Why do you cry when you chop up onions?

Question

I always cry when I chop up onions or even when I am near someone who chops up onions and I am wondering why it happens.

Answer 1

I am not totally sure why, I think it as to do with the juice mist flying at us. BUT, I know a way to keep this from happening. Always cut the top off first, then, cut the bottom part off *the one with the stringy roots*. My mother taught me this so so so long ago, and I have never been bothered with onion tears again.

Also to remove the odor from your hands, keep a small tube of tooth paste near your sink and wash your hands with it after you are finished with garlic onions or fish.

Answer 2

yea i hate it tho cuz it burns :.)

Answer 3

The answer is quite interesting. The onion contains some substances which contain sulfur. Sulfur is an irritant to both our noses and to our eyes. Cutting an onion releases these sulfur compounds. When these sulfur compounds come in contact with the water in our eyes, they produces sulfuric acid.

Sulfuric acid irritates the eyes. In response to this acid, our eyes automatically blink, and produce tears which wash the eye and flush out the acid.

Answer 4

As any chef knows, cooking an onion produces a very strong aroma that most people enjoy. But cutting up an onion stings your eyes and makes you tear up uncontrollably. If you love to include onions in your dishes, you're probably frustrated by this all the time. So just what is it in onions that make them such an ordeal to prepare?

When you slice through an onion, you break open a number of onion cells. Some of these cells have enzymes inside of them, and when they are sliced open, the enzymes escape. The enzymes then decompose some of the other substances that have escaped from sliced cells. Some of these substances, amino acid sulfoxides, form sulfenic acids, which then quickly rearrange themselves into a volatile gas.

Answer 5

Put your onions in the refrigerator and they will stop irritating you when you cut them up.  

Answer 6

here is 4 way's to stop the crying

Freeze or cool the onion before cutting it;

Put vingear on the chopping board (the acid denatures the enzyme);

Soak the onion in water (the enzyme is denatured by the water-air boundary); or

Soak the onion in salt water (the ionic solution denatures the enzyme).

Answer 7

because it lets out a gas that triggers the tear ducts.

Answer 8

I am a cook myself. You cry because of two reasons. Usually the juices and stuff from the onions squirt out in you eye and will easily make you cry. The smell also causes this effect. When you break open a onion, the smells are released and may not seem to strong, but they are. Thats all I know