Fun Facts About Vegetables

Which vegetables are your favorite? How much do you know about them? You may be surprised at the facts behind your favorite vegetables. Reasons for crying when cutting onions, or for planting large patches of thyme in the garden. Read on to learn these facts and more.

Fun facts of a simple onion

The chemical reaction is why people cry when cutting onions. When the onion is cut, the amino acid sulfoxide is released and then converted to sulfenic acid. Sulfenic acid is mixed with onion enzymes to produce propanethiol S-oxide, a sulfuric acid chemical. Sulfuric chemicals are in a gaseous state and come into contact with water in the eyes, causing a burning sensation. In response to this stimulus, your eyes shed tears to remove the stimulus.

As a side note, when the onion is being cooked, heat inactivates the enzyme so it no longer irritate your eyes.

There are a few things you can do to prevent crying when cutting an onion. These include the following:

• Wear safety goggles,
• Move the fan away the sulfuric acid gas from you
• Put the onion in a bowl of water and cut it.
• Keep the onion in the refrigerator until you are ready to cut it because the cold air in the refrigerator will slow the chemical reaction inside the onion.

Interesting information about other vegetables

You wouldn't have thought that onions were so interesting. Well here are some more interesting facts about other vegetables. See the number of these facts you already know.

• Watermelon is actually a vegetable! They are the same family as cucumbers, pumpkins and squash.
• The world's largest watermelon weighs over 260 pounds.
• In the UK, it is traditional to plant large patches of time. These patches are said to be fairy playgrounds.
• Carrot helps to make it look good in the dark. This is because carrots are high in vitamin A and help prevent “night blindness”.
• Frozen vegetables may be more nutritious than fresh vegetables. If you choose fresh vegetables, it takes time to get to the supermarket. The longer the time between picking and eating, the more nutrients are lost. However, frozen vegetables are usually processed and packaged on the same day they are picked. Therefore, they maintain the maximum amount of nutrients.
• The top green leaf of the beet can be eaten after it boils lightly like spinach. In fact, beet leaves are the most nutritious part of vegetables.
• Two common varieties of peas are snow peas and snap peas. Pick snow peas before the inner peas develop so that the pea pods are still very flat and soft. But in the case of snap peas, peas can grow and eat both raw and cooked pods and peas.