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"Garlic,
onions, and leeks may be lacking in color, but they're bursting
with powerful phytochemicals, substances found only in plants that
help your body fight disease and promote good health," according
to the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention.
Vegetables
from the onion family, which includes garlic, chives, scallions,
leeks share a group of phytochemicals that are very important to
good health, with allicin the most common phytochemical. Allicin
may play a role in helping lower cholesterol and blood pressure
and increasing the body's ability to fight infections.
The
National 5 A Day for Better Health Partnership recommends including
garlic, onions, and/or leeks as part of the recommended 5 to 9 servings
of vegetables and fruit a day.
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If
cooking with onions brings tears to your eyes, here's why: "The tearjerker
in onions is a compound called propanethial-s-oxide, which is released
in a vapor when onions are cut" according to Cheryl Forberg, professional
chef, registered dietitian and author of Stop the Clock! Cooking
<www.cherylforberg.com>.
"When
the vapor comes in contact with the eye, it is converted to a form of
sulfuric acid, which produces the stinging sensation and subsequent tears.
Cutting onions under water or chilling them before cutting, will retard
the enzymes that generate the noxious chemicals," recommends Forberg.
Some
other suggestions people have mentioned for preventing tears when working
with onions include:
-
Keep
the root on while peeling and chopping. A variation of this is to
cut from the top leaving the root end intact until the last cut!
-
Be in
a well-ventilated place and cut fast!
-
Use
a good, sharp chef's knife. It glides through the onion with ease,
allowing less of the compounds that cause tears to come out.
-
Wear
a pair of safety goggles or a cheap, disposable painter's mask.
-
Put
a slice of bread in your mouth, with half of it sticking out to "catch"
the fumes.
-
Put
some white vinegar on the chopping board before cutting.
-
Burn
a candle immediately adjacent to where you're cutting. The tear-causing
gas is drawn toward the heat source.
-
Purchase
pre-chopped onions.
After cutting
the onions (and garlic), a suggestion that may help remove the smell from
your hands is to run cool tap water over your hands while rubbing them
across a stainless steel utensil, such as the bowl of a stainless steel
spoon. If you have been cutting a lot of onions, this may not be as effective.
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Developed
By:
Alice
C. Henneman, MS, RD
Extension Educator
University of Nebraska
Cooperative Extension in Lancaster County
Fax:
(402) 441-7148
Phone: (402) 441-7180
E-Mail: ahenneman1@unl.edu
Web site: lancaster.unl.edu/food
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For
more information about
preparing healthy meals, contact your local University of Nebraska Cooperative
Extension Office; for the location of the office nearest you, click
here. For a listing of Cooperative Extension Offices throughout the
United States, click
here.
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