It’s a splendid day to discover the health benefits of onions.
The other familiar terms for onion are onion, bulb onion, common onion, sibuyas, and Allium cepa.
This is my list of the health benefits of onions that I’d like to share with everyone.
1. Onions Are A Source Of Valuable Nutrients
Eating onions will give you vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B9, and C.
You’ll also get calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, and zinc.
Fiber, protein, sugar, and water are also part of what you get when you consume onions.
It’s low in calories but high in nutrients so it’s a good addition to your daily meals.
2. May Help With Your Sex Life
Eating onions may boost your healthy sexual urges.
It’s said that consuming the onion juice together with ginger daily may increase your libido and sex drive.
3. Onions Are Good For Your Digestive System
Onions are a great source of fiber and prebiotics.
Fiber-rich diets help prevent certain digestive disorders like constipation, diarrhea, and gas.
Prebiotics increases probiotics like Lactobacillus and bifidobacteria strains, which are beneficial to your digestive health.
Prebiotics also improve the absorption of nutrients in your body.
4. Help With Iron Deficiency
Onions are easy add-ons to almost every meal. And this is why it helps get your daily iron needs.
This helps prevent anemia, which is a condition characterized by feeling fatigued faster, dizziness, etc. when you are lacking in iron in your body.
Iron is also necessary for building red blood cells that deliver nutrients and oxygen all over your body.
5. Onions Help Manage Blood Sugar Levels
If you’re prediabetic or diabetic, eating onions my be very helpful to you.
Compounds found in onion, like quercetin and sulfur compounds, have antidiabetic effects.
According to “Preliminary Study of the Clinical Hypoglycemic Effects of Allium cepa (Red Onion) in Type 1 and Type 2 Diabetic Patients,” consuming red onions help reduce blood sugar levels after 4 hours.
Many animal studies shared the same observations.
A study conducted on diabetic rats, they were fed with onion extracts for 28 days. They were also observed with lower blood sugar levels and even lower body fat compared to the other control group.
6. Help Manage Cholesterol Levels
Some studies show onions help reduce bad cholesterol levels.
Simultaneously, it also promotes the production of good cholesterol levels.
7. Onions Are Good For Oral Care
Although onions may not smell good for others when eaten, it still is beneficial to your oral care.
Eating raw onions may kill germs that can cause diseases in your lips, inside your mouth, and throat.
It can prevent oral infections and tooth decay.
8. Have Anti-inflammatory Qualities
Onions have anti-inflammatory qualities that work well with arthritis and joint pains.
These anti-inflammatory qualities may extend to chronic inflammations which can cause different diseases as well.
It may be a good idea to eat more onions just because of this.
9. Onions Are Beneficial To Your Heart
Onions contain certain antioxidants and compounds that help fight inflammation, reduce blood pressure levels, and decrease cholesterol levels.
All of this helps improve your heart’s health or increase its chances of preventing heart diseases.
In a small study conducted with overweight people, researchers noticed that the onion extracts help reduce their systolic blood pressure level.
If you need more details about the study, you can check “Effects of a quercetin-rich onion skin extract.”
In a different study, raw red onions were given to overweight people for 8 weeks.
Researchers found out that this group has lower bad cholesterol levels compared to another controlled group that didn’t consume raw red onions.
A published study of this can be read on “Effects of raw red onion consumption on metabolic features in overweight or obese women.”
10. Help Reduce Your Blood Pressure Levels
Sulfur in onions helps acts as a natural blood thinner, which in a way may help with smoother blood flow that results in lower blood pressure.
To add more, the quercetin in onions prevents plaque buildup in your arteries. This also helps in managing good blood pressure levels.
11. Onions Boost Your Immunity
The phytochemicals found in onions can stimulate vitamin C in your body.
Vitamin C boosts your immune system to fight foreign substances that can cause different diseases.
It should help prevent the common cold and flu.
12. Help With Your Respiratory Health
The anti-inflammatory qualities of onions may help with symptoms of respiratory problems.
There are also studies like “Respiratory and allergic diseases” which tells you that onions are helpful against asthma and allergic rhinitis.
13. Onions May Help Maintain Bone Health
Consuming onions regularly may help you improve and maintain your bones’ mineral density.
Research on “Consumption of onion juice” will tell you that drinking onion juice daily for 8 weeks by middle-aged and post-menopausal persons showed improved antioxidant activity and bone mineral density.
Researches believe that the combination of boosted antioxidant levels, decreased bone loss, and reduced oxidative stress from eating onions help prevent osteoporosis and other bone-related diseases.
14. Help With The Health Of Your Eyes
Onions can do a lot of indirect things that improve or maintains the health of your eyes.
It can stimulate the production of glutathione in your body which is linked to helping reduce the risk of cataracts, glaucoma, and macular degeneration.
Selenium in onions aids vitamin E that protect the cells in your eyes.
Onion extracts can also prevent the development of corneal haze, according to “Effect of onion extract on corneal haze suppression.”
15. Onions May Help Relieve Earaches
Onion juice is used traditionally as a home remedy for acute earaches.
If there’s a ringing sound in your ear, applying onion juice on cotton buds may help you.
However, you should ask for professional help with this as this can be dangerous as well.
16. Are Good For Your Brain
Sulfur compounds in onions have been observed to slow down age-related memory loss.
It is also believed that it may help with dizziness and epilepsy.
17. Onions Are Packed With Antioxidants
Onions are considered to be excellent sources of antioxidants. There are more than 25 variations of flavonoid antioxidants in this vegetable.
In particular, red onions contain anthocyanins.
Not only does it give the onion its pigment, but it can also reduce the risk of heart diseases.
Anthocyanins have also been observed to protect against certain types of cancer and diabetes.
Antioxidants prevent or stop oxidative stress which can lead to cellular damage and eventually chronic diseases.
18. Are Good For Your Hair
Consuming onions can be good for your hair.
It contains sulfur compounds that promote thicker and stronger hair. It can also boost hair growth.
Onion juice can also be used to treat dandruff.
This is because of the antibacterial qualities of onions.
19. Onions Are Good For Skin Care
If you’re suffering from acne problems, you may want to try a more natural method.
You can make a mixture of onion juice and honey or olive oil and apply it to the affected area to treat acne.
The anti-inflammatory and antibacterial qualities of onions are part of the reasons for this effect.
Onions also contain vitamins A, C, and E which are excellent nutrients to keeping your skin healthy.
Consuming bamboo is also a good natural method to keep your skin healthy.
I’ve written an article about the health benefits of bamboo that you can check.
20. Have Antibacterial Properties
Onions can fight bacteria that are harmful to your body.
Quercetin that’s in this vegetable looks to be very effective against these bacteria.
Some of these bacteria that onions can deal with are Escherichia coli (E. coli), Bacillus cereus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), and Vibrio cholerae.
21. Onions Treat Cough And Sore Throat
Onions are also used to relieve coughs and sore throat.
Mixing honey and onion juice can work wonders with this.
Conclusion
Onion is quite a superfood. This list of the health benefits of onions may help others realize it as well.
I don’t like the taste of onion when I was young but I eventually liked it.
Amazingly, there are lots of health benefits of onions, especially since it’s a common vegetable that’s readily available on the market.
I have to say that its anti-inflammatory properties will be my favorite health benefit of onions.
Which one on the list is your favorite or do you need?
Onions may be very common but you should still discuss it with your doctor or medical professional if you’re able to consume them.
This is to be safe and to be sure that you don’t have a certain condition that doesn’t allow you to eat onions.
And don’t forget to share this article with someone you think will benefit from knowing more about onions.
Thank you!