Mysteries and curious intrigue of the onion ...

Yesterday I got an email from a friend telling two stories about onions. One story is about the humble little vegetable saving people from the flu and from the black plague. The other is about how dangerous left over cut onions are, their potential for causing food poisoning. Now, anyone who knows me knows I have no love of the onion. Never have, probably never will. Can't stand the smell, can't stand the taste. But I do believe that something seemingly as small and inconsequential as an onion can be really big on capabilities ... just like a little green container of skinfood! (Okay, yes, shameless plug of promotion, I know!)

So I read the stories and thought they were interesting. Then I decided, just for snorts and giggles, to check and see if "Jeannie" was really the CEO of Mullins Food Products as stated in one of the stories. I Googled it. Well, well, well. First listing to pop up in the search results was this: Cut Onion Contamination. Naturally, I clicked the link and TaDa! I discover the stories are false. Not really surprised. But it got me to thinking about how such stories are passed around, old wives' tales and urban legends that are told and re-told, and often times believed without question. Personally, thinking that people can be so quick to believe without proof is scarier than many of those old urban legends about the boogie-man with a hook for a hand!

Then my curiosity about that most wicked little vegetable was peaked and I Googled it, too. Wikipedia had lots of info. Mr. Onion is thought to help everything from sore throats to getting wounded by a sea urchin. Um, I'm not likely to test the validity of either of those beliefs! Still, it is interesting to read about the potential of something so ordinary, something we think of as not much more than a food product, to be so helpful ... and how similar that concept is to the ingredients in skinfood.

All around us are natural things with some amazing, multiple talents. Many of them we use all the time but don't think about using them for anything except one purpose. Olive oil = cooking. Beeswax = candles. Thyme = spice. These are some of the ingredients in the original skinfood.

Olive oil has long been used for more than just cooking. Research has shown it to be an effective skin care product. People worldwide have used it for a shaving lotion, hand, nail and hair moisturizing, in soap for body moisturizing, the OCM (oil cleaning method) for the face, and lots of other stuff.

And, of course, the health benefits from eating it ... There is a large body of clinical data to show that consumption of olive oil can provide heart health benefits such as favourable effects on cholesterol regulation and LDL cholesterol oxidation, and that it exerts antiinflamatory, antithrombotic, antihypertensive as well as vasodilatory effects both in animals and in humans. (per Wikipedia)

Pretty amazing for a tiny little olive, don't you think? Gives that ol' stinky onion a run for its money, I'd say.

If you don't believe me, here are a couple of links to check out ... hope you enjoy them!

Beauty and Olive Oil

Olive Oil History

Namaste', y'all ...
Carol