Why Do Onions Make You Cry? 🧅

Morning Onion Breath!

Heyyy, what’s the matter Durd?

Durd, nobody needs that many–

Okay. We’ll just do onions today.

Because, why do onions make you cry?

Basically when you start chopping an onion,

You begin breaking up cells inside the thing.

This releases enzymes called alliinases.

Lol. Fine.

If that helps you remember.

These alliinases then mix with amino acids containing sulfur inside of the onion.

Now, when these two things mix, they form an unstable sulfenic acid.

And this unstable sulfenic acid wants to become…stable!

So it quickly rearranges itself into a chemical called syn-propanethial-S-oxide:

Okay, no more big words lol

We have a problem.

That syn-propanethial-S-oxide is volatile as F*CK!

So it immediately evaporates into a gas.

And stabs you in the eyeballs!

You’re crying to try and wash away the chemical.

But the onion’s just trying to defend itself from being eaten by predators and insects!

Stay Cute,
Henry & Dylan 🌈

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