Prevent Asthma
As stated above onions are important in preventing asthma attack and have been used as a home remedy for asthma for many years. Onion juice in particular has been found to be one of the most effective forms of onion intake in helping prevent asthma.
Help manage Blood sugar and prevent diabetes
Onions have been identified as an important diet component that help in reducing blood sugar and therefore prevent occurrence of diabetes. Onions have also been shown to help in promoting the production of insulin an important competent in management of blood sugar. Allyl propyl disulfide and diallyl disulfide in onions has the ability to lower blood sugar levels.
Fighting Cancer, Heart Disease and Blood Pressure
The fact that onions have the most potent antioxidant shows they have the ability to fight cancer the leading killer disease in the world today. Onions also prevent or reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension and arteriosclerosis. As shown above onions contain a number of sulfides and flavonoids (quercetin) that prevent heart attacks and other cardiovascular diseases.Health Benefits of Eating Onions
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