Whether yellow, red or white, the onion is a vegetable that you may not know well. The list of its uses in cooking is endless. People have used onions to add flavor (味道) to their foods for thousands of years. Besides onions' great taste, they are very good for you. They have special chemicals (化学物质) that improve your ability to fight off sickness and you have fewer chances of getting a disease.
No matter how good onions are for you, it is difficult to cut an onion without your eyes filling with tears! When you cut into an onion, irritating (刺激性的) chemicals inside the onion will get into the air. They touch your whole eyes and cause pain. Your eyes make tears to wash away the chemicals and protect your eyes.
Luckily, cooks and scientists have discovered some ways to keep you from crying when you cut up onions:
● Cut the onion under running water. The water will wash away the chemicals before they can reach your eyes.
● Use a fan to blow air over the onion as you cut it. The air will blow the chemicals away from your eyes.
● Put the onion in a fridge for an hour before cutting. This helps make the chemicals in the onion move slowly, so they may not ever reach your eyes.
If you try out these good ideas and still cry while cutting onions, don't worry. Scientists think if you cut more onions, your body will become more resilient to the onion's chemicals. So the tears will not last long. If you think about how healthy onions are, you might even call those tears "happy tears".
