If an onion rings in the forest, does anyone cry? Really, an onion a day can keep the doctor away which should bring tears to your eyes.
Our friends at The National Cancer Institute peeled away the layers to reveal that scallions, leeks and sweet onions contain antioxidants that help block cancer, lower cholesterol, and prevent disease. These soil dwellers are members of the lily, amaryllis, and the Alliaceae family.
Paintings of onions appear inside the pyramids of Egypt. Mummies had “antiseptic” onions stuffed in their pelvic regions, chest, legs, and the soles of their feet and in the eye sockets. It was believed the pungency and magical powers would prompt the dead to breathe again. The Israelites lamented their desert diet "We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks, and the onions and the garlic."
The Egyptians tallied 8000 aliments which onions would relieve. Sixth century BC India wisely celebrated onion as a diuretic, food for digestion, the heart, the eyes, and the joints.
Ancient Greek athletes consumed massive quantities because it would "lighten the balance of the blood." After Rome triumphed over Greece, the onion found a home in the Roman diet where it was rumored that gladiators were rubbed down with onion juice to "firm up the muscles.” In Roman times, Pliny the Elder, catalogued Roman beliefs that onions cured vision, induced sleep, healed mouth sores, dog bites, toothaches, dysentery and lumbago -- had to be the antibacterial and antiviral properties of the healing onion.
Loaded with B6, B1, folic acid, fiber, potassium, and selenium, along with quercetin, the allium contains 25 active compounds that inhibit cancerous cell growth, combat heart disease, inhibit strokes, lower blood pressure and LDL cholesterol, protect against cataracts, and stimulate the immune system. Their quercetin and organosulfides can prevent free-radical damage to our sensitive cell membranes.
More members of God's magnificent apothecary include scallions, Spanish, Vidalia and Bermuda onions, leeks and garlic. The allium cepa family are indispensable, tasty, magical medicine for your Holy Temple. So, please take a leek, then pass the breath mints.
Don't take the ancient medicinal root vegetable for granted. Eat with a conscious focus on your family's health. And then, perhaps, we need to loosen up a bit, and get over the misunderstood odor and instead, express gratitude for the cosmos' glorious, health-enhancing, pungent essence of onions. If your friends are really friends, they'll accept you with open arms, not clothes pins on their nose. Tell them that their hang-up stinks and, "I'd rather smell to high heavens than take a long nap on the wrong side of the sod."
Chef Wendell hosts Eat Right Now on WISH TV 8 CBS Indianapolis. He can be reached at 317-372-2592 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Visit his website at Chefwendell.com.