Health & Nutritional Benefits of Onions, Nutrition Facts of Onions

Onion is a 2 feet tall plant with globular stem underground and it also has modular leaves which are arranged in whorls. The plant takes 3-4 months to grow and is cultivated almost all around the world. You will require onions to cook almost every dish as it forms the base of most of the dishes all around the globe. You will get three different types of onions – yellow, red and white which have antibacterial, therapeutic and other beneficial properties in it. Various nutritional benefits of onions are listed below –

Nutritional Benefits of Onions

#1: Nutritional value of the onion

Carbohydrates, Protein, Dietary Fiber, Folates, Niacin, Pantothenic Acid, Vitamin A,C and E, Sodium, Potassium, Calcium, Copper, Iron, Magnesium, Manganese, Phosphorus, Zinc, Carotene – beta and some other Phyto-nutrients are present in onion which makes it a very useful food for our daily diet.

#2: Lose weight

Onions are very low in calories and fats so you can easily include this in your diet when you are trying to lose weight. It is also rich in soluble dietary fiber which is also beneficial for health.

#3: Cholesterol control

Onion has allicin which helps in reducing the cholesterol production by stopping the HMG-CoA reductase enzyme in the liver cell.

#4: Controls cancer

The onion extracts are very rich in sulfides which can provide protection against the growth of tumor. If your regular diet includes onion then you are safe from the risk of colon cancer.

#5: Helpful in various ailments

Onion can cure asthma, cough and cold, Pneumonia, influenza, bacterial infections, neuritis, vertigo and bronchitis. The nutrients available in onion are useful to treat these ailments.

#6: Good for neurotic conditions

Onions are very good source of Vitamin B- complex like pantothenic acid, pyridoxine, folates and thiamin and these sources helps in keeping up the GABA levels in the brain which is beneficial for working against neurotic conditions.

#7: Diabetes control

Chromium is found in Onions and this trace mineral is considered to help the tissue cells in responding aptly to the insulin levels in blood thus helping in facilitating insulin action and controlling sugar levels in diabetes.

#8: Heart ailment

Another useful nutritional benefit of onion is that Allicin is found in it, which is known to block platelet-clot formation and also has fibrinolytic action peripheral vascular diseases (PVD) and stroke.

#9: Good for blood pressure

Allicin also helps in reducing the total blood pressure by decreasing the stiffness of blood vessels by releasing nitric oxide (NO).

#10: Home made remedies

A small piece of onion can be useful in working against the side-effects of fever if it is kept on the fore head, stops bleeding from nose if it is inhaled, proved to cure insomnia or sleeping disorders, helpful in curing burnt skin or an insect bite and apart from this it helps in rejuvenating body tissues.

Onions have some nutritional properties which helps us in enhancing our beauty too like pigmentation or dark patches can be removed by applying onion and turmeric juice and is also helpful in removing certain moles. If you want to improve your memory then start having onion daily and this will also help in solving your digestion problem.