The famous chef Julia Child once remarked “I cannot imagine a world without onions.” The use of onions for food goes back at least 3,500 years, and the vegetable is one of the oldest of cultivated plants.

But the onion is more than a kitchen staple. It is a world-class superfood that has received very little fanfare, most likely because of its common position in cookery. And yet, compared with high-profile foods like pomegranates, red wine, and green tea, the onion offers superior benefits for both the prevention and treatment of many common diseases, including various kinds of cancer, coronary heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cataracts and more. In addition, onions can act as a powerful antibiotic and are helpful in reducing food-borne illnesses caused by microbial contamination.

Onions contain extraordinarily powerful compounds that possess many health benefits. Hundreds of scientific studies published on these naturally-occurring compounds show that they are highly protective to nerves and the cardiovascular system, and that they enhance immune function, fight the growth of many types of tumors, help to promote healthy hormone function, and many more.

Red wine may be the highly touted superstar of heart protection, but an appraisal of onion suggests that it exceeds the heart-protective properties of red wine by a generous margin. Could onion in fact be the real answer to the French Paradox – the fact that a comparatively low number of French people suffer from coronary heart disease despite diets that are rich in saturated fats? It makes sense. After all, almost no French recipe fails to include onion.  Onion lowers cholesterol, inhibits hardening of the arteries, enhances elasticity of blood vessels, and helps to maintain healthy blood pressure.  You could easily claim that the onion is the unsung cardiovascular-enhancing hero that has been right under our noses all along. We smell it, but don’t give it proper respect.

Equally impressive are the hundreds of scientific citations, which pertain to the anti-cancer properties of onion. While nobody is suggesting that onion is a cancer cure per se, it certainly is a valuable adjunct therapy, and it provides almost unequalled cancer risk-reducing properties.

Surprisingly, onion demonstrates significant blood sugar-modifying properties to be a real help in the fight against both type 2 diabetes and obesity. No, onion alone won’t keep you in fine shape, but it will help. In addition to limiting your intake of fats and sugars, eating onions can get your blood sugar-and your weight-on the right track.

So here is a simple, powerful health-enhancing recommendation: Eat an onion every day. One medium-sized onion equals approximately one cup of onion when chopped. And while raw onions contain a whopping load of protective compounds, even cooked onions still weigh in heavily on the protective side.

Chop onions into salads, cook them with vegetables, fish and meats, and find as many ways to eat them as possible.

Whatever has kept onion behind the curtains, while lesser fruits and vegetables are lauded, needs to change. The humble onion, with its tear-promoting pungency, is without question one of the healthiest things you can put in your body. Eat onions, and live better.


http://www.foxnews.com/health/2012/02/07/to-stay-healthy-eat-onion-day/

I don hear

Eat an onion everyday? Ok...remind me to always keep one in my bag everyday so i can be eating it on the bus.

Next time you see a girl "munching" onions beside you...na me be that. I need to stay alive!

4th?

Note Taken!

we've heard. what of garlic?

Oboy , nah to dey add onion to my garri and epe o

Will it make me live up to 150yrs?

Good this would stop indiscriminate kissing.

U are right, am a witness to d efficacy of onion in ma diet..but abeg oh if u no dey brush teeth b4,no try am oh 4 d sake of killing pesn..tnx

that should be a problem to Nigeria babes,they eat enough onions from suya bought for them by Magas.....no wonder they live longer than the suya buyers.

Ladies,always remeber "An onion a day keeps the potential toasters away"..
No go let onions make you loose life patner oh..
..
All izz well!

Those guys who buy suya for chicks and eat only the onions I see it was in a bid to stay healthier.

Yes, I do chew onion like mad!

No wonder my hubby is so healthy, he likes to eat onions, at least one in a day.

Onions is good, i just wonder why some people dont include it in their cooking

Trying not to look odd, but i HATE onions.

Later dy'll say onions gives mouth odour... Eehn! We have hear!

i will try it.

Not only eat daily, I will blend it and bath with it...rubbish!

@op; very good research.....nice one.....and as the saying goes; "Health is wealth".....

timpaker:
I'd rather die than eat onion

Yeap, that's how much I hate that ish

you should be dead..because if you say you never chop onions before na how you take know say you no like am.

I hate to c it in my food but I ground it in my stew!

Onions wen dey make mouth dey smell. @op you dey do am?

greatgod2012: No wonder my hubby is so healthy, he likes to eat onions, at least one in a day.

while you eat d whole meat(suya)

Very soon onions will be costly , few days ago I heard the Sokoto State government will begin the exportation of powdered (dried & grounded ) onions with this info one can imagine that the cheap onions from Bodinga , Yabo ,Shagari to Tambuwal axis might just not be available anymore . Currently the onions added to suya is free lovers might have to start paying for onions differently .

Apple don resign?

Really? you mean he eats one onion bulb in a day?

greatgod2012: No wonder my hubby is so healthy, he likes to eat onions, at least one in a day.