Last night, on our weekly Broad Minded talk show, we brought up the subject of onions based on an article in the Los Angeles Times. Apparently, Gill's Onions, a company based in California, has issued a voluntary recall of bags of their sliced and diced onions. This large recall, triggered when the bacterium Listeria monocytogenes were detected at a processing plant, has stores across the country pulling “tons of ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook foods” off their shelves. Listeria can penetrate and replicate inside human cells and can cause aggravating symptoms. We are exposed to it by eating contaminated food. Listeria can be truly dangerous and possibly even deadly to the elderly, pregnant women, children, and those with compromised immune systems. Read more about Listeria here: Listeria.
I would never buy sliced or diced onions in a bag, but I can understand why some folks do. The whole process of chopping up onions is so aggravating. It's almost impossible to do with out crying; thanks to the enzyme alliinase. When an onion is cut or crushed; this is what causes our eyes to water. We try all kinds of tricks to avoid the tears: running onions under cold water or popping them in the freezer for a few minutes prior to chopping. I've actually tried putting my cutting board right in the sink and running the cold water as I chop. No luck. I still cry. I am tempted to try my brother's trick. He wears safety goggles when he chops onions. For Real. Here's a video of that: Joe Chopping Onions.
The only advice I can give is to use a very sharp, good quality knife and chop as fast as you can. And keep a box of tissues handy. Oh. And don't buy sliced and diced onions in a bag. Buy whole, organic onions and suck it up. Chopping is actually great therapy and sometimes a good cry is just what we need.
Last night, on the show, another question came up. What are onions actually good for? Well... besides adding great flavor to food, onions do have health benefits. Tons of benefits. I didn't want to take up the entire show singing the praises of onions, so I thought I would talk about all those benefits here.
Brace yourselves because I think you are going to be very surprised!
Onions are a very good source of vitamin C, B6, biotin, chromium, calcium and dietary fiber. They are also rich in folic acid and vitamin B1 and K.
They also contain flavonoids, which are pigments that give vegetables their colour. These compounds act as antioxidants, have a direct antitumor effect and have immune-enhancing properties.
Onions contain a large amount of sulfur and are especially good for the liver. As a sulfur food, they mix best with proteins, as they stimulate the action of the amino acids to the brain and nervous system.
The onion is the richest dietary source of quercitin, a potent antioxidant flavonoid (also in shallots, yellow and red onions only but not in white onions), which is found on and near the skin and is particularly linked to the health benefits of onions. Quercitin has been shown to thin the blood, lower cholesterol, raise good-type HDL cholesterol, ward off blood clots, fight asthma, chronic bronchitis, hay fever, diabetes, atherosclerosis and infections and is specifically linked to inhibiting human stomach cancer. It's also an anti-inflammatory, antibiotic, antiviral, thought to have diverse anti-cancer powers. Quercitin is also a sedative. So far, there is no better food source of quercitin than onion skins.
Onions help detoxify your body, can help keep your blood free of clots, boost beneficial HDL cholesterol, lower triglycerides, and lower your blood pressure.
Onions are loaded with antioxidants so they are excellent for cancer prevention. In fact, an onion extract was found to destroy tumor cells in test tubes and to arrest tumor growth when tumor cells were implanted in rats.
Onions have also been shown to have a significant blood sugar-lowering action, even comparable to some prescription drugs. The active compound that seems to be responsible for lowering glucose works by competing with insulin for breakdown sites in the liver, thereby increasing the life span of insulin.
If you are concerned about diabetes; EAT YOUR ONIONS!!
Here is the good news:
You don't need to eat loads of onions to achieve these benefits. Studies show that you can reap the health benefits of onions by eating just one medium onion, raw or cooked, a day. So... chop them up, cook them up, and toss onions in everything!
I think all the amazing benefits of onions are worth a few tears. Don't you?
Source: Health Benefits of Onions
