Email:
Leftover Onions Are Poisonous
Forwarded email claims
that uncooked, leftover onions are 'poisonous' because they're 'a huge magnet
for bacteria,' therefore especially prone to spoilage.
I have used an onion which has been left in
the fridge, and sometimes I don't use a whole one at one time, so save the
other half for later.
Now with this info, I have changed my mind....
will buy smaller onions in the future.
I had the wonderful privilege of touring
Mullins Food Products, Makers of mayonnaise... Mullins is huge, and is owned by
11 brothers and sisters in the Mullins family. My friend, Jeanne, is the CEO.
Questions about food poisoning came up, and I wanted
to share what I learned from a chemist.
The guy who gave us our tour is named Ed. He's
one of the brothers Ed is a chemistry expert and is involved in developing most
of the sauce formula. He's even developed sauce formula for McDonald's.
Keep in mind that Ed is a food chemistry whiz.
During the tour, someone asked if we really needed to worry about mayonnaise.
People are always worried that mayonnaise will spoil. Ed's answer will surprise
you. Ed said that all commercially-made Mayo is completely safe.
"It doesn't even have to be refrigerated.
No harm in refrigerating it, but it's not really necessary." He explained
that the pH in mayonnaise is set at a point that bacteria could not survive in
that environment. He then talked about the quaint essential picnic, with the
bowl of potato salad sitting on the table and how everyone blames the
mayonnaise when someone gets sick.
Continued below ....
No amount of onion can ever fix this young man's problems
Download a free sample of this Ebook from:
Ed says that when food poisoning is reported,
the first thing the officials look for is when the 'victim' last ate ONIONS and
where those onions came from (in the potato salad?). Ed says it's not the
mayonnaise (as long as it's not homemade Mayo) that spoils in the outdoors.
It's probably the onions, and if not the onions, it's the POTATOES.
He explained, onions are a huge magnet for bacteria,
especially uncooked onions. You should never plan to keep a portion of a sliced
onion... He says it's not even safe if you put it in a zip-lock bag and put it
in your refrigerator.
It's already contaminated enough just by being
cut open and out for a bit, that it can be a danger to you (and doubly watch
out for those onions you put in your hotdogs at the baseball park!)
Ed says if you take the leftover onion and
cook it like crazy you'll probably be okay, but if you slice that leftover
onion and put on your sandwich, you're asking for trouble. Both the onions and
the moist potato in a potato salad will attract and grow bacteria faster than
any commercial mayonnaise will even begin to break down.
So, how's that for news? Take it for what you
will. I (the author) am going to be very careful about my onions from now on.
For some reason, I see a lot of credibility coming from a chemist and a company
that produces millions of pounds of mayonnaise every year.
Analysis: Versions of this text have been circulating since
mid-2008, with the earliest examples attributed to food writer "Zola
Gorgon" (aka Sarah McCann). I have not been able to locate the exact date
or venue of its original appearance.
While the article makes a valid point about
the relative safety of commercially-produced mayonnaise versus the other
ingredients typically found in homemade potato salad (e.g. onions and
potatoes), it exaggerates the danger of keeping and using leftover raw onions.
It's not the onions; it's how you handle them
According to science writer Joe Schwarcz,
onions are in no sense a "magnet for bacteria." In fact, Schwarcz
writes, cut onions contain enzymes that produce sulphuric acid, which inhibits
the growth of germs. Onions can become contaminated during
handling, but there's nothing about them that makes them intrinsically more
susceptible to bacterial growth or spoilage than any other raw vegetable.
"So unless you have sliced your onions on
a contaminated cutting board, or handled them with dirty hands," Schwarcz
explains, "you can safely put them in a plastic bag and store them and
there will not be any bacterial contamination."
Food folklore: Onions 'attract' or 'collect'
infectious bacteria
The notion that onions are a "bacteria
magnet" may stem from an old wives' tale dating at least as far back as
the 1500s, when it was believed that distributing raw onions around a residence
guarded against the bubonic plague and other diseases by "absorbing the
elements of infection." Believe it or not, though it has no scientific
basis whatsoever,
Detailed
Analysis
The terminology that
onions are "bacterial magnets" makes no sense. No food attracts
bacteria, although of course some are more likely to support bacterial
multiplication once infected.This
widely circulated message claims that placing onions around a room can absorb
the flu virus and thus prevent people from catching the flu and becoming ill.
It tells the story of a farming family that escaped the devastating flu
epidemic of 1919 supposedly by placing onions in the rooms of the farmhouse. It
relates other cases in which onions supposedly prevented people from getting
the flu or at least aided their recovery from illness. According to the message,
onions can absorb and contain not only viruses such as those that cause flu but
also bacteria that cause other types of illness. The message also claims that
placing onions and garlic around rooms saved many people from getting the Black
Plague.
However, there is no credible scientific
evidence that supports the claims in the message. Scientists have repudiated
the idea that onions can act as "magnets" that attract bacteria or
viruses. In an article debunking another onion myth (which suggests that raw onions
are a “magnet for bacteria” and can therefore make you ill), Dr Joe Schwarcz of
McGill University's Office for Science and Society explains:
An
article on The Chemist's Kitchen website about the humble onion's supposed
propensity to attract bacteria concurs with Dr Schwarcz's view, noting:
Nothing is a bacteria
magnet. Firstly, bacteria have minimal mobility. They usually travel in water
droplets, if at all. Sneezes, for example. Moulds can release spores which get
blown around but bacteria usually grows in moist environments and are slimy,
making getting airborne difficult. Secondly, if there was such a thing as a
'bacteria magnet' it would be enormously useful in the medical field for
drawing bacteria away from the ill and infirmed. Not such use has been made of
onions.
And a
November 2009 Wall Street Journal article about home flu cures notes:
Biologists say it's highly
implausible that onions could attract flu virus as a bug zapper traps flies.
Viruses require a living host to replicate and can't propel themselves out of a
body and across a room.
When outside of a host, viruses
are metabolically
inert and cannot reproduce. While outside of host cells, they exist
as a protein coat or capsid. If the virus in its inert form comes into contact
with a suitable host, it can insert its genetic material into its host. Given
these facts, it is stretching credibility to suggest that an onion can somehow
magically draw viruses in a room into itself and safely contain them. There is
no plausible scientific reason why an onion would have such properties.
As with many such circulated health tips, the message does not present any
plausible evidence to back up its claims. The story of the doctor's 1919 visit
to the healthy farm family's home, along with the supposed reason for their
continued health, is just that - a story. No names or other references are
included that would allow the veracity of the story to be checked. And the
other incidents described in the message are unsubstantiated, anecdotal, and,
in any case, prove nothing. The fact that a group of people - such as the staff
in a hairdressing salon - did not contract flu in a particular year can not be
seen as credible evidence that onions placed around the room were what stopped
them from becoming ill. A cut onion left in a jar is likely to become darkened
and "messy" regardless of any supposed ability to absorb germs. The
pneumonia sufferer may well have began to feel better just as quickly even if
no onion was in her sick room.
The myth that onions can somehow absorb the agents of disease and thereby
prevent illness goes back centuries. During the dark and dreadful days of the
Black Plague in the 14th century, many believed that a strategically placed
onion in a dwelling could indeed ward off the plague. However, this tactic did
not "save many from the black plague" as claimed in the message. In
truth, onions are no more likely to attract and absorb Bubonic Plague bacteria
(or the haemorrhagic fever virus that some
researchers suggest may have been the real cause of the Black
Death) than they are to absorb and attract more modern threats such as the H1N1
virus (swine flu). Those who lived at the time of the Black Death tended to
believe that a miasma -
a poisonous vapor or mist - was responsible for spreading the plague. They used
many tactics to try to ward off this miasma including strong scents and even
loud noises. Given the level of knowledge at the time, it is hardly surprising
that people believed that a strong smelling substance such as onion might
absorb this deadly miasma. These days, with our much greater understanding of
bacteria and viruses and how they spread, it is considerably more surprising
that some people still believe that onions can somehow magically drag the
agents of disease from the air of a room and render them harmless.
While the idea that onions can attract and absorb bacteria and viruses is
frankly rather silly, it should be noted that onions have long been thought to
have medicinal benefits when consumed in various ways. And there may be some
truth to these claims. The above mentioned Wall Street Journal article notes:
The idea that onions have medicinal
properties goes back millennia and spans many cultures. Egyptians thought
onions were fertility symbols. Ancient Greeks rubbed them on sore muscles, and
Native Americans used them to treat coughs and colds. Herbalists note that the
World Health Organization recognizes onion extracts for providing relief in the
treatment of coughs, colds, asthma and bronchitis.
And a literature review about the
antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial properties of garlic and
onions published in a 2007 issue of Nutrition & Food Science notes in its abstract:
Both garlic and onions exert their
effects on human health via multiple different functions, including
antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and antibacterial properties. The organosulphur
compounds in these spices scavenge oxidizing agents, inhibit the oxidation of
fatty acids, thereby preventing the formation of pro-inflammatory messengers,
and inhibit bacterial growth, via interaction with sulphur-containing enzymes.
However,
the fact that onions may hold some demonstrable medicinal properties, does not
in any way validate the fanciful notion that an onion can collect and store
bacteria and viruses in a room.
Peter’s
Comment
So why do people create and send
emails that make spectacular claims? Easy! They want to track the email so they
can collect and sell addresses. But to do this they have to spy on you and put
harmful bugs on your computer. And here is the nasty bit. No amount of onion
will then fix your computer!
So when forwarding emails, you should always remove all previous addresses
after you click ‘Forward.’ By doing this you will be helping beat spies and
spammers as well as protecting the privacy of others. Below is an example of how not to do it.
Friday, 20 April, 2012 3:47 PM
From: "Ted Onion"
<ted.onion@magiccure.onion>
To: "Brian
Gullible" <briangullible@sneeze.com>, "Trevor Believer"
<faithful@nonsense.co.nz>, "Elizabeth Onion" <lizonion@hotpotato.com>,
and maybe dozens more addresses.
To forward an email safely your recipients should see only your address. To do this you should not put the new addresses in
the ‘To’ or ‘Cc’ boxes. You should always click ‘Show Bcc’ and insert the
addresses in the ‘Bcc’ box as shown below.
To:
Cc:
Bcc:
Subject: ONIONS
Finally, highlight and delete all the earlier addresses. Then when
your email is received by your recipients it will look like this:
FW:
Onions
