These days, there are countless glowing media reports about superfoods, but many of the strongest medicinal foods aren’t “super” at all – they’re easily available from grocery stores.
Consider the common onion. Its medicinal powers stretch back through the ages. Old preserved onions have been found in human settlements dating back to 5000BC, alongside immaculately preserved stones from figs and dates.
During the first ever Olympics in the first century A.D., Greek athletes reportedly swallowed onions as a strength booster. The Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt believed that the onion’s spherical shape symbolised eternal life, and demanded that their underlings buried one with them in their tombs.
By the Middle Ages, onions had evolved into a widely used currency for goods and services. Combining onions with crushed aspirin and water was once a folklore remedy for warts. New York City was once called the big onion, not the big apple, and farmers still believe that an onion crop with thinner layers predicts a frigid winter to come.
Clearly, onions are one interesting vegetable. Structurally, they’re most similar to garlic, with an equally vast array of complex compounds, such as flavonoids, anthocyanins, and sulphurous molecules…
…but this outstanding complexity could also be the onion’s downfall. Why? Because onions are one of the otherwise acne-friendly foods which are richest in FODMAPs.
The reason why onions trigger acne outbreaks
FODMAPS are a gigantic subject in the acneverse, and that’s why there’s a full article about them here. But your quick definition is this: a group of natural short chain carbohydrates which an estimated 35% of people cannot digest properly.
FODMAPs, in short, are the single biggest cause of acne outbreaks in otherwise acne-friendly fruits and vegetables. As for onions, the main FODMAP groups are as follows: polyols like maltitol and sorbitol, found largely in fruits. Monosaccharides like fructose, found solely in all fruits, and disaccharides, which solely include the lactose found in dairy.
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Last but not least, there’s oligosaccharides, which includes galactans, raffinose and fructans. Your common garden onion is devoid of almost every FODMAP group, but the lone exception is their vast quantities of fructans.
A fructan is a molecular chain consisting of the common dietary sugars fructose and glucose. Because humans lack the correct digestive enzymes to fully digest oligosaccharides, it’s estimated that only 5-15% of fructans are fully absorbed.
As bacteria in the large intestine ferment the remaining ones, they 1) produce an osmotic effect, sucking in water, and 2) churn out methane, carbon dioxide and other metabolites as by-products. What’s more, fructans preferentially fuel your malicious gut bacteria strains, enabling their dominance.
It was once estimated that 24% of irritable bowel syndrome patients are sensitive to fructans (study). This study found that restricting dietary fructans could benefit numerous GI disorders, while this study was particularly interesting. Independent of fructose intolerance, lactose intolerance, and pathogenic bacterial overgrowth, fructans still had strongly negative effects on gastro-intestinal health.
As for our enemy acne, the correlation between digestive havoc and acne is tighter than the one between kale-only diets and hippies (never listen to them!). Chronic inflammation, impaired nutrient absorption – the list goes on.
Not everybody is sensitive to fructans, but for the unlucky chosen few, they’re serious adversaries, not to be underestimated. At 1.1-10.1% concentration, onions are one of the richest foods in fructans with ease. They’re only beaten by garlic, Jerusalem artichoke and rye grain, which contain 17.4%, 16-20% and 4.6-6.6% fructan respectively.
By their very nature, bulbous roots like onions tend to be FODMAP headquarters. Likewise, members of the alliaceae family such as garlic and onions contain far more than tubers like potatoes.
Fructans can also have two forms, with the short molecular chain form being called oligofructose, and the long molecular chain form being called inulin, not to be confused with the hormone insulin. Onions double their danger by mostly containing the inulin form – extra molecular length is even tougher to digest.
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The FODMAP diet has rapidly gathered steam over the last decade, and onions are usually one of the first plants that doctors outlaw (with apples being another).
Have you ever eaten a soup, salad, or meat sauce containing onion, and witnessed a terrifying explosion of acne within hours? Fructans are probably why.
Additionally, you probably have a secret digestive weakness, one that makes you extra sensitive to FODMAPS…
The alternative – onions may improve your gut health
…and here’s where things get interesting. If you’re not sensitive to fructans, then they can be a fantastic compound to acne. By extension, so can the common onion.
The digestive processes with fructans and other FODMAPs never change. Your gut flora will always metabolise the majority, but what can change is the quality of that gut flora. If you have the correct species and numbers, then almost every FODMAP variety can have probiotic benefits instead, including inulin. They can provide fuel for good bacteria, allowing them to expand their benign influence and not the pathogenic ones on a demented mission to create pimples.
That’s why for the majority of acne patients, eating more onions is a fantastic strategy. Gut bacteria are well known to convert inulin into short chain fatty acids such as butyrate, which has anti-inflammatory and insulin sensitivity-enhancing properties. Insulin supplementation was also observed in two studies to lower inflammation in patients with Crohn’s disease, and the evidence is equally promising for IBS.
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Better yet, inulin supplementation once increased the absorption of calcium in both boys and girls aged 9-13. That’s an expected benefit, given that healthy bacterial strains can protect the integrity of the gut lining, but it should also extend to zinc and selenium, two of the ultimate acne minerals.
Studies on onions themselves are promising, as this one found that onion oil behaved like an antibiotic, wiping out toxic bacteria and yeasts.
Inulin is a real Jekyll and Hyde substance – an inflammation-promoter in the FODMAP sensitive, and a soothing probiotic in everyone else.
Another gut protector
Onions are also one of the richest supermarket staples in quercetin. This antioxidant is manufactured by onions for protection against UV light, and for that reason is highly concentrated in the onion’s outer layers.
In humans though, quercetin has a wide variety of gut-protecting powers. First of all, the molecule quercetin can enhance the responsiveness of your tight junctions, the gatekeepers of gut barrier function. Secondly, quercetin acts as a natural histamine, decreasing the inflammatory onslaught from small intestine mast cells in response to falsely identified “threats”. This simultaneously decreases the risk of pointless, acne-causing allergies to perfectly safe foods.
An unexplained yet happy fact is that according to this human study, the bioavailability of quercetin in apples was only 30% of the onion’s. An above average 52% of the onion’s quercetin was absorbed, which compares brilliantly to the dire absorption of curcumin from turmeric (its main health compound) at just 2%.
Meanwhile, molecular conjugations of glucose with quercetin had significantly higher absorption in the small intestine, and great news – the primary form in onions is quercetin-beta-glucoside. To protect against leaky gut syndrome, you need your quercetin inside the gut anyway, so an even larger proportion than 52% will surely be working its wonders.
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As the cherry on top, onions feature dramatically more quercetin than apples anyway. Boiled onions and raw red onions weigh in at 19.36mg and 19.93mg per 100 grams, compared with 4.42mg in apples. Elsewhere, kale boasts 7.71mg, broccoli contains 3.21mg, spinach contains 4.86mg, green beans contains 2.73mg and red grapes stand at 3.54mg.
If you can tolerate FODMAPS easily, then the combination of quercetin and inulin makes onions a near unbeatable gut-protecting food.
Onions – one of the most sulphurous vegetables
Forgetting gut health for a second, onions are also an immense food for increasing your antioxidant supplies.
Their first line of attack is their massive content of sulphurous compounds like allinase, aliin, diallyl trisulfide and diallyl sulfide. The most famous is allicin, also found in garlic, which metabolises in the gut into sulfenic acid, one of the most potent antioxidants yet discovered. But the sulphur itself is the real key, as it sends your glutathione production soaring.
Unlike quercetin or vitamin C, glutathione is manufactured by the human body, and you need sulphur molecules to do it. That’s why the sulphurous supplement MSM works so well, and cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli and its sulforaphane.
In this study, taking onion extract for 6 weeks increased not only glutathione, but also the antioxidants catalase and superoxide dismutase. Malondialdehyde, an accurate marker of free radical activity, was substantially decreased, and garlic achieved similarly great results. The conclusion: “these findings suggest antioxidant enhancing capability for both doses of onion and low dose of garlic“.
Eat a pomegranate, and you get pre-formed antioxidants. Eat a potato, and you get pre-formed vitamin C. Onions and garlic are among the ultimate plant foods for accelerating your own antioxidant production, with whey proteins ruling over animal foods.
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What’s more, onions contain a vast treasure chest of pre-formed antioxidants themselves. We’ve already covered quercetin, a flavonoid antioxidant, and according to this 2007 review, onions contain 25 flavonoids in total. The major antioxidant class in onions is anthocyanins, also with 25 subvarieties. Yellow inferiors fare more poorly with 270-1187mg of flavanols versus 415-1917mg for red onions. This makes sense perfectly, as flavonoids are apparently the predominant pigments of onions, but both figures are stellar.
One study tested heterocyclic aromatic amines, a primetime worry among primal living fanatics. HAAs are free radicals which form from proteins under the intense heat of frying, which are mildly linked to cancer and importantly for acne, antioxidant depletion.
Luckily, plenty of solutions exist, and onions are one of them. In fried meat, an onion marinade almost matched garlic in tackling unhealthy HAA formation. Lemon juice was actually more effective than both (just don’t put it on your skin).
How can you tell whether onions are safe?
The most effective way is the most simple: eat one and look closely in the mirror.
It could come on fast, new pimples forming within hours. It could be more insidious, a rumbling stomach and a dull ache after a week of eating onions daily.
If you can’t tolerate other FODMAP-rich foods, then your chances of a sensitivity are dramatically higher. Some other foods rich in fructans are garlic, rye, artichokes and wheat. You can see the full list of FODMAP-rich foods in this article, but remember that apples, blackberries, watermelons, cabbage, and asparagus are classic ones.
The causes of FODMAP sensitivity are equally numerous, but one great example is sugar addiction. Look at your diet closely. Any more than 125 grams of sugar daily provides a feast for pathogenic bacteria and candida yeasts lurking in your gut, making FODMAPs tougher to digest.
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If you’re actively trying to heal your gut, perhaps with the instructions in my eBook Annihilate Your Acne, then onions should be avoided initially. At a certain stage, however, the scales will tip. Good bacteria will reassert their rightful control and onions will suddenly become a beneficial ally for acne. Prebiotics like yoghurt, sauerkraut, natto and kefir can thus bring an onion-filled future closer again.
There are way too many elements involved with FODMAP sensitivity to fully explain here, so a final alternative is to experiment.
You can eat onions each day in a salad or soup for a week, before removing them for another week while maintaining the exact same diet otherwise. Analyse both your acne AND your digestive health and comfort. Follow your own trusty instincts and work out once and for all whether onions are a problem for you.
The guide – how to make your onions the healthiest
Your first happy fact is that buying onions organically is totally pointless. Recently, some gardeners have been scratching their heads and wondering why the only species that eats onion is the human. Some prophesiers are even worried that we’re make a big mistake and that humanity is finished. However, the glorious truth is that pests cannot stand the healthy organosulfur compounds; garlic is used as a natural pesticide for that very reason.
In the 2016 edition of the “clean fifteen” crops free from agrochemical (pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides) contamination, onions ranked in 6th. Just 0.3% of conventional onions tested positive for pesticide residue.
What’s more, in this study, organic onions had zero advantage in polyphenol antioxidant levels. Organic farming increases vitamin C and antioxidants in fruits like strawberries and bell peppers, but not in onions.
If your supermarket sells organic onions, then it’s nothing more than a sleazy-cash in. The differences between varieties are far more significant. Yellow onions, which account for 87% of US production, contain roughly 11 times more antioxidants than white ones (5% of US production), with red closely ahead of yellow.
Never mindlessly follow conventional wisdom; you should peel as little of the outer layers as you can. The antioxidants are generated as outer defences against harsh UV radiation.
This study also revealed that small onions had a higher flavonoid content than larger ones. My theory is that at some stage of maturation, growing onions reach a set quantity of antioxidants which only disperse as they expand. If true, four small onions would beat two large ones.
The cooking method is also vital, as this study on quercetin noticed the following differences: . Boiling is a decent enough tactic, thus putting an acne-friendly onion-filled soup back on the menu, preferably containing other skin-clearing vegetables too.
What’s more, this study revealed the full truth. Boiling onions slashed their quercetin counts by 30%, but the question was, where did it go? Right into the water. Quercetin is a water-soluble antioxidant (an example of a fat-soluble antioxidant is lycopene in tomatoes), making onion soup even better.
Next up, you have to buy your onions fresh from the market, or else. Commercial dehydrated onion products contain few or even zero flavonoids. Never get tempted to pour some 2 year old onion powder into your soup.
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Which brings us to our next point – with onions, it’s smart to slice into your bulb only immediately before using it. Allicin, among the strongest organosulfur compounds in onion, is produced when the enzyme allinase reacts with alliin.
This allinase is cleanly separated from aliin by the inner walls. Consequently, the reaction occurs immediately after slicing into the root with a knife, but the resulting allicin is extremely unstable, degrading to almost nothing within 24 hours thanks to a puny half life.
The solution? There’s no issue with storing a whole onion in your cupboard, but after the very first slice you should get the thing in your body as fast as humanly possible.
Conclusion
Onions will most likely do something to your acne. Onions can be your worst friend, but also your worst nightmare.
Despite being all-natural, FODMAPs are never a foe to be taken lightly. They can generate painful pimples just as swiftly as a sugary mars bar or a grease-covered jam donut.
If you can tolerate them, however, the onions are truly great for acne, preventing pimples from ever being born thanks to their plentiful antioxidants.
This saga also illustrates the greatness of variety in an acne-clearing diet. Kale and onions both bring the sulphurous compounds, with sulforaphane and allicin respectively. But kale also contains over 100% of the RDI for vitamin A, the greatest nutrient for oily skin. Onions, meanwhile, are rich in prebiotics which feed your acne-friendly bacterial colonies.
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Thanks for reading!
I appreciate the effort gone into this article. A lot of information is contained within it but I found some parts very hard to follow. I read it multiple times and still can’t quite figure out what the writer is saying with relation to FODMAPS and how they relate to leaky gut, candida albicans etc. They merely state “Then you have leaky gut syndrome etc” but it doesn’t state anywhere how this relates to onions. A key reason to reading an article such as this would be to learn how the onions actually relate to these symptoms.
Over multiple readings I’ve drawn the conclusion that part of what is essentially being said is that if you have a bad bacterial imbalance, onion will feed it and make it worse, but if you have a higher amount of good bacteria, onions will feed them and improve your health. Are we saying that if you turn your health around and fix your diet and microintestinal flora that onions will start to be a good thing for people currently with FODMAP sensitivity?
That is what I’m saying; if you turn your microintestinal flora around, you won’t have a FODMAP sensitivity in the first place, or at least much less of one. It relates to onions because like garlic, they are one of the most FODMAP rich vegetables.