Who doesn’t love onions or garlic in a delicious curry or perhaps a savory stew? These pungent foods add delicious flavor to almost any meal. And, most of us know that they also help boost our immune system to fight off colds and flu or other infections. But, it turns out that onions and garlic offer even greater benefits than previously believed.
According to recent research published in the Asia-Pacific Journal of Clinical Oncology, garlic and onions may also help protect you against cancer. To determine whether these foods could help with cancer, the scientists took 833 people suffering with colorectal cancer along with an additional 833 people who acted as controls for the study. They were matched in age and gender and even lived in similar locations.
The researchers interviewed each study participant, recording their food habits using a food frequency questionnaire. They found that, contrary to what the conflicting earlier studies showed, there is a significant relationship between the amount of allium vegetables, like onions, garlic, leeks, chives, etc. a person consumes and their risk of colorectal cancer. Those who ate the most allium vegetables had a 79 percent lower risk than those people who consumed the lowest levels of these foods. In other words, the more garlic, onions and other allium vegetables you eat, the greater your protection against colorectal cancer.
There was another interesting finding in this study: the results were found in both women and men, which contradicts some earlier studies that had found differences between the genders, including one published in Cancer Causes and Control. In that study, researchers found that garlic helped prevent colorectal cancer in women but not in men. The new study suggests that this is not the case at all and supports a stronger link between eating more alliums and cancer prevention.
WHAT ARE ALLIUM VEGETABLES?
There are many types of allium vegetables, some of the which include: garlic, onions, garlic greens, garlic scapes, leeks, spring onions, scallions and chives.
17 WAYS TO GET MORE ALLIUM VEGETABLES IN YOUR DIET
-Cut the tops off a head of garlic, leaving the skins intact. Drizzle a little olive oil over it and then place in a small covered baking dish and bake for 350 for 45 minutes to an hour. Spread on bread in place of butter.
-Add raw or roasted garlic to sauces.
-Add raw or roasted garlic to salad dressings.
-Add raw or roasted garlic to soups.
-Add raw or roasted garlic to curries or stews.
-Add some minced raw onion or chopped green onion to guacamole.
-Add onion to soups and stews.
-Top your soup with some chopped spring onions or chives.
-Add scallions to 2 parts olive oil, 1 part apple cider vinegar, a pinch of salt, and a teaspoon of mustard for a delicious salad dressing.
-Slowly brown onions over low to medium heat in a saute pan and use as the base for your next soup or stew.
-Add some roasted garlic and chopped onions to your next pizza (preferably a gluten-free, dairy-free option).
-Add plentiful amounts of garlic to chickpeas, tahini, olive oil and a dash of sea salt for a delicious hummus.
-Mix chopped onions, garlic, olive oil and some balsamic vinegar together for a marinade for kebabs.
-Blend garlic, handfuls of fresh basil, olive oil, pine nuts and a pinch of sea salt to make a pesto for your sandwiches, wraps and of course, pasta.
-Mash roasted garlic into potatoes for a flavor boost.
-Add whole cloves of garlic tossed in olive oil and add to a baking dish of potatoes, then roast until cooked.
-Saute your favorite greens or other vegetables with chopped garlic and onions to give them a nutrition and flavor boost.
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