Comparing white and red onions

Onion is per­haps the main ingre­di­ent in Euro­pean cui­sine. Due to the fact that it is well stored — root veg­eta­bles can lie for years in the right con­di­tions — and at the same time has a rich taste, not lim­it­ed to sharp shades, it has become pop­u­lar and is used in a huge num­ber of dish­es. Unsweet­ened pas­tries, sal­ads, meat and fish dish­es, canned food, soups — this is not a com­plete list of prod­ucts for the prepa­ra­tion of which onions are used.

How­ev­er, onions are dif­fer­ent. Even in the form of roots. So, for exam­ple, in shops and mar­kets you can find white and red onions. Let’s fig­ure out what are the dif­fer­ences between them and what are the use­ful prop­er­ties of each of these vari­eties.

white bow

White onion is one of the most com­mon vari­eties of this root crop in EU. It is grown both in the mid­dle lane and in the south. The agri­cul­tur­al pop­u­lar­i­ty of this veg­etable is due to the fact that it is easy to grow and care for, and also has a long shelf life and does not require a lot of water for ripen­ing.

In addi­tion, white onions are char­ac­ter­ized by a rather unusu­al taste. Sharp shades in it are present, but do not pre­vail. The taste palette is rich, from sweet­ish to “fiery”. More­over, dur­ing heat treat­ment or pick­ling, the sharp­ness dis­ap­pears almost com­plete­ly, but the char­ac­ter­is­tic aro­ma remains.

That is why white onion is very wide­ly used in cook­ing. When boil­ing or fry­ing, it los­es its sharp­ness, but at the same time retains its aro­ma — that is, it empha­sizes the taste of the fin­ished dish with­out chang­ing it. And when mar­i­nat­ed, it becomes very spicy, so you can even eat it on your own with­out fear of burn­ing your throat.

Fresh white onions are rarely used. It is added to sal­ads or as a side dish to fish or meat dish­es. How­ev­er, fresh white onions retain their char­ac­ter­is­tic pun­gency — and as a result, eat­ing them “just like that” can be quite unpleas­ant. For­tu­nate­ly, it pick­les quick­ly, imme­di­ate­ly after con­tact with vine­gar or oth­er mari­nades, so the sharp­ness is lost already dur­ing the prepa­ra­tion of the sal­ad.

White onion is wide­ly used in cos­me­tol­ogyand in folk med­i­cine. A large num­ber of phy­ton­cides and essen­tial oils con­tained in this root crop make it a good anti­sep­tic. White onion in its raw form is used in the treat­ment of var­i­ous infec­tious dis­eases, skin abscess­es and cal­lus­es, acne, burns, frost­bite. Grat­ed onion mass masks improve hair growth, strength­en the epi­der­mis of the head and help slow down, if not com­plete­ly stop bald­ness. Also, phy­ton­cides and essen­tial oils con­tribute to the removal of cho­les­terol from the body.

How­ev­er, these active sub­stances can exac­er­bate dis­eases of cer­tain inter­nal organs (includ­ing the stom­ach and heart), as well as increase acid­i­ty and blood pres­sure. So eat this veg­etable with cau­tion. In addi­tion, it should not be giv­en to chil­dren under 2 years of age.

In gen­er­al, white onions are char­ac­ter­ized as fol­lows:

1. 
   Used fresh, pick­led, boiled and fried. It is used very wide­ly — it is found in almost all savory dish­es of Euro­pean cui­sine. Espe­cial­ly known as a sea­son­ing for meat and fish dish­es, it is able to mask the char­ac­ter­is­tic taste of beef, which not every­one likes;

2. 
   Con­tains a huge amount of nutri­ents, among which are nat­ur­al phy­ton­cides and essen­tial oils. They have excel­lent anti­sep­tic and antimi­cro­bial prop­er­ties, due to which onions in var­i­ous forms are used to treat many dis­eases;

3. 
   Suit­able for folk treat­ment infec­tious dis­eases (includ­ing colds), skin abscess­es and cal­lus­es, burns and frost­bite. Strength­ens immu­ni­ty. Reduces the lev­el of cho­les­terol in the blood. In cos­me­tol­ogy, it is used for the folk treat­ment of acne, as well as strength­en­ing the scalp and pre­vent­ing bald­ness;

4. 
   Among the neg­a­tive fac­tors - increas­es acid­i­ty, increas­es blood pres­sure, irri­tates mucous mem­branes, can exac­er­bate dis­eases of the stom­ach, heart and liv­er. White onions should not be giv­en to chil­dren under 2 years of age.

It should also be not­ed that the essen­tial oils of white onion are extreme­ly volatile. This means that after eat­ing it, an unpleas­ant odor appears from the mouth. And get­ting rid of it can be quite dif­fi­cult — it per­sists even after brush­ing your teeth.

How­ev­er, dur­ing heat treat­ment, the essen­tial oils from the root crop evap­o­rate. There­fore, when boiled or fried, this veg­etable los­es its char­ac­ter­is­tic smell.

So, let’s sum up.

Dish­es with white onions should be used with cau­tion in acute dis­eases of the gas­troin­testi­nal tract. The active sub­stances in its com­po­si­tion irri­tate the mucous mem­branes, which can lead to an exac­er­ba­tion of symp­toms. In addi­tion, you should not abuse onions in tra­di­tion­al med­i­cine — instead of treat­ing a cold or oth­er infec­tious dis­eases, you can “acquire” gas­tri­tis or heart­burn.

Red onion

Red onion — a veg­etable in “our lat­i­tudes” is not the most pop­u­lar. It is usu­al­ly import­ed from south­ern coun­tries, since high tem­per­a­tures are required for the ripen­ing of this root crop. More­over, cli­mat­ic con­di­tions great­ly affect the taste of red onions.

It is very dif­fi­cult to say what red onion tastes like. Usu­al­ly it is char­ac­ter­ized by a very strong spici­ness, but some indi­vid­ual root crops can even be sweet­ish. The taste of red onion depends large­ly on the grow­ing con­di­tions.

Red onions can be used in the same way as white onions. How­ev­er, in the vast major­i­ty of cas­es, it is con­sumed fresh. Dur­ing cook­ing, it los­es both taste and aro­mat­ic qual­i­ties, and also los­es all its use­ful prop­er­ties.

And red onion has a lot of use­ful prop­er­ties. This veg­etable is dis­tin­guished by the con­tent of a very large amount of vit­a­min C — it is even more than in lemons or apples. Also, the red onion con­tains vit­a­mins B, PP and E. There is also a huge amount of antho­cyanins — nat­ur­al anti­sep­tics, which give the root crop a char­ac­ter­is­tic red col­or.

Antho­cyanins have excel­lent antimi­cro­bial, antibi­ot­ic and anti­sep­tic prop­er­ties. That is why red onion copes well with infec­tious dis­eases, and can also be used as an anti­sep­tic for inter­nal and exter­nal action. In addi­tion, antho­cyanins are antiox­i­dants that help fight the aging process, reduce the risk of dia­betes and can­cer.

Of course, a large num­ber of antho­cyanins, phy­ton­cides and essen­tial oils make red onions a rather dan­ger­ous prod­uct for peo­ple with gas­troin­testi­nal dis­eases. It can cause exac­er­ba­tions of gas­tri­tis, pan­cre­ati­tis, ulcers, and is quite “heavy” for the liv­er and heart. There­fore, red onion should be used with the utmost care.

In gen­er­al, red onion is char­ac­ter­ized as fol­lows:

1. 
   Main­ly used fresh. It is dif­fi­cult to mar­i­nate; dur­ing heat treat­ment, it los­es its use­ful and taste qual­i­ties. The taste varies from sweet to spicy, depend­ing on the vari­ety and grow­ing con­di­tions of the root crop. It is used in sal­ads, sand­wich­es, as part of side dish­es for meat and fish dish­es;

2. 
   Con­tains many use­ful sub­stances, among which are vit­a­min C, antho­cyanins, phy­ton­cides, essen­tial oils. That is why red onion not only helps fight var­i­ous dis­eases, includ­ing colds, but also strength­ens the immune sys­tem;

3. 
   Helps with anti­sep­tic prop­er­tiest in the treat­ment of many infec­tious dis­eases, both exter­nal and inter­nal. Helps to get rid of inflam­ma­tion, cal­lus­es, corns and oth­er prob­lems. Low­ers cho­les­terol lev­els and reduces the risk of devel­op­ing dia­betes, can­cer and oth­er prob­lems;

4. 
   Among the neg­a­tive fac­tors — dan­ger to the diges­tive tract. May exac­er­bate kid­ney, liv­er, or stom­ach prob­lems. Of course, it should not be used by chil­dren under 2 years of age.

How­ev­er, there are not very many aro­mat­ic essen­tial oils in red onions. There­fore, it does not lead to per­sis­tent bad breath. If it does show up, it will be enough to brush your teeth or use chew­ing gum — how­ev­er, these are basic hygiene rules.

Phy­ton­cides and antho­cyanins also have anti-aging prop­er­ties. They active­ly fight free rad­i­cals that cause aging of cells and tis­sues of the body.

How­ev­er, due to the large num­ber of active sub­stances, red onion is prac­ti­cal­ly not used in cos­me­tol­ogy. Gru­els and purees from this root crop can cause skin irri­ta­tion, which in espe­cial­ly severe cas­es even turns into burns. That is why it is bet­ter to use it inter­nal­ly, and in lim­it­ed quan­ti­ties.

So, let’s sum up.

In gen­er­al, the main thing when using red onions is mod­er­a­tion. If you eat it sim­ply as a sea­son­ing and part of sal­ads or side dish­es, it will be use­ful. But if you use it immod­er­ate­ly, uncon­trol­lably, try­ing to cure some­thing with it, then there is a high risk of “col­li­sion” with its harm­ful effect.

Comparison

So, white onions are tasti­er, safer and can be used in any dish­es, while red onions are a store­house of nutri­ents. But the dif­fer­ence between the two types of veg­eta­bles is not lim­it­ed to this.

Both vari­eties of onions should be used with cau­tion, as they all irri­tate the sen­si­tive mucous mem­branes of the inter­nal organs. In addi­tion, this root veg­etable is not suit­able for feed­ing young chil­dren (under the age of 2 years).

But in gen­er­al — both types of onions, both red and white, are good for the body. But only fresh, which pre­serves phy­ton­cides, essen­tial oils, and vit­a­mins.