Why do we cry when we cut onions?

Jan 21, 2026 5 min

About this episode

Ending up in tears when preparing a dish with onions can be pretty darn inconvenient. No sooner have you started chopping them up, you find your eyes getting watery and stinging. Of course, those tears aren’t related to any feelings of sadness; rather they’re down to a series of chemical reactions. Like a lot of fruit and veg we buy at the supermarket, onions are still technically alive when harvested and sold. And they have certain defence mechanisms to protect themselves. I would never have guessed! What kind of defence mechanisms are we talking about? What if none of those tips work for me? In under 3 minutes, we answer your questions! To listen to the last episodes, you can click here: ⁠Could hot rodent men be the new male ideal?⁠ ⁠Why are mini animals so popular?⁠ ⁠Why does walking through doorways make us forget things?⁠ A podcast written and realised by Joseph Chance. First Broadcast: 29/6/2024 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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