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Onion Fielded

Claim: Onions placed about the home fight the flu virus.

FALSE

Example: [Collected via e-mail, September 2009]

Onions, for collecting the flu virus:

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 placed it under the microscope. She

gave him one and when he did this, he did find the flu virus in the onion. It

obviously absorbed the virus, 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!

Origins: Although influenza is no longer the unchecked grim reaper of years

past (in 1918 it killed half a million Americans and twenty to forty million

folks worldwide), it continues to present a very real danger even in these more

modern times. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), millions of

people in

the United States — about 10% to 20% of U.S. residents — will get the flu each

year. Influenza also costs Americans $10 billion annually in lost wages and

medical expenses. Worst of all, every year about 36,000 people in the United

States die from it, and 114,000 have to be admitted to the hospital because of

it. The flu is not just a week of feeling lousy and missing work; it is a

disease that can, has, and does kill.

The outbreak of H1N1 (swine) flu has brought home even to those who don't

normally ponder such matters the danger posed by contagions dismissively

regarded in other years as mere seasonal flu, maladies that are thought of as

wholly unpleasant but not life threatening. In 2009, people are far more aware

of the sniffles and sneezes around them. Also, unlike in other years, more folks

are actively looking for ways to avoid catching the flu.

In addition to the good advice about washing one's hands frequently and avoiding

the company of those who are obviously under the weather, folks looking to

sidestep being felled by the flu are subject to toutings of a variety of folk

remedies, each of which is presented as a surefire and deadly preventive. The

missive quoted above about onions absorbing the virus is one such offering.

There's nothing magical about peeled or cut onions - they don't act as sponges

that soak up whatever viruses or other nasty microbes are in their immediate

vicinity. However, the belief that they would act in this fashion predates the

2009 flu outbreak by at least 100 years. Long-standing superstition asserts that

keeping raw onions in the house (either cut or whole; different folks swear by

different methods) will draw illness-causing germs from the air, thereby

rendering the home free of contamination. These print sightings gathered by

folklorists Iona Opie and Moira Tatum showcase that belief:

[1956]

The onion is cut up and stood in an old tin-plate. Then you place it in the room

where the sick child sleeps. The onion draws the complaint into itself, and when

the child is better care must be taken to see that the onion is properly burnt.

[1964]

When there's flu about, I puts a plate of cut up onion in every room. That's

what keeps colds away ... All the cold germs goes into they.

[1978]

I fondly remember the smell of my mother's window sill adorned with half onions.

She swore by the legend that the onions captured any incoming germs and purified

the air.

Even older print sightings exist, however. One of the earliest we've located

(from 1900) calls the practice " an old custom, " which means even at that early

date, the belief's origins were lost in the mists of time.

[Chambers' Journal, 1900]

In remote country villages one sometimes sees an old custom which, in its

essence, is wise, though the performers do not know its why or wherefore; as

their forbears did, so do they. This is to place plates full of sliced onion at

the side of any bed or coffin wherein lies the body of a person dead of

infections [sic] disease. This good and shrewd practice was based on the

observation of the blackening of the onion and practical experience of the

usefulness of the habit, not on scientific knowledge. But the floating germs

were attracted to that blackening onion, and settled on thickly, the result

being the onion's discoloration and the great purification of the air in the

death-chamber. The story is true of a house wherein ropes of onions intended for

sale were hung escaping a smallpox epidemic, which attacked the neighbouring

houses.

[Los Angeles Times, 1913]

In a sickroom you cannot have a better disinfectant than the onion. It has a

wonderful capacity for absorbing germs. A dish of sliced onions placed in a

sickroom will draw away the disease; they must be removed as soon as they lose

their odor and become discolored, and be replaced by fresh ones.

[The Chicago Defender, 1922]

In remote villages the old custom still exists of placing a plate full of sliced

onion beside the bed of coffin of any persons who had died of an infectious

disease. Although those who follow this practice cannot explain it, the fact is

that the raw onion destroys germs and purifies the infected air of the death

chamber.

Some insist plates of sliced raw onion should be left at various points around

the home; others avow that whole onions must be hung on strings affixed to the

domicile's ceilings, some further asserting the bulbs must be hung in front of

doorways to better filter incoming contamination. As to what sorts of

contamination the onion is purported to overcome, at various times it has been

said to kill flu virus, diphtheria, smallpox, the cold virus, and even whatever

nastiness a rotting corpse might be venting into the air, especially one that

reached that condition via infectious disease of any description. Onions are

also, according to lore, to be placed in any sickroom no matter how that room's

occupant came to require bedrest.

While this folk belief is indeed an old one, there's precious little reason to

place any store in it. No scientific studies back it, and common sense rules it

out: cold and flu viruses are spread by contact, not by their nasty microbes

floating loosely in the air where the almighty onion can supposedly seek out and

destroy them. As the Wall Street Journal noted of such claims:

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.

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. As with most home remedies, there have been few scientific studies

with humans — and none on record involving raw onions placed across a room.

Superstition also asserts that it is unlucky to keep cut onions around, as these

further sightings gathered by Opie and Tatum demonstrate:

[1855]

To have a cut onion lying about in the house breeds distempers.

[1891]

An old servant (Essex) ... recently complained that ... Spanish onions ... were

too big. When an obvious method of getting over that difficulty was suggested,

she replied, 'Oh, no! that would never do! It's so unlucky to have a cut onion

in the house.'

[1958]

Special small onions are being grown for me as I am liable to keep half a cut

onion from one meal to another, which I am assured is highly dangerous.

Onions — cut, peeled, or otherwise — aren't going to secure your living space

from the flu virus, either 2009's swine version or any other year's contagion.

Instead, if you want to stay healthy, wash your hands and avoid being around

sick people.

Mind you, if you choose to place a few onions around your home, the only

downside would be that your nearest and dearest will regard you as somewhat

eccentric.

Barbara " as if they didn't already " Mikkelson

Additional information:

The Influenza Pandemic of 1918

(Molly Billings, Stanford University)

Last updated: 3 November 2009

The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/medical/swineflu/onion.asp

Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2009 by Barbara and P. Mikkelson.

This material may not be reproduced without permission.

snopes and the snopes.com logo are registered service marks of snopes.com.

Sources:

Beck, Melinda. " Home Flu Cures: Bad Medicine? "

The Wall Street Journa. 3 November 2009 (p. D8).

Opie, Iona and Moira Tatum. A Dictionary of Superstitions.

Oxford University Press; Oxford, 1992. ISBN 0-19-282916-5 (pp. 293-294).

Chambers' Journal. " The Onion is Not Merely a Vegetable. "

1 September 1900.

The Chicago Defender. " Onion Diet Will Rout' All Germs. "

10 June 1922 (p. A8).

The Hartford Courant. " Worried About Flu? Old Onion Remedy Hailed. "

24 January 1972 (p. I9).

Los Angeles Times. " Healthfulness of Onions. "

4 June 1913 (p. I15).

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