70 Onion Nutrition Facts To Know For Improving Your Health

Whether it be raw or cooked onions, these bulb vegetables have a lot of health benefits to offer.

Eating onions is very healthy for the human body in more ways than one. Once we know how to get past the tears while slicing onions, they can be used as an addition in many meals either raw or cooked.

Onions come in many varieties, but they are all bulb vegetables. When at a supermarket, you might see different types of these vegetables, such as red onions, white onions, yellow onions, and spring onions.

They all have different nutritional indices that are helpful in one way or other. The color of onions comes from plant pigments. These pigments can also act as antioxidants and help us lead better lives.

At the same time, no significant risk is associated with the consumption of onions, which makes it even easier to pick up a bulb and put it into a curry or a salad. Please keep reading to learn more about the health benefits that onions offer and how you can keep yourself from crying while cutting them.

Quick Facts About Onions

Onions are a member of the Allium genus of plants, including garlic, shallots, leeks, and chives. They are thought to have originated in Central Asia and were one of the earliest cultivated vegetables.

Onions are low in calories but high in nutrients. They contain vitamins C, B6, folate, copper, manganese, and other fibers.

They're thought to boost heart health, reduce inflammation, and fight cancer.

Despite their many benefits, onions can cause digestive problems for some people. If you're sensitive to onions, you may experience gas, bloating, or diarrhea after eating them.

Adding onions to your diet is an excellent way to start eating healthy. Here are 65 onion nutrition facts to know for improving your health.

One medium onion contains about 44 calories.

Onions are low in fat, sodium and are cholesterol-free.

Onions are a good source of antioxidants, which can help protect against cell damage and disease.

Onions help boost heart health by reducing bad cholesterol and inflammation.

Onion extract is known to lower blood pressure in rats.

Onions help fight cancer by inhibiting the growth of tumors and stimulating cell death.

Fun Facts About Onions

People often stay away from onions because they smell a little odd, and they are pretty difficult to slice without tearing up. However, adding this food item to your dishes and salads can have a lot of benefits.

Onions are rich in nutrients and do not have many calories. For this reason, even people who have a low-calorie diet can eat onions.

Raw onions can be added to salads.

Onions can also be added to curries and other dishes of different cuisines.

They are not seasonal food items and will be available at all times.

Onions are rich sources of vitamin C, which helps improve immunity.

Onions contain potassium, which is often lacking in the diet of people.

Onions also contain dietary fiber, which helps in digestive processes.

Many people refrain from using raw onions in their food since slicing them is pretty difficult.

If you want sliced onions without the hassles associated with them, you can either buy them in sliced form from supermarkets or wear goggles while cutting onions.

Apart from this, chilling onions for a while before cutting them also helps.

White onions have the least amount of essential antioxidants, such as quercetin.

Red onions get their color from the presence of a pigment called anthocyanin. This pigment also acts as an antioxidant.

The same pigment is found in other plant-derived food items such as tomatoes.

Some of the potent smelling compounds in onions come from sweat glands, which gives sweat an onion-ish smell as well.

Onions are healthier when eaten raw.

Cooking onions for too long can kill most of the nutrients in them, as is the case with many vegetables.

Onions can help people in losing weight.

Nutritional Facts About Onions

Eating onions have many health benefits. Onions have a pretty impressive set of nutrients in them, which helps the human body function at its full potential.

Some of the nutrients that we can find in this food item also strengthen the immune system, which means that people who consume specific amounts of onions can also battle diseases or infections in a better manner.

Onions have a very high content of vitamin C. This promotes our immune health.

This nutrient is essential in everyday diet since it acts as an antioxidant.

Consumption of vitamin C also assists in having healthy and glowing skin.

Vitamin C helps in the absorption of many nutrients into the body.

Consumption of this nutrient also helps in producing more amounts of collagen in the body.

It also helps in repairing any damaged tissues in the body.

The antioxidants in onions create a better immune system in the human body by tackling free radicals.

These free radicals are essentially by-products of metabolic activities that disrupt many cell functions.

Onions also contain other antioxidants that are just as important in the human body.

Another one of the many health benefits that onions offer is that they help maintain bone density.

Decreased bone density is a problem that many people, especially women, suffer from.

One of the most interesting nutrition facts related to this vegetable is that it helps in the consumption of calcium.

As long as calcium is not absorbed into the human body, regulating bone health becomes a very big problem.

Onions also help people who have diabetes by regulating their blood sugar levels.

Like other Allium vegetables, onions prohibit the formation of certain types of cancer cells.

This means that there is a definite future prospect that onions can be frequently used in medicines for cancer patients.

Onions are also suitable for heart health. For anyone who suffers from heart disease, onions can help by lowering their blood pressure and bad cholesterol levels.

By extension, this also means that this low-sugar food can help people who suffer from obesity.

Onions also contain small amounts of protein.

Although these food items do not provide as much as the amount of protein in foods such as eggs or lentils, they can easily be combined in a salad or any other dish to get flavor and nutrition at the same time.

A large part of carbohydrates and calories in onions come from the amount of dietary fiber they contain.

This dietary fiber also helps people with their digestive processes.

Powerful compounds in onions help people in having a much-reduced chance of heart ailments or a heart attack.

Blood sugar levels in a person who has diabetes are regulated by eating onions since this vegetable helps insulin in acting.

Many people around the world do not have enough potassium in their diet and hence suffer from many problems. Potassium is a not so readily available nutrient. On the other hand, onions provide a delicious solution to potassium deficiencies.

Onions contain a type of fiber known as fructan. This type of dietary fiber helps in the formation of short-chain fatty acids in the digestive tract. Fructans also considerably reduce the risk of colon cancer.

Onions also contain vitamin B9 or Folate. This nutrient is very important for pregnant women since it helps in the cell growth and development of the fetus.

Potassium also reduces blood pressure levels, thereby lowering the risk of heart disease.

Quercetin is also a nutrient that helps in maintaining heart health.

Sulfur compounds in onions also reduce the risk of cancer.

Consumption of onions helps the human body in preventing the enlargement of blood clots, which are often troublesome.

Facts About Side Effects Of Onions

While onions have a lot of nutrition to offer, all foods have their own side effects depending on the body of the one consuming them. Here are some nutrition facts about onions that you should be wary of.

People who suffer from IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) can experience adverse effects from the consumption of onions because this vegetable contains FODMAPs (fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides, and polyols).

FODMAPs essentially form a group of carbohydrates and fibers.

Some people may also show allergic reactions upon consuming onions in any form.

Although the occurrence of this is very low, you should definitely consult your doctor if you experience itching, heartburn, or gas after eating an onion or two.

While onions are great for humans, your pets and their bodies won't essentially like this food item.

This is because the consumption of any onion-based product can cause harm to the red blood cells of dogs and cats, which can prove to be fatal.

While all of these conditions are somewhat rare, one side effect that all onion-lovers suffer from is the unstoppable flow of tears from a person's eyes cutting into this vegetable.

Slicing onions is very irritating to the eyes and can cause them to burn.

At the same time, onion breath is not that pleasant either.

Facts About Onion Greens

Onion greens are also popularly consumed in nearly all parts of the world. These are essentially immature onions that are pulled out of the ground before the bulb can form completely.

Onion greens can be used in salads and can also be cooked in many different ways.

It is common to use onion greens as garnish.

They have roughly the same properties in terms of nutrition when compared to onions.

They have very few calories and protein. The calories in onion greens come in the form of sugar and carbohydrates.