Health Benefits of Onion

 Never mind the tears they bring on—onions are an ace ally in your fight against disease. A prized member of the lily family, they lavish you with health benefits while adding oodles of taste to your food.

1. Vitamins

Onions are good sources of several vitamins, and in particular vitamin A, vitamin C and vitamin E. All three of these vitamins are necessary for standard bodily processes, and vitamin C in particular can help to boost your immune system. This is one of the many reasons why onions have been used in medical procedures and to promote general good health for thousands of years.The phytochemicals in onions improve the working of Vitamin C in the body, thus gifting you with improved immunity.

2. Folic Acid

Folic acid is helpful in regulating certain other systems in your body. It is typically found in different types of fruits, but onions are unique in that they contain a hefty amount of folic acid and they are a vegetable. In order to mix up your intake of produce but still get your recommended dosage of this nutrient, consider using onions.

3. Anti-Bacterial Properties

Onions and garlic are both pungent in odor and flavor. This makes them preferable for many people and also makes other people choose to avoid them. However, linked in with this pungency is the fact that both of these vegetables are excellent natural antibacterial agents. By eating a diet that is heavy in onions, and particularly one that is heavy in onions that have not been cooked through thoroughly, you can boost your body’s natural protection system against bacteria. This will mean that you’ll be less likely to experience a variety of different types of infections.

4. Iron

Many types of onions are high in iron. Red onions in particular have the highest concentrations of iron. This can be helpful for a number of reasons. Iron helps to keep your blood the proper consistency and thickness. Onions can prevent anemia, or a general thinning of the blood. They can also boost the health and strength of your blood cells in a number of other ways as a result of the iron that they contain.

5.Healthy |Heart .

To help keep your blood free of clots, and make the most of the health benefits of onions, eat them both raw and cooked.
Prescribing onions for heart patients is hardly routine among cardiologists. But Harvard's Dr. Victor Gurewich advises all his patients with coronary heart disease to eat onions daily.
Here are some of the things that onions can do for your heart:

• Boost beneficial HDL cholesterol
• Thin the blood
• Retard blood clotting
• Lower total blood cholesterol
• Lower triglycerides
• Lower blood pressure                                                                                                                   

6. Cancer Prevention

One way the antioxidants in onions can protect you against cancer is by reducing the DNA damage in cells caused by free radicals, studies reveal.
All onions and onion relatives (garlic, leeks, chives and scallions, or spring onions) are rich in organosulfur compounds shown to help prevent cancer in lab animals.
In fact, an onion extract was found to destroy tumor cells in test tubes and to arrest tumor growth when tumor cells were implanted in rats.
The onion extract was shown to be unusually nontoxic, since a dose as high as forty times that of the dose required to kill the tumor cells had no adverse effect on the host.

In addition, shallots have been shown to exhibit significant activity against leukemia in mice.