Allium vegetables may lower risk of colorectal cancer

Allium vegetables like onion, garlic, scallion, shallot, leek, and chives are not just great for adding texture and flavour to your meals, if a recent Chinese study is to believed, it also slashes the risk of getting colorectal cancer. The study that was conducted by a team from the First Hospital of China Medical University in Shenyang Liaoning Province, involved a case-control study from June 2009 to November 2011 in three local hospitals.

For the study, cases of 833 colorectal cancer patients were enrolled along with 833 healthy volunteers in the control group. The demographics and dietary information were collected in the forms of food frequency questionnaires and face to face interviews.
The research team’s findings were published in the Asia-Pacific Journal of Clinical Oncology that in northeast China, which said both men and women who consumed high allium vegetables had a decreased colorectal cancer risk.

Among the participants who had the highest intake had 79% fewer chances to develop colorectal cancer than those with the least. The greater the number of allium vegetables, the better the protection, the researchers said.

However the same wasn’t observed to be the case with those who had colorectal cancer than those with the least. The greater the number of allium vegetables, the better the protection, the researchers said.

The researchers concluded that cooking method can also affect the effect the nutritional value of allium vegetables. For instance, crushing fresh garlic is beneficial but boiling onions reduces useful chemicals.