Today we're going to be talking about one of my very good old friends, Onions. This gal and I go waaaaay back. So I'll give you a brief history of this dear friend of mine. She's a lot older than I am but like they say " age is nothing but a number". I promise not to bore you with all her scientific make up, I'll just keep it simple but interesting and I promise you that when you're done reading, you'll want to be friends with her too and she's got a big heart that can accomodate everybody. Enjoy!!
ONION ORIGIN
Researchers belive that onion originated in central Asia while others believe that it originated in West Pakistan (she's got multiple nationalities). Well where ever she originated, she was definitely a staple prehistoric diet because most researchers agree the onion has been cultivated for 5000 years or more. I told you she's a lot older than I am, I guess I should have mentioned she was around during the dinosaur era.
Now prehistoric man or "stone age" man liked the onion a lot because they were less perishable. You know how you keep onions in your kitchen pantry and they stay fresh for weeks, well that was one of the reasons our fore fore fore fathers liked them. They also liked onions because they were easy to grow and could be grown in a variety of soils and climates. They were useful for sustaining human life meaning they had medicinal purposes (in the absence of modern medicine, there were onions). They prevented thirst and could be dried and preserved for later consumption when food might be scarce.
In ancient Egypt, onions were considered to be an object of worship. So she was a world traveller and she was also considered a deity, akward but understandable. The onions symbolized eternity to the Egyptions who buried onions along with their pharoah. The Egyptians saw eternal life in the anatomy of the onion because of its circle-within-circle structure. Some Egyptologists (the weird dudes that study everything about Egypt *eyes rolling*) theorize that onions may have been used because it was belived that their strong scent and/or magical powers would prompt the dead to breath again. Wow! Talk about stinking back to life. Naaah, what ever dies needs to stay dead.
The Greeks noted several medicinal uses of onions. The Greeks used onions to fortify athletes for the Olympic games. Before a competition, athletes would consume pounds of onions, drink onion juice and rub onions on their bodies. I don't know about you but that's got to be cheating because who on earth wants to race or swim or do any sport next to someone who smells like an onion farm? No offence onion but you don't exactly smell like a bouquet of roses.
By the middle ages, the three main vegetables of European cuisine were beans, cabbage and onions. In addition to serving as a food for both the poor and the wealthy, onions were prescribed to alleviate headaches, snake bites and hair loss. They were also used as rent payments and wedding gifts. Try paying your rent in onions today, I'll leave that to your imagination.
Now let's get to the meat of the matter.
NUTRITIONAL FACTS
Onions are high in vitamin C, a good source of fibre and add abundant flavour to a wide variety of food, oh yeah I second that. A lot of people don't know this but onions is actually one of my secret ingredients in most of my dishes. I like it cause it has a way of adding the right flavour to a particular dish, notice how I didn't say its own flavour? That's because its flavour changes with every dish, for example the flavour it'll add to stew isn't the same flavour it'll add to soup. Moving on, Onions are sodium, fat and cholesterol free. They are rich in minerals such as calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, zinc, manganese, potassium and flouride.
HEALTH BENEFITS
Onions not only provide flavour they also provide important nutrients and health promoting phytochemicals.
Onions contain Quercetin which for the purpose of this post will be referred to as Super Q and you'll know why it's Super as you read on. Super Q is a flavonoid ( one category of antioxidant compounds). Let me digress a little to explain in simple terms what antioxidants are. Antioxidants are compounds that help delay or slow the oxidative damage to cells and tissues of the body. When cells are oxidized they are referred to as free radicals and these free radicals cause cancer. So generally, plants or foods that contain antioxidants prevent cancer by getting rid of free radicals in our bodies. So back to super Q. Super Q contained in onions is an antioxidant and it helps to eliminate all the pesky stubborn free radicals. One cheer for onions, hurray!!
Super Q not only kicks cancer causing free radicals hiney, it also inhibits low-density-lipoprotein oxidation. Okay I have to digress again. So I'm assuming we all know what cholesterol is, now cholesterol can't dissolve in the blood stream, it must be transported by carriers called lipoproteins, which got their name because they are made up of fat a.k.a lipid and proteins. So basically lipoproteins are the vehicles that carry cholesterol to the cells. There are two types of these lipoprotein vehicles namely Low-density-lipoprotein aka LDL or as I like to call it "the bad guy" and High-density - lipoprotein aka HDL or as I like to call it "the good guy". This LDL cholesterol is considered "bad" because it contributes to plaque, a thick , hard deposit that can clog arteries and make them less flexible. This condition is known as Arthersclerosis. If a clot forms and blocks a narrow artery heart attack or stroke can result. Another condition called Peripheral artery disease can develop when a plaque build up narrows an artery supplying blood to the legs, and when there's shortage in blood supply to the leg, you can imagine what happens. HDL is considered "good" cholesterol because it removes LDL chlesterol from the arteries. HDL acts as a scavenger, carrrying LDL cholesterol away from the arteries and back to the liver where it is broken down and passed from the body.
So how does all this connect with Super Q contained in onions? I'll tell you how. Super Q inhibits the oxidation of LDL because oxidized LDL causes all thkse terrible diseases such as Arthersclerosis and coronary heart disease. LDL is such a mean little monster that needs to be put down, thank God for Super Q.
That's not all Super Q does. It also protects and regenerates vitamin E. I know all the ladies love vitamin E because of what it does to our skin so these days every good cosmetic product has a bit of this awesome vitamin in it. Left to me, I'll drink, eat, bath and sleep vitamin E every day so that when I step out of my house, the sun in all it's glory will be no match for my skin glow. Yeah, I'm vain like that. But our dear vitamin E ain't all about beauty. It also happens to be an antioxidant, which means it beats the crap out of free radicals ( forgive my french). Super Q also inactivates the harmful effect of Chelate metal ions. If you ask me I think Super Q deserves an award.
Super Q also has other sources such as apples and tea but the absorption of Super Q from onions is twice that from tea and more than three times from apples. Didn't I tell you onions are awesome?
Consumption of onions may prevent ulcers by scavenging free radicals and by preventing the growth of the ulcer- forming micro organism, Heliobacter pylori a.k.a Mean Helly. Researchers also found that the more pungent or strong smelling onions exhibit strong anti-platelet activity. Platelet aggregation is associated with arthersclerosis, cardiovascular diseases, heart attcack, and stroke. A recent study at the university of Bern in Switzerland showed that consumption of one gram of dry onion per day for 4 weeks increased bone mineral content in rats by more than 13% compared to animals fed a control diet. This data shows onion consumption has the potential to decrease the incidence of Osteoporosis. So show some love to grand ma and grand pa this Christmas, send them a hamper full of dry onions, they'll probably be able to walk 10 miles without bone pains by new year. Just kidding.
Super Q has beneficial effect against many diseases and disorders including cataracts (which is a disease of the eye), cardiovascular disease as well as cancer of the breast, colon, ovarian, gastric, lung and bladder.
In conclusion, I am a strong believer that prevention is better than cure. A lot of us believe that it doesn't matter because when we fall ill, we show up at the doctor's office and we're given some pills to pop and we feel better and I'm not saying that pills aren't important, if your doctor prescribes pills for you please by all means follow the prescription. All I'm saying is that there's a way to live a longer, healthier life and what you eat plays a big part in it. I hope you enjoyed this story about the life of my friend the Onion. Till next week, eat clean, stay healthy. Cheers!!
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