Onion and garlic add flavor to your food and provide you with a number of vitamins and minerals. They also contain compounds that may have beneficial health effects if you are willing to put up with the bad breath that comes along with eating onion or garlic. Although you can get these compounds from supplements, it is better to get them from food.
Garlic Benefits
Beneficial compounds in garlic include sulfur, allicin, arginine, flavonoids, oligosaccharides and selenium. Garlic consumption may lower your risk for certain types of cancers, heart disease, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. You can increase the beneficial compounds in garlic by letting it sit about 15 minutes at room temperature after chopping or crushing it before you cook it.
Onion Benefits
Onions contain quercetin, a flavonoid that may lower your risk for cancer, heart disease and cataracts. They also contain organosulfur compounds, which may lower your risk for high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Onions can help you meet your recommended intake for fiber, potassium, vitamin B-6, folate and vitamin C.
Possible Side Effects
Consuming too much garlic may cause you to experience a number of side effects, including indigestion, diarrhea, heartburn, vomiting, nausea and allergic reactions. Garlic may act as a blood thinner, and it interacts with the HIV drug saquinavir. High doses of quercetin from supplements can cause nausea, but the amount of quercetin you consume in your diet through eating onions is unlikely to cause any side effects, according to the American Cancer Society.
Considerations
To get the health benefits, you need to consume quite a bit of garlic or onion. Eating at least one garlic clove per day for good health is recommended by the World Health Organization, but consuming five or more cloves may provide the most benefits.
References
- "The New York Times"; Unlocking the Benefits of Garlic; Tara Parker-Pope; October 2007
- National Cancer Institute; Garlic and Cancer Prevention: Questions and Answers; January 2008
- National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine; Garlic; July 2010
- New Mexico State University: Onion Nutrition Facts
- American Cancer Society; Quercetin; November 2008
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