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To feel your best and shore up your health as your age, you need to nourish your body with all the essential nutrients. Find out whether you're taking in enough of these tonic foods.
ONION
Health Benefits
Onion has a variety of medicinal effects for treating disease. Early American settlers used wild onions to treat colds, coughs, and asthma, and to repel insects. In Chinese medicine, onions have been used to treat angina, coughs, bacterial infections, and breathing problems. They can reduce the risk of tumors developing in the colon.
The World Health Organization (WHO) supports the use of onions for the treatment of poor appetite and to prevent atherosclerosis. In addition, onion extracts are recognized by WHO for providing relief in the treatment of coughs and colds, asthma and bronchitis. Onions are known to decrease bronchial spasms. An onion extract was found to decrease allergy-induced bronchial constriction in asthma patients.
Onions, and other Allium species, are highly valued herbs possessing culinary and medicinal value. Some of their beneficial properties are seen after long-term usage. Onion may be a useful herb for the prevention of cardiovascular disease, especially since they diminish the risk of blood clots. Onion also protects against stomach and other cancers, as well as protecting against certain infections. Onion can improve lung function, especially in asthmatics. The more pungent varieties of onion appear to possess the greatest concentration of health-promoting phytochemicals.
The quercetin [a flavonoid] in onions has similar anti-inflammatory effects to ibuprofen. Besides decreasing inflammation, the compounds in these bulbs may also protect cells. Research from Germany found that when people with several heart disease risk factors consumed 150mg of quercetin per day for six weeks, they reduced their blood pressure and "bad" LDL cholesterol levels.
Cautions
› Consuming large quantities of onions can lead to stomach distress and gastrointestinal irritation that may result in nausea and diarrhea.