Honey and Onions

[Bikewer]

My wife gets her nails "done" at one of those little shops that appear to be everywhere. The proprietors are Vietnamese. She overheard a conversation with a customer and the husband of the owner/proprietor.

The customer asked what he thought of traditional Oriental medicine, and the guy said he didn't use any of the herbal or traditional cures. However, he said he always avoided eating onions and honey at the same time. Claimed the combo was poisonous.
Hehe- he might have been pulling her leg, of course. Still, that's a new one to me. Anyone heard of that particular belief?

Hard to imagine a dish that would use honey and onions at the same time....

[Mojo]

However, he said he always avoided eating onions and honey at the same time. Claimed the combo was poisonous.
Hehe- he might have been pulling her leg, of course. Still, that's a new one to me. Anyone heard of that particular belief?

Hard to imagine a dish that would use honey and onions at the same time....I used to make a sweet and sour sauce using honey. The stuff it was served with generally included onions. I'm still around. :)

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

Uh, honey-glazed onions anyone?

http://www.recipelink.com/mf/0/45547

~~ Paul

[tkingdoll]

Uh, honey-glazed onions anyone?

http://www.recipelink.com/mf/0/45547

~~ Paul

Honions?

[Peter Morris]

Honey glazed ham and coleslaw?

[GodMark2]

Hard to imagine a dish that would use honey and onions at the same time....

I regularly put honey and onions in my pasta sauces at the same time, but the all powerfull garlic must be neutralizing the toxin. ;)

[LordoftheLeftHand]

... However, he said he always avoided eating onions and honey at the same time. Claimed the combo was poisonous.
This stirs up lots of questions that woo's can never answer. For example:

What is the name and properties of the toxin created?

How long should you wait after having one before having the other?

If they were really that dangerous shouldn't you just avoid one of them, just to be safe?

What chemical in honey is the culprit (and more importantly what other foods is it in)?

I'm sure questions like these never even cross the mind of people who believe things like this.

LLH

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

I regularly put honey and onions in my pasta sauces at the same time, but the all powerfull garlic must be neutralizing the toxin.
Oh ye of little faith! It is His Noodliness who saves your life.

~~ Paul

[Betenoire]

Darn, I'd thought from the topic that this was going to be about something else. Sorry if this railroads it, but:
In medieval times, the "cure for the common cold" was to coat a clove of garlic in honey, put it in your ear (yah) and sleep with that side of your head up. In about seven days, the cold goes away.
And I can't help but think of that whenever anyone mentions "traditional medicine".

[Libertarian]

So a cold goes away in 7 days? Geez, I wonder how long it lasts if you don't take anything for it? Heard Rush Limbaugh today do a spot for some homeopathic cold remedy. Swore that he used it himself and that it works. I imagine that, in 7 days, the cold is gone. Great stuff!

[Betenoire]

So a cold goes away in 7 days? Geez, I wonder how long it lasts if you don't take anything for it?

Exactly :D So very, very much of "traditional medicine" strikes me as a belief that you had to do SOMETHING for there to be a change, rather than just sit back and let your body do what it does best.

Heard Rush Limbaugh today do a spot for some homeopathic cold remedy. Swore that he used it himself and that it works. I imagine that, in 7 days, the cold is gone. Great stuff!

I occasionally listen to Air America, and they have a spot for "homeopathic eyedrops". So, it's like, um, water? I guess we can't contest their claim that it helps get rid of dryness.

[LordoftheLeftHand]

Heard Rush Limbaugh today do a spot for some homeopathic cold remedy.

He should do pain killer endorsements; isn't he an "expert"?

LLH

[Betenoire]

He should do pain killer endorsements; isn't he an "expert"?

LLH

"Hello all you dittoheads, let me tell you: Oxycodone works. Really, really well. REALLY well. Trust me, I know."

[Eos of the Eons]

Darn, I'd thought from the topic that this was going to be about something else. Sorry if this railroads it, but:
In medieval times, the "cure for the common cold" was to coat a clove of garlic in honey, put it in your ear (yah) and sleep with that side of your head up. In about seven days, the cold goes away.
And I can't help but think of that whenever anyone mentions "traditional medicine".
Traditional treatment for baldness... dung on your head. Yep, true sh*thead treatments.

[Betenoire]

You know, there is some WEIRD stuff that modern medicine does (for Crohn's patients, they're experimenting with ingesting pig hookworm because it really does work. For C. difficile infections of the gut, they're experimenting with gastronasal tubes feeding healthy people's dung into the patient's GI tract), but at the very least it is experimentally verified.
Speaking of which, anybody know if Gingko stands up to clinical testing? I could use a memory enhancer some days.

[Hawk one]

Has anyone tested if liver and fava beans are poisonous? :p (sorry, but you know that reference had to come up sooner or later)


Oh, and Betenoire: I don't claim to know this, but wasn't even the "common cold" capable of killing people back in the days? If so, when did it stop becoming life-threatening and gradually turn into something merely annoying as it is today?

[Betenoire]

Has anyone tested if liver and fava beans are poisonous? :p (sorry, but you know that reference had to come up sooner or later?


Oh, and Betenoire: I don't claim to know this, but wasn't even the "common cold" capable of killing people back in the days? If so, when did it stop becoming life-threatening and gradually turn into something merely annoying as it is today?

I've never heard of that. Got a source?

[alfaniner]

Has anyone tested if liver and fava beans are poisonous? :p (sorry, but you know that reference had to come up sooner or later?

Possibly, but only if consumed along with a nice Chianti.

[Hawk one]

I've never heard of that. Got a source?

Not really, that's why I tried (but not entirely succeeded, I see now) to take care to make sure I was speculating. The basis for such speculation are nothing more than faded memories from high-school lessons about how diseases that the Europeans had learned to live with (literally) turned out to be quite fatal for the native residents of The New World.

My point was merely to say that -if- the cold was a more serious matter in those days, or at least lasting much longer than they do now, then at least the claim of getting rid of it within 7 days would make more sense. To clarify, I am not saying said "cure" was effective, just that it wouldn't seem completely stupid to claim success within 7 days.

Of course, I might well still be trying to make excuses here, and that they were really pre-homeopaths (in that they only offer soothing, and nothing that actually does something to your body).

[tracer]

Possibly, but only if consumed along with a nice Chianti.

Actually, those items are a legitimate threat to some people.

Liver, fava beans, and wine (as well as cheese) all contain a chemical called tyramine. For most folks, this isn't an issue, but for psychiatric patients taking MAO Inhibitors, tyramine can result in cardiac arrest (!). Thus, patients on MAO Inhibitors are absolutely forbidden from eating tyramine-rich foods such as these.

By consuming fava beans and chianti wine when he (allegedly) killed and ate someone in a mental institution, Hannibal Lechter was playing on this fact in a kind of "delicious irony." (Or at the very least, a somewhat flavorful irony; I'll bet a steady diet of Long Pig gets boring after a while.)

[Betenoire]

Not really, that's why I tried (but not entirely succeeded, I see now) to take care to make sure I was speculating. The basis for such speculation are nothing more than faded memories from high-school lessons about how diseases that the Europeans had learned to live with (literally) turned out to be quite fatal for the native residents of The New World.

My point was merely to say that -if- the cold was a more serious matter in those days, or at least lasting much longer than they do now, then at least the claim of getting rid of it within 7 days would make more sense. To clarify, I am not saying said "cure" was effective, just that it wouldn't seem completely stupid to claim success within 7 days.

Of course, I might well still be trying to make excuses here, and that they were really pre-homeopaths (in that they only offer soothing, and nothing that actually does something to your body).

I did, actually, understand all of that. The question re: the source was really for my own education.
And, yes, I'd think things like influenza and smallpox and the like were even more severe than now at one point. I did some research on this just a few months ago but it's all flown from my brain. Back in this era, diseases went cyclically: urban populations would suffer a disease and develop a resistance, and it would go away. Rural populations would start to move in to the city, and eventually some farm boy who picked up chicken pox from his animals (most of the epidemic causers were) or some trader from far off lands would come to the city, and all the new population who hadn't been exposed to it the first time around would get infected, it'd mutate, and there'd be another epidemic.
Maybe the cold virus was among these, I just had never heard it specifically mentioned. Hmmmm... wonder what the Wiki Gods have to say...

[luchog]

And, yes, I'd think things like influenza and smallpox and the like were even more severe than now at one point.
When talking about pre-modern populations, you also have to figure in factors like chronic malnutrition, poor hygiene, and tainted food supplies; all of which can have a seriously negative effect on the immune system. A body that is already severely stressed from other factors will have a difficult time fighting off viral infections.

[Betenoire]

When talking about pre-modern populations, you also have to figure in factors like chronic malnutrition, poor hygiene, and tainted food supplies; all of which can have a seriously negative effect on the immune system. A body that is already severely stressed from other factors will have a difficult time fighting off viral infections.

Yup. I guess we're thinking in terms of "If I had a time machine and travelled back to Paris in 1300 and caught a cold immediately, would I die?"

[Hawk one]

So in short, neither I nor Betenoire can currently claim for sure how silly it would be to claim a cure for cold that worked within 7 days back in the medieval days.

[oglommi]

Hehe- he might have been pulling her leg, of course. Still, that's a new one to me. Anyone heard of that particular belief?

....

Never heard this one but small babys should not eat honey because the stomach or colon need some type of bacteria or else honey is poisinous. Small babies sometimes lack this bacteria and a baby died in Norway some years ago because of this.

[Consternatio]

Never heard this one but small babys should not eat honey because the stomach or colon need some type of bacteria or else honey is poisinous. Small babies sometimes lack this bacteria and a baby died in Norway some years ago because of this.

Actually the reason babies under a year shouldn't be given honey is because honey can contain a bacteria whose spores release the toxin botulin, leading to infant botulism. In adults the conditions in the gut usually neutralise this toxin.

[c4ts]

Onion rings are great in honey mustard sauce! I don't know what that guy is afrai- *urk!*

[luchog]

So in short, neither I nor Betenoire can currently claim for sure how silly it would be to claim a cure for cold that worked within 7 days back in the medieval days.
Not using modern, First World standards of living, no. Incubation time would be roughly the same, but duration could well be longer; and severity is most likely increased in the majority of cases as well. Anything that would boost the immune system and improve health overall would naturally assist in reducing duration and severity to some degree.

However, using certain modern Third World groups as a comparision would likely be more accurate; though I don't know of any comparisons that have been done.