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| out how much onions can do for your health, you may start asking for extra. (And try a sprig or two of parsley to sweeten your breath.) |
| SMART SOURCES |
| These cookbooks are filled with good ideas about food combining and preparing vegetarian meals. |
| American Wholefoods Cuisine: 1,300 Meatless, Wholesome Recipes from Short Order to Gourmet by Nikki and David Goldbeck |
| The New Laurel's Kitchen: A Handbook for Vegetarian Cooking by Laurel Robertson, Carol Flinders, and Brian Ruppenthal |
| Disease-Fighting Flavonoids |
| Recent research has turned up impressive evidence of onions' healing powers: a large study showed that people who eat more onions in their daily diets have lower rates of stomach cancer. |
| Another study demonstrated that men who ate a quarter-cup of onions a day, along with four cups of tea and an apple, were one-third less likely to die from heart attacks as those who ate the least amounts of these foods. |
| Part of the credit for these results goes to antioxidant compounds called flavonoids. Onions contain dozens of these compounds, which have been found to provide strong protection against free radical damage. The main flavonoid found in onions, quercetin, has strong heart-protecting benefits: it helps prevents damaging LDL cholesterol from oxidizing and sticking to artery walls, and it also helps prevent the formation of harmful blood clots. Quercetin also has been shown to halt the growth of tumors in animals. Researchers believe that quercetin and other onion compounds not only stop tumor growth but also kill harmful bacteria that may lead to tumors. |
| The Upside of Crying |
| Onions contain potent sulfur compoundsthey're the ones that make you cry as you slice. Researchers believe that these compounds raise levels of good cholesterol, which helps keeps arterial plaque at bay. These sulfur compounds also lower levels of dangerous blood fats called triglyc- |
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