> You don't mention the type of onion..would that be my very favorite,
> Vidalia?
>
>
Sorry, Shelley here is a post from another forum about how the sweet
onions are missing the healthy sulfur compounds-
From: melissabuhmeyer@....
Date: February 11, 2008 2:22:50 PM PST
For those of you not subscribed to Ralph Moss's weekly report, this
came yesterday. Now, being a really good Southerner, I LOVE my Vidalia
onions and, in the absence of Vidalias, will go for whatever other
organic sweet onion is available, bypassing the whites, reds, etc. No
more! It is with great sorrow that I bury my beloved sweet onions!!!!
;) ;)
Onions (Allium cepa L.) are a healthful food. Epidemiological (i.e.,
population-based)
studies have repeatedly shown that people who eat diets rich in fruits
and vegetables, and particularly in garlic and onions, have lower rates
of chronic diseases, including
cardiovascular disease and cancer. I try to incorporate garlic and
onion, as well as their
elegant cousin, the shallot (Allium ascalonicum), a small but subtly
flavored relative of the onion, into my diet whenever possible. For
instance, I make a mean omelet using an entire onion, lightly sautéed,
with some garlic cloves thrown in for good measure.
But, as you may have noticed, there have been changes in the onion
business that bear
watching. First of all, the price of onions has risen in recent years.
It is not uncommon
these days to pay $1.50 per pound for what not long ago cost 39¢. And
increasingly in
American supermarkets, the familiar yellow, white and red onions are
being crowded out by various "sweet" varieties. These sweet varieties
used to be sold at a premium but are now actually somewhat less
expensive. (On a recent shopping expedition I noticed that they were
the only bulk onions priced under $1.00 per pound).
Originally, the only variety of sweet onion available in most markets
was a form of yellow
granex known by the name Vidalia. Traditionally, these were harvested
in southeast
Georgia from late April till mid-June and were available only during
the summer months.
Now the Vidalia season has been extended for several months by use of
controlled
atmosphere (CA) storage. The principal characteristic of CA storage is
a modification of
the atmosphere in the storage facility. This involves decreasing the
oxygen content of the air to 3 percent and maintaining the onions at a
temperature of 34 degrees Fahrenheit. So there are now Vidalia and
other sweet onions available in many markets year-round.
The Vidalia sweet onion was discovered by a farmer named Mose Coleman
in Toombs
County, Georgia, in the spring of 1931. During the depths of the Great
Depression, Mose was able to get a whopping 7¢ per pound for his novel
onions, and word of this quickly spread. The state of Georgia
subsidized a farm stand in the Toombs County town of Vidalia, and
tourists who bought Mose's delicious onions as a novelty spread word of
them far and wide.
Soon these so-called "Vidalia onions" began appearing on the shelves of
the local Piggly Wiggly - and the Vidalia became synonymous with a fine
eating onion that wouldn't cause tears when you cut it up. Down along
the banks of the Ogeechee River, folks are
understandably proud of their unusual onion. In 1990, the Vidalia onion
was named
Georgia's official state vegetable. Like French wines, "Vidalia" is now
a controlled
appellation that can only come from a production area defined by law in
Georgia and by
the United States Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). According to the
Vidalia Onion Act of 1986 true Vidalia onions can only come from
certain well-defined counties.
Vidalia onions have a very mild taste and do not make your eyes water
when you cut them up. In time Vidalia was joined on the shelves by
other varieties of sweet onions - Maui, Walla Walla, and Maya. These
are all delicious. Some are available all year long and at 50 percent
lower cost than standard yellow or red onions.
Chemical analysis has shown that the reason that these onions are so
sweet is because of a lack of sulfur in the soil in the particular
counties in which they are grown. Sulfur is
necessary to produce the characteristically sharp taste and odor of
typical onions. But
therein lies the problem. Do these sulfur-lacking sweet onions convey
the same health
benefit as typical sharp onions? After all, we also know that sulfur is
involved in the
production of some of the very phenolic and flavonoid compounds that
give the onion
family its health benefit. (I am thinking in particular of organic
allyl sulfur, the most
desirable compound in onions and garlic.)
This question has been answered by food chemists at Cornell University
and the results
will not come as welcome news down in Jeff Davis County.
These Cornell scientists, led by Dr. R.H. Liu, compared the phenolic
and flavonoid content of 10 varieties of onion that are commonly
available in the United States, as well as shallots. The ten varieties
were as follows:
1. Empire Sweet
2. Imperial Valley Sweet; and
3. Mexico
4. New York Bold
5. Northern Red
6. Peruvian Sweet
7. Texas 1015
8. Vidalia
9. Western White
10. Western Yellow
These were evaluated for their total phenolic and flavonoid content as
well as their
antioxidant and antiproliferative (i.e., anticancer) activity. Shallots
had the highest total
phenolic content among all the varieties tested, with a 6-fold
difference observed when
compared to Vidalia onions. Western Yellows exhibited the highest total
flavonoid content
of all the onion varieties tested, with an 11-fold difference when
compared to the phenol-
poor Western Whites. Shallots exhibited the highest total antioxidant
activity.
Leaving aside the antioxidant-rich shallots, the onions were ranked as
follows for
antioxidant activity:
1. Western Yellow
2. New York Bold
3. Northern Red
4. Mexico
5. Empire Sweet
6. Western White
7. Peruvian Sweet
8. Texas 1015
9. Imperial Valley Sweet
10. Vidalia
The Cornell scientists also exposed various cancer cell lines to these
onion varieties to see what effect the onions had on cell
proliferation. The most effective of all in inhibiting
cancer cells were - again - shallots, followed by New York Bold,
Western Yellow and
Northern Reds. The rest of the varieties all demonstrated weak
anti-proliferative activity
against these cancer cell lines. "These results may influence consumers
toward purchasing onion varieties exhibiting greater potential health
benefits," the authors wrote.
I know these results will influence my own shopping habits. The next
time I purchase
onions I will be looking for Western Yellow, New York Bold and/or
Northern Red (a
particularly good variety for salads). I will also get some shallots
when my budget can
afford them and they look nice and plump. Sweet onions, such as
Vidalias or Maya, are
indeed delicious and relatively inexpensive. But they simply do not
convey a fraction of the health benefits of yellow or red onions, or of
shallots.
Enjoy!
xxoo
Melissa
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