Scientists have discovered that onion helps remove bad cholesterol - which can lead to heart attacks and strokes - from the humble onion body.The, commonly used in Indian and Mediterranean cuisine, can help to prevent heart disease, researchers in Hong Kong claimed. Scientists fed crushed red onions to hamsters who had all been put on a high cholesterol diet.
Zhen Yu Chen, who led the research, said: Despite extensive research on onion, little is known about how their consumption interacts with human genes and proteins involved in cholesterol metabolism in their study body.
For, researchers fed crushed up red onion to hamsters who had all been put on a high-cholesterol diet.
This study is the first of its kind to examine the interplay of red onion with biological functions.
They found that after eight weeks, levels of bad cholesterol, or low density lipoprotein (LDL), had fallen by an average of 20 per cent.
Although white onions are very popular type in the UK, Red onions are widely used in India, Middle East and Mediterranean.
For example, in Georgia, U.S. , where the small, Videlia sweet onions are grown the number of stomach cancer diagnosis is half the average for the rest of cancer.
It found that some parts of the world where garlic consumption is high has even been shown to have much lower cancer rates.
Although the white onion is by far the most popular type in the UK, Red onions are widely used in India, Mediterranean and Middle East. They is far sweeter than the white variety and is oftentimes used raw in salads.
A study carried out by Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, United States has suggested that people with high level of thigh fat are less likely to be at risk of heart disease, diabetes and stroke, as opposed to men and women with high levels of fat around the waist and upper body. The study highlights the benefits of a pear shaped body.
Similar conclusions were drawn by a Danish study conducted last year. The study included 3000 men and women and it indicated that those who have thigh circumference of 23.6 inches or more have less chance of getting heart disease or diabetes.
In the trial by Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Michael Jensen and colleagues overfed a group comprising both men and women for two months and studied the fat growth in their bodies. The body fat before the trial and after the trial was measured and it was found that an average subject gained 3.3 pounds of lower body fat and 5.5 pounds of upper-body fat.
According to Jensen the findings challenge the belief that the number of fat cells remains static in adults, as the striking finding was that the thigh fat cells grew in number and not in size whereas abdominal fat cells and the heart grew in size and not in number by producing more fat synthesising proteins.
These studies provide support to the idea that increased capacity to produce lower-body fat cells creates a form of buffer or protection to the upper body which houses the vital organs like heart, effectively preventing diseases like diabetes and heart disease.
Drugs that change the way fat is stored around the body could be used to fight cardiovascular and related diseases in the future.