Sunday, November 29, 2009

Special note on Onions!!!

Very Important Subject....especially for those who love to cook and eat ONIONS!!!!!!

In 1919 when the flu killed 40 million people there was this Doctor that visited the many farmers to see if he could help them combat the flu. Many of the farmers and their family had contracted it and many died. The doctor came upon this one farmer and to his surprise, everyone was very healthy. When the doctor asked what the farmer was doing that was different the wife replied that she had placed an unpeeled onion in a dish in the rooms of the home, (probably only two rooms back then). The doctor couldn't believe it and asked if he could have one of the onions and place it under the microscope. She gave him one and when he did this, he di d find the flu virus in the onion. It obviously absorbed the bacteria, therefore, keeping the family healthy.

Now, I heard this story from my hairdresser in AZ. She said that several years ago many of her employees were coming down with the flu and so were many of her customers. The next year she placed several bowls with onions around in her shop. To her surprise, none of her staff got sick. It must work.. (And no, she is not in the onion business.)
The moral of the story is, buy some onions and place them in bowls around your home. If you work at a desk, place one or two in your office or under your desk or even on top somewhere. Try it and see what happens. We did it last year and we never got the flu. If this helps you and your loved ones from getting sick, all the better. If you do get the flu, it just might be a mild case..Whatever, what have you to lose? Just a few bucks on onions!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now there is a P. S. to this for I sent it to a friend in Oregon who regularly contributes material to me on health issues. She replied with this most interesting experience about onions:

Weldon, thanks for the reminder. I don't know about the farmers story...but, I do know that I contacted pneumonia and needless to say I was very ill...I came across an article that said to cut both ends off an onion put one end on a fork and then place the forked end into an empty jar...placing the jar next to the sick patient at night. It said the onion would be black in the morning from the germs...sure enough it happened just like that...the onion was a mess and I began to feel better.

Another thing I read in the article was that onions and garlic placed around the room saved many from the black plague years ago. They have powerful antibacterial, antiseptic properties.

This is the other note.


LEFT OVER ONIONS ARE POISONOUS

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.

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 e very year.'

Also, dogs should never eat onions. Their stomachs cannot metabolize onions .Please remember it is dangerous to cut onions and try to use it to cook the next day ,it becomes highly poisonous for even a single night and creates Toxic bacteria which may cause Adverse Stomach infections because of excess Bile secretions and even Food poisoning.

Note from Lucy: I am a big onion freak... I love to cook with onions and I have been reading about the benefits of eating onions.. When a friend of mine sent me this email a while back I started buying smaller onions or just using the whole onion in whatever I cooked... Please don't stop using onions, just follow these few rules when dealing with raw onions...

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving..... Enjoy you week!

16 Comments:

At 6:53 PM, Blogger Diane@Diane's Place said...

I have about 5 lbs of whole onions in my pantry, so maybe that will help. However, I don't have the flu or anything contagious. It's strictly me that's sick. I get this combination of bronchitis, tonsillitis and sinusitis often and it's usually after a major allergy attack. Nobody else ever gets it, just me.

I eat a lot of onions, both raw and cooked, so maybe that kept me from getting any sicker. Who knows?

Thanks for the info, Lucy.

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving, and have a great new week. :o)

Love and hugs,

Diane

 
At 7:14 PM, Anonymous Jahn said...

Uh-oh....

http://www.snopes.com/medical/swineflu/onion.asp

http://www.snopes.com/food/tainted/cutonions.asp

 
At 9:07 PM, Blogger Mountain Mama said...

This is very interesting.
I have saved partially used onions in the firdge, usually id zip lock bag which is then placed in a sealed container, to keep the odor from contaminating other foods in the fridge. I have never gotten sick from it that I know of but I always cooked them in a casserole or something.

My grandma, whose family were German, used to keep a small bowl of sliced onions in vinegar on her table all the time. She ate them regularly but I never tried them. I imagine the vinegar kept them safe.

 
At 11:48 PM, Blogger Rachel said...

I love onions! I put leftover onion parts in a ziplock bag in the fridge and then use them when I need them. Never had a problem.

I have also heard that onions are good for insomnia. Just put some cut up onion in a glass of water by the bed and when you can't sleep, just sniff it; and it's supposed to make you sleepy.

 
At 8:08 AM, Blogger T. F. Stern said...

Jahn, I've come to trust snopes.com about as much as I trust the climate scientists working in East Anglia; zip, nada and nyet. It has been shown that they really are just a husband/wife team with no investigative skills.

 
At 11:21 AM, Blogger Ca... said...

Lucy, I must be the luckiest man alive when it comes to what I eat. As long as I can remember, I have smeared Miracle Whip on white sliced bread and sliced up raw onions and had them alone as a sandwich. Sometimes I put four whole saltine crackers in the sandwich. I have done this with halved onions right out of the refrigerator. Whatta ya think? 'chuckle'

 
At 1:38 PM, Anonymous Jahn said...

T.F.: I don't trust snopes on matters of politics, but on other subjects, they seem reasonably reliable.

 
At 5:37 AM, Blogger Granny Annie said...

My grandma used to eat whole onions like apples. She ate them especially when she went to football games. She always said it was to ward off colds but I think she didn't want too many other people crowding her. LOL

I'm glad somebody headed to snopes because I was going there on the spoiled onion bit. My husband is an onion-holic. He eats them in and on everything and eats leftovers out on the counter or chopped ones in a container in the refrigerator, etc. While snopes isn't the most accurate source, it's usually right a great percentage of the time. I have to choose to believe it because my husband isn't going to change:)

 
At 8:17 AM, Blogger Oh great One said...

Wow. I store unused onions in ziplocs all the time. I may have to rethink that....

 
At 5:31 PM, Blogger Lucy Stern said...

I have to admit that I use onions in almost everything... I have put them in ziplock bags and stored them in the frig for as long as I can remember... I don't think I have been sick from it but I will be more careful.

 
At 7:22 AM, Blogger Cliff said...

Man, I've learned a lot of stuff here. I raised 21 acres of onions one year. I'm still alive so I'm not sure what that means.

 
At 1:45 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I've always stored my fresh, unpeeled onions in the fridge as they last longer and i store leftover raw onion in the fridge in a baggie as well. To my knowledge, myself nor my family has ever gotten sick to this.
Unless one is 100% certain that this onion 'folklore' is true, this shouldn't be posted on here. Lucy, did you investigate this? I got this email at least 3x now over the past couple years. I still keep my onions in the fridge because honestly, I can't afford to be throwing them out because they only lasted 2 wks. I don't think that unless you (Lucy) actually know this for sure, you should be posting...you've now created a widespread panic about how people can get sick from eating leftover raw onion....and why are we only hearing about this now if this is so dangerous?? Shame, shame!

 
At 3:54 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't believe that the Doctor saw the virus under the microscope.
You can not just identify a Virus under the microscope . HaHaHaha
I have eaten left over fresh onions
and never got sick from it.

 
At 1:42 PM, Anonymous Bob said...

OKAY, for those that think this is a real danger let us look at the rest of the article. Go right on ahead and do all the paranoid things you need to do to make onions safe for humanity, but try this one: Since MAYO is NOT going to go bad and is to be trusted, set a cup of it out in the sun for a day and a night and make a some sandwich or a salad with it. See if you get sick or not!

 
At 11:06 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

so if left over onions can hurt you, why do they make special containers to store them in!!I have eaten them all my life and my family and we are fine.

 
At 10:23 AM, Blogger DeDe Vest said...

BUNK!!!

 

Post a Comment

<< Home