Nutritional value of onions

Everyone should be familiar with onions. In our country, many people hate its pungent smell, but the nutritional value of onions cannot be underestimated.

Onion nutritional value

Onion, a herbaceous plant of the lily family, is also known as shallot and round onion. It is a very common and cheap home-cooked dish. Chinese people are often afraid of its unique spicy aroma, but it is known as the "Queen of Vegetables" abroad and has a high nutritional value. The trace element selenium contained in onions is a strong antioxidant that can remove free radicals in the body, enhance cell vitality and metabolic capacity, and has the effect of preventing cancer and anti-aging.

Onions contain a certain amount of calcium. In recent years, Swiss scientists have found that eating onions regularly can increase bone density and help prevent and treat osteoporosis.

Onions contain phytoncide such as allicin, which has strong bactericidal ability. Chewing raw onions can prevent colds.

It is the only vegetable that contains prostaglandin A. Prostaglandin A can dilate blood vessels and reduce blood viscosity, thus lowering blood pressure, increasing coronary blood flow, and preventing thrombosis. Regular consumption has a health-care effect on patients with hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.

Modern medical research also shows that onions contain trace elements such as selenium. Selenium is an antioxidant, and its special function is to enable the human body to produce a large amount of glutathione. The physiological function of glutathione is to transport oxygen for cell respiration. When the selenium content in the human body increases, the incidence of cancer will be greatly reduced. Therefore, onions are also a kind of health food. Onions also have the effect of lowering blood sugar, because onions contain organic substances similar to the hypoglycemic drug mesitylene, and can produce picrotoxin with a strong diuretic effect in the human body. Eating 25 to 50 grams of onions per meal can play a good role in lowering blood sugar and diuresis in diabetic patients.

In addition to stimulating appetite and aiding digestion, the phytoncide in onions can also stimulate the secretion of the duct walls when it is excreted through the respiratory tract, urinary tract, and sweat glands. Therefore, it has the effects of expectoration, diuresis, sweating, prevention of colds, and antibacterial and antiseptic.

Onion for everyone

1. It is especially suitable for patients with high blood pressure, high blood lipids, cardiovascular diseases such as arteriosclerosis, diabetes, cancer, acute and chronic enteritis, dysentery and indigestion.

2. Don’t eat too much onion at one time, as it can easily cause blurred vision and fever. Also, people with itchy skin diseases, eye diseases, stomach diseases, lung and stomach inflammation should eat less onion. Onion is pungent and warm, so patients with fever should be careful when eating it.

3. The spicy taste of onions can irritate the eyes. If you suffer from eye diseases or eye congestion, you should not cut onions.

Onion therapeutic effects

Onions are sweet, slightly spicy, and warm in nature. They enter the liver, spleen, stomach, and lung meridians. They have the effects of moistening the intestines, regulating qi and harmonizing the stomach, strengthening the spleen and promoting appetite, dispersing wind and cold, warming the middle and promoting yang, digesting food and dissolving meat, refreshing the mind and strengthening the body, and dispersing blood stasis and detoxifying.

It is mainly used to treat exogenous wind-cold without sweating, nasal congestion, food stagnation, poor appetite, indigestion, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, dysentery and other symptoms.

Onion cooking instructions

1. Cut off the root of the onion, peel off the old skin, wash off the sand, and eat it raw or cooked. Dishes with it as the raw material include "Onion Fried Pork Shreds" and "Onion Braised Pork Chops". 2. Onion is also one of the main vegetables in Western cuisine. It can be used to make soup, ingredients, seasonings and cold dishes. It should not be heated for too long. It is better to have a slightly spicy taste.

3. Do not consume it in excess, because it is easy to produce volatile gases. Excessive consumption will cause bloating and excessive gas discharge, causing discomfort.

Onion efficacy and function

Onion is not only the most common and common vegetable, but also has many health benefits. Recent medical research shows that the benefits of onion are mainly manifested in the following eight aspects: 1. Onion has the effect of dispelling wind and cold, because onion bulbs and leaves contain a kind of oily volatile called propylene sulfide, which has a spicy taste. This substance can resist cold, resist influenza virus, and has a strong bactericidal effect;

2. Onions are rich in nutrients and have a pungent smell. They can stimulate the secretion of the stomach, intestines and digestive glands, increase appetite and promote digestion. Onions do not contain fat, and their essential oils contain a mixture of sulfur compounds that can lower cholesterol. They can be used to treat indigestion, loss of appetite, food stagnation and other symptoms.

3. Onions are the only food known to contain prostaglandin A. Prostaglandin A can dilate blood vessels and reduce blood viscosity, thus lowering blood pressure, reducing peripheral blood vessels and increasing blood flow in coronary arteries, and preventing thrombosis. It can counteract the effects of pressor substances such as catecholamines in the human body, and promote the excretion of sodium salt, thereby lowering blood pressure. Regular consumption has a health-care effect on patients with hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases.

4. Onions have a certain refreshing effect. They can help cells better utilize glucose, lower blood sugar, and provide heat energy to brain cells. They are a good vegetable for the treatment of diabetes and mental depression.

5. Onions contain a substance called "quercetin"9, which is one of the most effective natural anti-cancer substances known so far. It can prevent the biochemical mechanism in the body from mutating and control the growth of cancer cells, thus having an anti-cancer effect;

6. The trace element selenium contained in onions is a strong antioxidant that can eliminate free radicals in the body, enhance cell vitality and metabolic capacity, and has the effect of preventing cancer and anti-aging;

7. Onions also contain a certain amount of calcium. In recent years, Swiss scientists have found that eating onions regularly can increase bone density and help prevent and treat osteoporosis.

8. Onions contain phytoncide such as allicin, which has strong bactericidal ability. Chewing raw onions can prevent colds.

Eating onions regularly has the following benefits for your body

1. The prostaglandin A contained in it is a strong vasodilator, which can counteract pressor substances such as catecholamines, promote sodium excretion, and have a blood pressure lowering effect;

2. The sulfide contained in onions can promote fat metabolism, reduce blood lipids and resist arteriosclerosis. If you eat 50-70 grams of onions every day, its blood lipid-lowering effect is stronger than taking the lipid-lowering drug clofibrate;

3. The flavonoids contained in onions can reduce the viscosity of platelets. Eating onions regularly can prevent thrombosis and reduce the probability of myocardial infarction and cerebral thrombosis.

4. Onions contain organic substances similar to the hypoglycemic drug tolbutamide, which can significantly reduce blood sugar levels;

5. The sulfide and trace element selenium contained in it can inhibit gastric cancer, esophageal cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer, etc.

6. The volatile oil contained in onions can help sexual performance. Elderly people who often eat onions can improve the quality of their sexual life.

7. Onions can increase the bone density of experimental mice. Eating onions regularly can prevent osteoporosis.

8. Onions are rich in vitamin C and niacin, which can promote the formation of intercellular matrix and the repair of damaged cells, making the skin smooth, ruddy and elastic, and have a beauty effect. The sulfur and vitamin E contained in onions can prevent unsaturated fatty acids from generating lipofuscin pigments, which can prevent age spots. In addition, onions contain antibacterial and anti-inflammatory substances, and eating onions can prevent and treat enteritis and dysentery.

However, no matter how nutritious something is, not everyone can eat it. Patients with dizziness, inflammation and other diseases should not eat too much.

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