I was helping my mom in the kitchen today, and when I started chopping onions, my eyes started stinging and tearing up. But then I realized something weird – when we eat onions in our food, they don’t make us cry at all!Can someone explain why onions make us cry when we cut them
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Due to onion juice fumes. The more juice comes out, the more fumes. If you cut onions with a really sharp knife, you will cry less. Alternatively, if you cover eyes with protective glasses, you will not cry.
Edit: I felt like I didn’t finish explaining to a 5yo.
Fumes are slightly corrosive/damaging to weak tissue and it attacks your eyeballs. Your eyeballs trigger tear glands to squeeze water to dilute corrosion. Therefore you cry.
When eating salad or any dish with fresh onions, onion juice by that time has already evaporated. The rest of juice is contained in the onion pieces, but since you are eating it, it doesn’t fume so much and your eyes have no direct contact with fumes.
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