Onions

Onions are a widely used bulb vegetable from the Allium cepa plant, available in several varieties, including yellow, red, sweet, and white onions. Onions are incredibly versatile; they can be used raw in salads, sautéed for flavor, or caramelized to enhance dishes. Onions are known for their health benefits, including rich antioxidants, anti-inflammatory properties, and potential heart health benefits.

Here’s the compelling science-backed health data that I’ve found so far. If I’ve made any mistakes please let me know.

✨Kitchen Tips & Hacks for Onions
📚NCDs
- Cancer
Ingredients List

✨Kitchen Tips & Hacks for Onions

How to Pick a Good Onion

The onion should be firm, especially at the root end. There should be no soft spot or signs or rot or anything wet or slimy. Try to avoid using onions with mould on the outer paper-like skin, it could still be okay inside if you use it soon but should be done with caution.

Smaller and darker onions are usually worse for the tears due to having more of the sulfurous volatile oils (primarily allicin) they release when they’re cut, but these same compounds have benefits too.

The main one is flavor! The sulfurous compounds are responsible for a lot of the garlic flavor so the smaller ones are also more flavorful.

Onion Differences

There’s many types of onions but here are some of the flavors and uses of the most common types.

Red Onion – Mild & Sweet

Great for eating raw on salads, sandwiches, tacos, wraps, etc. but they also work for well for cooking.

Yellow / Spanish Onions – Mild with Sweet & Spicy

Great for eating raw or salads or burgers and for cooking. This is the most common and versatile variety and usually one of the cheapest, if not the cheapest option.

White Onions – Usually Spicy & Pungent

Best for cooking, generally, as they are often quite strong smelling and tasting, but sometimes they are mild.

Sweet Onions – Sweet and Mild

Great raw or cooked. Also versatile but often more expensive.

Peeling the Onion

Peeling onions can be a bit tricky. I find the best technique is to slice 8 lines through the first layers of the onion and then just pull back each of the sections like a flap. It couldn’t be easier. There are however a lot faster ways when peeling an onion.

Avoid Crying & Stinging Eyes

Smaller and darker onions are usually worse for the tears due to having more of the sulfurous volatile oils they release when it’s cut. These compounds are also what gives it’s flavor so the smaller and darker varieties are more flavorful.

Cancer

Onions & Garlic

a large cohort study in Europe showed that people who ate more garlic and onion got less: oral cavity and pharynx cancer, esophageal cancer, colorectal cancer, laryngeal cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, and renal cell cancer
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002916523291479
A second study showed that eating onions and garlic makes your blood more effective at killing only cancer cells (not healthy cells) vs a control, although this was all done in a petri dish, it was using their own blood (when not eating, or eating, onions & garlic) as a control; pretty neat actually!
https://www.richardbeliveau.org/wp-content/uploads/233.Boivin.pdf

Ingredients List

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