Are Onions Good for Diabetics?

By Digital Editor Dilgam H. Published March 23, 2017 Diet

Whether you use them as a primary ingredient, dressing and garnish, onions add taste to a variety of dishes. Onions are a low-calorie, healthful food to consist of in your diabetic diet, offering you with fiber, iron, potassium, vitamin C and other micronutrients. Some evidence recommends that specific chemicals in onions may assist you preserve blood glucose control.

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Onions and Diabetes

Onions and Diabetes

Low Carbohydrates And Calories

The American Diabetes Association recommends that you eat at least 3 to five portions of vegetables daily. Adding onions to your soups, stews, sandwiches, salads and casseroles increases your vegetable consumption without adding a great deal or calories or carbs to your diet. A half cup of sliced spring onions consists of 26 calories and 5.9 g of carbohydrates. Storage onions, such as yellow, white or red onions, consist of 16 calories and 3.7 g of carbs per half cup.

Sweet Onions

Moderate onion ranges, or “sweet” onions, are a seasonal favorite. Compared to storage onions, sweet onions have a greater percentage of water and a lower concentration of sulfur-containing chemicals that impart onions with their pungency. The sugar concentration in fresh sweet onions, however, is not considerably higher than that in storage onions. For that reason, you can include sweet onions in your diabetic diet without worrying about them triggering a spike in your blood glucose level.

Fiber

Like all veggies, onions consist of plant fiber. Spring onions include slightly less fiber than storage onions, with 1.3 g and 2.1 g per half cup, respectively. Dietary fiber assists keep your bowels active, avoiding constipation. If you are prone to constipation due to diabetes-related nerve issues, consuming the advised 25 to 30 g of fiber daily shows particularly crucial. In addition, a high-fiber diet might assist manage your blood cholesterol level, reducing your risk of heart disease.

Vitamins and Minerals

Onions include a moderate quantity of vitamin C, or ascorbic acid. A half cup of sliced spring onions offers you with 9.4 mg of vitamin C; a comparable serving of storage onions includes 15 mg. Other vitamins found in considerable amounts in onions include vitamins A and K, folate and niacin. Your body likewise gains a selection of minerals from onions, including iron, zinc, magnesium, potassium and phosphorus.

Blood sugar level Effects

Onions include high concentrations of micronutrients called flavonoids, a group of plant-derived chemicals that have many health-related impacts on your body. Quercetin is one of the most plentiful flavonoids in onions; others include cysteine and allyl propyl disulphide. Biomedical researchers speculate that flavonoids in onions may affect blood glucose levels. In an October 2010 study released in the journal, “Environmental Health Insights,” pharmacologist Imad Taj Eldin and colleagues report that consumption of fresh onions decreased blood sugar levels among type 1 and type 2 diabetics. Extra research is need to identify whether onions might be a helpful addition to diabetes dietary therapy.