I Had a Superpower, Once

I felt pretty high and mighty there for awhile. I could rule the kitchen in certain circumstances. My eyes were completely under my control - not at the whim of a root vegetable.

But all good things must come to an end.

Now, I cry uncontrollably when I cut onions. What changed, you ask? I started wearing glasses.

It all started when I found this really cheap website for prescription glasses, and I was running out of contacts, so I started wearing glasses.

I made it this far into cutting an onion for a soup base before I had to stop (my tears were nearly dripping onto the cutting board, and I thought that couldn't be food-safe):

I had to step away, towel-off my face, and then get back to business

I knew I wasn't the only one with this superpower, so I looked to The Naked Scientists for more information. They place the blame on the alium compounds in the onion for getting airborne and irritating the cornea.

This gets me really excited - because it's the alium compounds I'm after. These compounds are antimicrobial and antioxidant. They're the whole reason I'm making this soup base in the first place.

It's the time of year when illnesses are getting spread around and my office doesn't have great circulation. Even if I Lysol every surface after every patient, there are still good odds I could contract a bug.

I'm hoping that working with disinfecting my environment and giving my insides good antibacterial and antiviral compounds, I can prevent getting sick (and spreading illness to my other patients).


Kate Fossman, RDN, LD

October 13, 2015