T O P I C R E V I E W |
farmmilkmama |
Posted - Jan 28 2010 : 11:13:29 AM I've often read that onions are really good for your health, and noticed in my first issue of MaryJanesFarm (current issue) there was a write up about onions (Fact or Folklore) and placing them in bowls or jars around the house to combat colds or flu.
Has anyone tried this? Have you had any luck with it? Has anyone actually had them turn darker as they "suck up" the bad germs or virus?
--* FarmMilkMama *--
Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken. -Oscar Wilde |
17 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
IrishHarp |
Posted - Mar 16 2010 : 07:00:57 AM OK, after reading the article about onions preventing flu in MJ's magazine, I feel I must come down firmly on the side of folklore. No, Onions cannot absorb viruses. For one thing, most flu viruses are contracted from physical contact. It is generally picked up from doorknobs, telephones, hands, and liquid droplets (teeny drops of mucous and saliva (eww) ejected when an infected person sneezes or coughs.) The best way to avoid the flu is to wash your hands! Often. especially after being in a public place. And yes, I will say it. get a flu shot! Immunology is a real science. (anyone had smallpox lately?) Your chances of being seriously ill or dying from the flu are much greater than any reaction you might have to the vaccine. I have been an RN for 35 years and I can tell you, flu kills! Don't mess aroud with it. Hope this doesn't seem too harsh, but I strongly feel that this is important. We all love 'natural' things. Well, science has simply taken the body's natural response to encourage the immune system to recognize a disease. It's brilliant! Mothers used to deliberately expose their children to things like chickenpox, so that they would not contract the disease at a later age, and have a worse reaction. The same thing has been packaged for you!
<i>Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative. -Oscar Wilde </i>
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debtea2 |
Posted - Mar 08 2010 : 3:55:00 PM i also read that placing a cut onion in bowls around the house wards off the flu and other ailments? i always have an onion on the counter and haven't been sick so who knows..
inch by inch we find our way jersey farmgirl |
wooliespinner |
Posted - Mar 02 2010 : 1:05:09 PM A friend of mine makes an onion tea and drinks it when she has a cold and so does her husband. They sware it helps with the congestion and breaks it up. Never tried it myself. Wonder if it taste kinda like onion soup???
Linda
Raspberry Run Farm Nubian Dairy Goats |
KayB |
Posted - Mar 01 2010 : 3:11:39 PM When my daughter was a little girl, she loved raw vegetables, including onions. I mentioned this once to someone and then it was noted that she hardly ever had a cold. One of the guys I worked with - a retired Air Force chaplin - said it was because after she ate the onion nobody wanted to come near enough to give her a cold. We all thought this funny, but also wondered why when she was into eating raw onions that she never caught colds. She did get ear problems and tonsillitis, but no colds.
KayB
Life's a dance you learn as you go |
texdane |
Posted - Feb 26 2010 : 4:10:30 PM When I read the article, I was in the middle of H1N1. I was so sick. No one could sleep well because of the smell, but no one else got it, so who knows?
Nicole Farmgirl Sister #1155
KNITTER, JAM-MAKER AND MOM EXTRAORDINAIRE |
countrymum |
Posted - Feb 26 2010 : 08:50:25 AM when i read that article i tried it, and we have not gotten the flu or even a sniffle. however i don't cut the onion, i just peel off the outer layer leaving the ends intact. it is a little difficult but no smell and it's working in this house.
"Life is brief & very fragile. Do that which makes you happy."- Flavia |
HorseLady |
Posted - Feb 21 2010 : 5:10:21 PM I read that article and just placed unsliced onions around in each room and it hasn't seemed to make any difference. I think it's an old wives' tale.
Hug a horse or a dog today! |
JudyBlueEyes |
Posted - Feb 20 2010 : 10:18:14 PM If you look on www.snopes.com, you will read that it is a myth...
We come from the earth, we go back to the earth, and in between, we garden! |
5 acre Farmgirl |
Posted - Feb 02 2010 : 12:16:11 PM I was just going to post a thought about this very thing....I did place onions around our home, flu/colds hit us hard, adn am wondering if it really works...
Farmgirl Sister #368 ~~~**Terri**~~~
http://thecontentedwoman.blogspot.com http://frocksfrillsfurbiloesandmore.blogspot.com http://blogonthefarmandgarden.blogspot.com |
Montrose Girl |
Posted - Jan 31 2010 : 2:38:54 PM Getting past the first day is the hardest, then the smell isn't so bad. I saw this in this a magazines too and wondered. With everyone at the office getting sick it's worth a try. I usually get one cold while deployed so if I make until march when I go home without, I'll be very happy...and buying more onions
Best Growing |
farmmilkmama |
Posted - Jan 29 2010 : 11:32:51 AM We did end up trying this at night with my son who had a cold. The smell just about knocked the house out...and the onion didn't look any different in the morning (darker, that is), but I guess I have to say that his cold hasn't gotten any worse. And considering how sick the people were who he got the cold from, that is a good thing! So who knows. That's the tricky thing with medicine. You can't really re-do the exact same illness over again to see what different things give you different results.
--* FarmMilkMama *--
Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken. -Oscar Wilde
www.wakeupstartlearning.blogspot.com www.farmfoodmama.blogspot.com |
Bellepepper |
Posted - Jan 29 2010 : 10:36:56 AM I read the article in MJ mag also. I now keep my onions in a pretty bowl on the counter. When I use an onion and cut the top/bottom off, I leave it in the bowl till it is dried up then put it in the compost. I know folks think I have garbage sitting on the counter so I have to tell the story. As far as I know, no one has run home and set out their onions. We do not take flu shots so we do all we can to keep from having the flu.
Belle |
nut4fabric |
Posted - Jan 29 2010 : 08:06:28 AM Onions can cause blindness in dogs so be very careful where you put them Kathy |
Roxy7 |
Posted - Jan 28 2010 : 3:33:18 PM When I was little my mom would place a slice of onion over the boil and by morning it would have popped and drained. She shut bandages it right up over. She would also use osha(sp). It worked wonders. |
Kayce |
Posted - Jan 28 2010 : 1:51:20 PM Um, yes. After I read about this somewhere on here I thought ...what the heck... My buddy man had the start of a cold so i cut an onion put it on the night stand. Well I ended up having to throw it away in the middle of the night cause neither one of us could sleep because of the smell. Maybe I should of used a different kinda of onion.
Both my son and I would file it as a myth![](icons/icon_smile.gif)
~Kayce~
Check out PenPals for FarmKids http://www.maryjanesfarm.org/snitz/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=38599 |
Lessie Louise |
Posted - Jan 28 2010 : 12:04:37 PM My grandma used to put boilled onions in a cheesecloth on our chest when we had a bad cold. I think we got better because we were either afraid of the smell or that she would keep doing it. It always cleared our sinus. and probley a few other things!
Forget buns of steel, I'd rather have buns of cinnamon!
Farmgirl #680! |
clothedinscarlet |
Posted - Jan 28 2010 : 11:58:48 AM When I had an ear infection someone told me to cut an onion in half and strap the halves to my ears. I never got to try it because it turned out I had labyrinthitis and got extreme vertigo and I just wanted some drugs to help me quick LOL! It's worth a try though. Maybe next time an ear infection comes around.
Siobhan, wife to my best friend, Trent, and mommy to Camden (11/28/05) and Bennett (7/11/07). and Truman (7/28/09) |