Dozens of surprising trends have been seen on TikTok so far. But this time it’s a little different. TikTok phenomena, which share unfounded and unproven health applications with their followers, brought up a method made with onions this time.
WHAT IS ONION TREATMENT?
The onion cure is a TikTok trend popularized by a user named @Poshmamma, who posted a video of him cutting onions and placing them around the house. In a video with more than 2.5 million views, he claims that onions can be used as an air purifier and a cure for the flu. “What do you do with onions? When you cut them and put them around your house, they will purify the air and draw toxins, bacteria, fungi and viruses from the air,” he said.
He added that onions are powerful at keeping your home disease-free, adding, “If others are getting sick in your home, run to the grocery store and get the red onions and let them absorb the disease and the poison.” said. Some TikTokers claim to use onions as air purifiers and a remedy for the flu.
DOES ONION TREATMENT WORK?
While many TikTokers have posted videos supporting the onion treatment, medical and scientific experts have warned that there is no evidence to support the claim that onions can help clean the air from viruses. According to experts, “there is no evidence that an onion cut around the house can clean the air of toxins, bacteria, fungi or viruses”.
Although consuming onions slightly reduces how severely we are affected by a viral infection, experts add that it will not completely prevent the disease. Epidemiologist Maddy Lewis explained that the practice of using onions to treat illness or purify the air comes from times when bubonic plaques were common and many doctors used herbal remedies to treat illness.