No one, not even the kitchen veterans are safe from a good cry while peeling onions. So why is that?
Dr Abbey Thiel, a food scientist and host of the YouTube channel Abbey the Food Scientist, tells CNN that onions make people cry as a defence mechanism — as several plants have.
Bryan Quoc Le, faculty research fellow at Pacific Lutheran University in Parkland, Washington, said that when a person chops an onion, it releases an enzyme combined with an amino acid, producing sulfur compounds and another enzyme, which sends vapours into a person’s eyes, making them cry.
“After reacting with the moisture in our eyes, small amounts of sulfuric acid are produced which irritates the cornea and leads to the tears,” he told CNN.