Dr. Jonny Bowden

Tag: onions

  • Protect Your Brain with… Onions!

    Protect Your Brain with… Onions!

    A new study suggests that compounds in onions may protect the brain from additional damage linked to stroke.


    This is hardly the first good news about onions, which I wrote about in depth in my book, “The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth”. In a number of impressive published studies, the consumption of onions (and other members of the allium vegetable family) demonstrated protective effects against stomach cancer.

    In one study, eating onions (as well as other members of its family like garlic, scallions, chives, and leeks) significantly lowered the risk for prostate cancer. Onions (and their close relatives have also been shown to have the same effect against esophageal cancer. In the new study, Korean researchers reduced blood flow in the brains of two groups of mice and then fed one of them onion extracts. The results showed that the onion group had significantly reduced brain edema (water in the brain, a common effect of stroke). No such reduction in brain edema was seen in the mice that didn’t get the onions. Other stroke-like damage was also reduced in the group that consumed the onion extracts.

    Onions belong to the allium family, which also includes leeks, garlic, and shallots. They contain a whole pharmacy of compounds with health benefits, including thiosulfinates, sulfides, sulfoxides, and other smelly sulfur compounds. (Sulfur is great for you, but it stinks—think the New Jersey Turnpike!)

    But those same smelly compounds offer a lot of nutrition bang for the relatively small price of a little eye-watering. In a study in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, onions are one of a very select group of foods that in combination was found to reduce mortality from coronary heart disease by an impressive 20 percent (the others included broccoli, tea, and apples).

    Onions contain powerful antioxidants and are anti-inflammatory, antibiotic, and antiviral.

    They are a great source of quercetin, one of my favorite anti-inflammatory compounds and one that is associated with beneficial effects on chronic disease like cancer and heart disease.

    This quercetin + stinging nettles combo is terrific for treating allergies.

    The class of chemicals that quercetin belongs to—flavonoids—have antiallergic properties as well, and quercetin in particular is frequently used by nutritionists as part of their arsenal for treating allergies with natural substances.

    Quercetin can help relieve asthma and hay fever by blocking some of the inflammatory responses in the airways.

    Quercetin is one of the most anti-inflammatory plant compounds on the planet.

    Our bodies absorb quercetin from onions very easily, though you’ll probably need quercetin supplements if your main interest is using it therapeutically as an anti-inflammatory.

    Onions also contain a number of sulfides very similar to those in garlic, which may lower blood lipids and blood pressure.

  • Onions: A Real Superfood

    Onions: A Real Superfood

    Onions (excerpt from the best-selling book, “The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth“)

    There’s no two ways about it: onions are a cancer-fighting food.

    In a number of impressive published studies, the consumption of onions (and other members of the allium vegetable family) demonstrated protective effects against stomach cancer. And in one study published in the journal of the National Cancer Institute, eating onions (as well as other members of its family like garlic, scallions, chives and leeks) significantly lowered the risk for prostate cancer.

    Onions (and its close relatives) have also been shown to have the same effect against esophageal cancer. In Vidalia, Georgia, where the Vidalia onion comes from and where onions are consumed in large quantities, the death rate from stomach cancer is 50% lower than the national mortality rate from stomach cancer. One theory is that onions contain diallyl sulfide which has the effect of increasing the body’s production of an important cancer fighting enzyme, glutathione-S-transferase.

    At least two important studies show that onions help build strong bones. In one, published in the prestigious journal Nature, male rats fed a small amount of dried onion daily had a 17% increase in calcium; female rats that had had their ovaries removed (which would rapidly induce bone loss and osteoporosis) had stronger bones when fed onions.

    And in another study, published in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, a compound in onions inhibited the activity of the cells (osteoclasts) that break down bones. The popular drug Fosamax works in a similar way, but onions have no side effects unless you count the need to chew gum before making out.

    Onions belong to the allium family, which also includes leeks, garlic and shallots. They contain a whole pharmacy of compounds with health benefits, including thiosulfinates, sulfides, sulfoxides and other smelly sulfur compounds.

    But those same smelly compounds offer a lot of nutrition bang for the relatively small price of a little eye-watering. In a study in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, onions are one of a very select group of foods the combination of which was found to reduce mortality from coronary heart disease by an impressive 20% (the others included broccoli, tea and apples).

    Onions contain powerful antioxidants and are anti-inflammatory, antibiotic and antiviral. They are a great source of quercetin, one of my favorite anti-inflammatory compounds, and one which itself is associated with beneficial effects on chronic diseases like cancer and heart disease.

    The class of chemicals that quercetin belongs to- flavanoids– have anti-allergic properties as well, and quercetin in particular is frequently used by nutritionists as part of their arsenal for treating allergies with natural substances. Quercetin can help relieve asthma and hay fever by blocking some of the inflammatory responses in the airways.

    Our bodies absorb quercetin from onions very easily, though you’ll probably need quercitin supplements if your main interest is using it therapeutically as an anti-inflammatory. Onions also contain a number of sulfides very similar to those in garlic, which may lower blood lipids and blood pressure.

    The type of onion affects the content of the health promoting chemicals, and the stronger tasting ones probably have superior properties.