I’m crying over tearless onions

Call me a prude. A luddite. A curmudgeon. But what is up with geneticists who think they should change everything about food that could be construed as inconvenient?

Today while driving back from working on an upcoming Roanoke Times story and video on Big Spring Mill in Elliston, Virginia, I heard on NPR that an Australian geneticist has made a “tearless” onion. He was able to switch off a gene that produces an enzyme in onions that reacts with sulphur compounds when you chop the pungent herbs. When the enzyme and the sulphur combine, the chemical produced makes you cry.

Listen to the podcast here.

What is wrong with crying when you chop onions? My first year of graduate school, 1994 to be exact, was the healthiest year of my life because of this sulphurous quality of onions. Let me explain: on most days, my job at the neighborhood Wendy’s was to peel and slice a 50-pound bag of yellow onions to be used on the salad bar and the sandwich stations.

I also prepped countless heads of iceberg and Romaine lettuce, bushels of tomatoes (both sliced and diced), and various other fruits and vegetables.

On each of those days, my sinuses were given an incredible purging, ensuring that no cold or flu virus could take hold in my nasal passages. And every day that I sliced those onions, I was in the best mood. I don’t know if the crying actually reduces stress, or maybe it was weilding a knife and various chopping equipment for several hours a day that made me feel so good.

According to the program, we’re not likely to find a genetically manipulated “tearless” onion in the grocery store for at least 10 years, if ever. Turns out it takes at least two years to breed new onion varieties, and genetic modifications must be studied and ruled safe by FDA, another process that can take years.

There are other ways to reduce tears while chopping onions. Wear glasses. Buy “sweet” onions such as Vidalias that don’t cause as much tearing. Or, sharpen your knives. In fact, using sharp cutlery is one of the best ways to prevent crying while cutting onions. A sharp knife will slice cleanly through your onion. A dull knife has to crush it, splashing more of the volatile gasses and chemicals up into your face.

There’s even a new book that takes its title from this professional kitchen technique: The Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry: Love, Laughter, and Tears at the World’s Most Famous Cooking School

Tags: genetic modification, gmo, National Public Radio, NPR, onions, Wendy's