Let’s talk about weight loss, cholesterol and PCOS treatment through diet. What can eight teaspoons of onion powder a day do for body fat, and what can raw red onion do for cholesterol?
In my previous video about onions, I talked about the data supporting or not supporting the role of onions in increasing testosterone in men, protecting bone health, controlling allergies, and dealing with the side effects of chemotherapy. What about weight loss? enter “Effect of consumption of boiled onion (ONIRO) on body fat and metabolic profile in overweight subjects”. The researchers used boiled onions, which are not as spicy and have a weaker odor, so they could disguise it better as a placebo. He dried them and made onion powder and gave it to people in very small amounts – about an eighth of a teaspoon (300 mg) a day. Certainly, sprinkling onion powder daily will not have any effect on people’s weight. But check out the results reported in the abstract: Measurements using DEXA scans showed significant reductions in body fat mass, and CT scans showed significant reductions in total, visceral, and subcutaneous fat areas.
Catch. If a little onion powder is so effective for weight loss, why isn’t it featured in my book how not to diet? Because, as is often the case in studies, the curves in the abstract do not accurately represent the real data. The results of the DEXA scan showed that there were no significant changes in fat in the group that received the placebo capsules. They appeared to lose only about one teaspoon (7 grams) of fat, while the group unknowingly taking one-eighth of a teaspoon of onion powder packed into capsules lost about one and a half pounds (0.64 kilograms) of body fat—a significant drop from baseline, but not a statistically significant drop compared to the placebo group, meaning the loss could have been just due to chance. Same thing with the CT scan results: 5 times greater loss of overall fat and more than 30 times loss of dangerous visceral fat, but the results did not reach statistical significance compared to placebo.
Another recent study tried Four teaspoons (9 grams) of onion powder a day and the like failed to accelerate the loss of visceral, total, or subcutaneous fat compared with placebo—but so did the placebo, as did four teaspoons (9 grams) of onion powder a day. They used yellow onion vs. white onion, and while it seems both of them may lead to reduced belly body fat, there is no significant difference between them. Either way, you might look at these two studies and think, sure, but what are the downsides? That’s only one-eighth of a teaspoon of onion powder a day, so why not give it a try? It may not cause harm, but we don’t have enough evidence to be confident that it will actually help.
Let’s talk about Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, also known as PCOS. It is one of the most common hormone disorders, Affected 5% to 10% of reproductive-aged women. In addition to causing symptoms such as irregular menstruation, “PCOS is a pre-diabetic state in which insulin sensitivity is reduced.” Treatment of PCOS is challenging due to medication side effects. So, are there any dietary alternatives? How about a randomized controlled clinical trial of raw red onion consumption?
Why onion? Well, onion extract can apparently improve blood sugar and insulin sensitivity in diabetic rats and, more importantly, has been found to reduce blood sugar levels in diabetic humans, but apparently not in non-diabetic humans. People with PCOS are kind of pre-diabetic, so will this work for them? First, let’s look at those other two studies. To Study In “Metabolic Effects of Onions and Green Beans,” people with diabetes ate either a small onion (60 grams) every day or ate the same diet with about six cups (600 grams) of green beans instead — and both approaches worked. Onions reduced people’s blood sugar levels by about 10% compared to a non-onion control diet, while green beans reduced it by about 15% compared to the control.
Here’s what the study believed shows No benefit to blood sugar for people without diabetes. It’s true – onions don’t lower normal blood sugar levels, which is a good thing, but look what happens when you feed people sugar. Have people consume about two and a half teaspoons (50 grams) of corn syrup, and their blood sugar levels spike over the next two hours before their body can lower it back down. But give people the same amount of sugar with more onion juice, and the rise in blood sugar is substantially reduced, about the same as if you gave them an antidiabetic drug instead, as you can see below and in my video at 4:00 Onion is tested for weight loss, cholesterol and PCOS treatment.
We Look When people take a shot of adrenaline and eat onion extract, it has the same blunting effect on blood sugar compared to getting the adrenaline without the onion extract, as you can see at 4:11 and below. Video.
So, are there blood sugar benefits for both people with and without diabetes? there was no difference found There were no differences in blood sugar levels or other markers of insulin resistance between the high-onion and low-onion groups of PCOS patients, nor Were There is no difference in markers of inflammation between the two groups. But women with PCOS not only have a higher risk of diabetes and inflammation Are The risk of high cholesterol is also higher.
Women with PCOS are seven times more likely to have a heart attack and develop cardiovascular disease, the number one killer of women. But consumption of raw red onions appears to be effective in lowering cholesterol, although the group that ate more onions had their LDL cholesterol drop by only 5 points (5 mg/dL), which was not significantly different from the group that ate less onions.
I found this study from 50 years ago where researchers fed People ate almost an entire stick (100 grams) of butter, and their cholesterol increased by about 30 points within a few hours of consumption, but it increased by only 9 points or 3 points when mixed with a third cup (50 grams) of raw or boiled onions. Moral of the story: Don’t eat a stick of butter.
doctor’s note
Watch the previous video I mentioned: Friday Favorite: Is Onion Beneficial for Testosterone, Osteoporosis, Allergies and Cancer?.
