Let's have a little cry?

Onions: just in case you didn't know what they look like (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Do you cry when you chop onions?

I don't. My husband does. His reaction to onions is so bad that if he is in the apartment while I am chopping onions he will burst into tears. His reaction should diminish eventually, but in the meantime he has to chew gum while im cooking.

Why is this? Long story short, it is all because of enzymes. The end.

That probably was not the answer you were looking for when you stumbled across this blog. Or it was and you should stop reading.

Cutting up an onion breaks cells and releases lachrymatory-factor synthase enzymes which react with the sulfoxides and convert them into sulfenic acids. Sulfenic acids are unstable and will rearrange themselves into syn-propanethial-S-oxide, which is combination of sulfuric acid, sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. This all happens in the air and congregates around your face and eyes.

Once it gets into your eyes it reacts with water and stimulates your tear ducts to wash away the irritant. Your eyes have multiple nerve endings that register this sensation and lets your brainstem know. Then your brainstem sends the signals to your lachrymal telling them that they need to wash this stuff away before it harms you.

Now different species of onions will have varying amounts of these enzymes and components in them. Also, the more you are exposed to this gas, the less sever your reaction will be. I guess I need to have my husband cut up the onions more often.

Sources

• Hillman, Howard. "The new kitchen science." Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. 2003. (July 27, 2013)http://books.google.com/books?id=BCLT3hH84GoC
• Library of Congress. "Why does chopping an onion make you cry?" Feb. 12, 2009. (July 27, 2013)http://www.loc.gov/rr/scitech/mysteries/onion.html
• Conger, Christen. "Why do onions make you cry?" Discovery communications. 2009 (July 27, 2013)http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/question5392.htm