Why Onions Hassle Women More Than Men: And How to Stop the Tears
- Sep 30, 2020
- 2 min read
So it’s annoying isn’t it?
Your eyes stream when you slice through those onions.
Every time.
And as your eyes fill, it’s harder to see, so you s l o w d o w n,
Which is worse, because you just want to get it over with.
Why is this?
When you cut through onions, it starts a number of chemical reactions which results in a gas that irritates the eyes.
Syn-propanethial-S-oxide, to be exact,
So why do you cry more than others?
Some people have better tears than others - a better more efficient tear quality.
A bit like how some people have a more moisturised skin.
So if you have a good quality tear film, it acts as a barrier to prevent much of the gas
from reaching the sensitive nerve cells on the front of your eye (the cornea).
The more gas that hits the nerve cells, the more likely your eyes will water.
Hormones affect the tear film quality.
Be it during pregnancy, menopause, or the natural changes in your monthly cycle
The shift in hormones results in a poorer tear film.
And that means, less protection against that onion.
How to reduce the tears.
Essentially there are 3 ways:
>improve your tear film
>use protection
>your mouth can help
1. Improve your tear film
There are several ways to improve your tear film - use tear lubricants before slicing, beefs up your tear layer. You can get these over the counter.
Sometimes tear gland production can be improved naturally and a bespoke treatment plan can be designed for you – a good optometrist can give you advice. [if !supportLineBreakNewLine] [endif]
Improving your omega 3 (fish oils) can improve tear quality too.
2. Use protection
Adding another barrier between your eyes and the onions will reduce the amount of vapour reaching your eyes.
Glasses and contact lenses have been shown to help.
But the best option is tight fitting swimming goggles for an all round seal!
And yes, you can buy specific onion goggles on-line.
3. Your mouth can help
Breathe through your mouth.
This draws the gas over your wet tongue. The olfactory nerves, which are closely located to the tear duct nerves, will be bypassed and there will be no tears generated. This is easily confirmed when you forget and breathe through your nose. Instant tears!
So those housewife tips of chewing bread, having a silver spoon in your mouth or sticking your tongue out, do have a sound basis.
IF you’re struggling with your tear film, be it dry, watery, gritty or smeary, then we’re here to help. Just mention it when you book youre appointment.
You can book online or call the practice.
The “use protection” point made me laugh because I finally bought proper onion goggles and it actually works, even if I look ridiculous. I’m more interested in the tear-film improvement side though — does hydration or omega-3 intake make a noticeable difference for this specific onion reaction? This is totally off-topic, but the “tear film quality” thing reminded me of how tiny tweaks change the end result in stuff like StyleLookLab — small adjustments, big visual difference.
I’ve always done the “cut near an open flame” trick and couldn’t tell if it was placebo, but the idea of adding a lubricant layer first seems way more plausible. Also, the slowdown thing is real — once the eyes start watering it takes twice as long and you end up with uneven chunks. Slight tangent: the whole “eyes streaming” imagery made me think of ghibli ai since those scenes always make food prep look so dramatic.
The hormone/tear-film angle explains a lot — some days I can dice onions fine and other days I’m basically blind halfway through. Do you find people get relief just from improving baseline dry-eye care, or is onion exposure kind of its own special case? Side note: I bumped into hrefgo while browsing around and it got me thinking how many “simple” everyday problems end up having pretty technical explanations like this.
Interesting that it’s not just “onion strength” but how protected your cornea is by the tear film. I wonder if people with dry-eye symptoms basically get hit harder by the same amount of gas. This also made me think of online shift cipher tool — small changes in “protection” or “offset” can totally change the outcome, even if the input looks similar.
Hormones affecting tear quality is something I’d never connected to onion tears, but it tracks with how my eyes feel way drier at certain times. Also, “your mouth can help” is intriguing — is that basically breathing through your mouth so less gas gets pushed up toward your eyes? Randomly, this reminded me of how I zone out after chopping and then decompress with https://blockblast.co for a minute before getting back to cooking.