Onions are very good for you
Onion and garlic is a staple in most people’s kitchens. Whether you’re cooking Italian, Mexican or Indonesian; a lot of recipes call for onion and garlic. Onions don’t just provide a great flavour to your food, they’re also very healthy for you. So, there are plenty of reasons to add an onion to your food on a regular basis.
Do you always use onions in your dishes?
1. Good bacteria
We prefer not to think too much about bacteria. They are the things that make you ill, right? Well, not always. We’ve also got a ton of bacteria living inside us that help our bodies stay healthy. Onions contain prebiotic fibres, which do their thing in your intestines. They keep the intestinal flora healthy and regulate the level of bacteria. Onions also contain a substance that stimulates the growth of bifidobacteria. These bacteria repress other bacteria that damage your intestines.
2. Your heart
There’ve been several studies on the effect of onions on your blood. These studies showed that consuming onion on a regular basis considerably reduces the risk of blood clots. Besides, there’s obviously no cholesterol in onions, but they do add a lot of flavour. So, it’s much better to add onion to your food than some extra salt, for example. Salt is bad for your blood pressure, but an onion only has health benefits.
3. Blood sugar
This study is still in its infancy, but researchers have found out that the blood sugar levels of test animals were lowered considerably by onions. Scientists think that the sulfur in onions causes the production of insulin to go up, which lowers your blood sugar level.
4. Risk of cancer
This study is also still a bit too new to draw any definitive conclusions from, but scientists from the University of Guelph have researched the effect of red onion on cancer cells. They claim that onions can kill cancer cells due to the amounts of quercetin and anthocyanin they contain. Of course, this can’t cure people of cancer, but research is being conducted into whether it would be helpful to incorporate onion into medicines. Meanwhile, it can’t hurt to add extra onion to your dish to possibly kill some bad cells.
Source: HLN | Image: Pexels