Photo by: Tambako the Jaguar
Don’t let a black cat cross your path. Don’t walk under a ladder. Throw salt over your shoulder if you spill it.
We’ve all heard these old-wives’ tales, and we mostly know they’re a load of … manure. But when we get something from a friend via email, and it’s warning us about the deadly thread of leftover onions, with references to actual scientists who have confirmed it … well, now it’s starting to sound like something we should maybe listen to.
But on the other hand, we should be careful about listening too quickly to advice like this. Because with food warnings, it’s not just some vague “bad luck” we’re in for if we listen to the wrong advice. We could actually stop eating healthy food for no good reason. Or start doing things that are bad for us. Or stop taking reasonable precautions because we think we’re covered by a “natural remedy”.
I saw it in an email, it must be true!
When urban legends entered the email age, they started growing “proof” like a bad fungus. Now it’s not “my brother’s college roommate saw this happen”. It’s “Ed, a food chemist at Mullins Food Products”. Now that sounds official, doesn’t it? Problem is, Mullins never heard of Ed. And the warning that’s supposedly based on what Ed said? It’s not true.
This post started when someone sent me an email with a warning about keeping leftover raw onions. Supposedly onions absorb bacteria out of the air, so they’re one of the worst things you can keep. As a matter of fact, they’re so good at drawing bad things out of the air that you can place onions in the room and they’ll keep you from getting the flu. You can even put a sliced onion next to someone who already has the flu and it will suck the infection right out of them!
That’s exactly the kind of “traditional wisdom” I love to pass on. Tips that you’ll never hear from big business because there’s no money in it for them. Except that none of that stuff about onions is true!
When it doubt Snope it out
Snopes.com keeps copies of all the warnings that get circulated around the internet, and they do the research to see if it’s true or not. They had both emails with the onion myths. The first was about onions preventing the flu, and the second saying that cut onions are too dangerous to keep around.
You can go read all the references for yourself, but here’s the short version:
- Yes, you’re more likely to get sick from onions than from the mayonnaise in the potato salad. Although it won’t be the ones in the potato salad, but the diced onions on the hot dog condiment table getting you sick.
- Most likely is that it’s the potatoes that get you sick. Of all the ingredients in potato salad, it’s the potatoes themselves that are the best home for bacteria.
- No, onions don’t do anything to prevent the flu.
Lots of things you get via email will sound kind of reasonable. But most of it — and I’m not exaggerating when I say “most” — has been around for a long, long time. Snopes will tell you where most of these stories came from, with references. And yes, they tell you which ones are true, too … because some of them are.
Want more like this? For more recipes like this, that you can hold right in your hands, and write on, take notes, tear pages out if you want (Gosh, you're tough on books, aren't you?) you might be interested in How To Cook Like Your Grandmother, 2nd edition, Illustrated. Or to learn your way around the kitchen, check out Starting From Scratch: The Owner's Manual for Your Kitchen.
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5 Comments
Drew, I’m a long time Snopes addict, having used the site to suss-out a number of internet scams and urban myths over the years. Yours is an interesting way to use the site, I’d just never really thought about it before.
Thanks for the tip. I’ll make sure to check in with our friendly neighborhood myth debunkers next time I receive questionably “expert” opinions on food.
Just started tuning into the blog recently and I’m loving it.
Thank goodness for Snopes! It’s my go-to when I get an email claiming the sky is falling.
Do you know, and this is the God’s truth, that people I send stuff back to “debunked” resent it?!! They call me names! But that’s tuff because I think it’s irresponsible on their parts to be forwarding stuff that’s simply not true… whether it be food related or anything else! It only takes a few minutes to verify something… therefore, I resent their ignorance! grrrr
ok i’m totally with you on debunking stupid legends…. but how exactly does snopes prove onions don’t help the flu? I think wisdom goes both ways. onions don’t kill you b/c some guy named ed says so anymore than snopes knows if cut up onions help you get better. you know what I mean?
Foods have healing properties that can’t always be recognized by science. (how does one “prove” that the smell of parsley makes you think of your mother’s homemade potatoe soup which makes you feel good all over inducing an up in serotonin, a rise in core temperature and therefore helps you fight a cold?)
my point is that foods are healing for MANY reasons. some measurable and some not. some don’t need anymore proof than the fact that it works for any given person.
as for onions? having an onion out in a room may not draw out the flu and suck it into the onion (lol) but it does wonder for the sinuses and for extreme chest congestion. does even better if you eat it
next time you have a cold, sniff and onion and you’ll know what I mean. garlic and horseradish work well too. (I’m a long time asthmatic so I’ve tried it all!)
MY grandmother used it with good luck as do I. and really? when I feel like a truck ran over me, I’ll cut up a raw turkey and lick a shoe if someone thinks it might help
Barbara, I’ve had that happen, too. It’s like they’re pissed off at me for pointing out that they’re wrong. It’s not like I copied everyone on the original list. Although … one time I did copy everyone on the list, because the thing they were forwarding was pretty damaging if you believed it and did what it suggested.
Laura, that’s a good point. Clearing out the sinuses with onion is probably where that myth started. But the email going around treats it like garlic to a vampire — just have it in the room and you’ll be okay.