Eat onions to lower your bowel cancer risk

A new Chinese study has found that cooking with onions, leeks, garlic, shallots, chives and spring onions is not only tasty, but may help protect against colorectal cancer.

Adults who ate the highest amounts of allium-family veges had a 79 per cent lower risk of bowel (colorectal) cancer – a condition diagnosed in more than 3000 people per year in NZ – than those who ate the least, according to researchers. Natural sulphur-containing compounds and antioxidants in these veges are likely to be responsible for their beneficial effects.