Does strapping a raw onion to your foot overnight “heal” you? Fact Check
Online rumours claim placing a sliced onion in your sock before you go to bed will literally heal you in your sleep.
Internet folklore often points the finger towards onions as either miracle healing devices or exceptionally dangerous virus absorbers. For example, remedies that pre-date the Internet claim that peeled onions can absorb the flu virus from the air, and as such should be placed next to those suffering that ailment for a fast and natural cure. In fact original versions of this remedy claimed it would help protect would-be victims from the bubonic plague.
Related rumours also warn against consuming peeled onions that have been left out for that very same reason.
What onion-themed remedies often have in common is their lack of both scientifically backed approval and tangible evidence to support their vague and dithering conclusions. This viral rumour about placing onions on the bottom of your feet is no different.
The running theme behind these rumours is the claim that the feet are a “gateway” to the internal organs, and that the healing sulphuric compounds in the onions can travel through your feet, into the nervous system, purifying the organs and blood as it travels through your body while removing harmful toxins at the same time. This bears a striking similarity to the ancient Chinese medicinal practice of foot reflexology.
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The issue with this, as you may have guessed, is that reflexology is an alternative medicinal practice with little (no) compelling evidence that it actually works, other than – as is often the case with alternative medicine – mere anecdotal accounts; studies on the subject routinely fail to identify the specific benefits of the alternative treatment. (Here and here.)
There has been no scientific studies that confirm the properties of onions can travel through the “gateways” (also called “meridians”) located at the bottom of the feet and into the bloodstream. While it is true that onions – like all vegetables – have a positive and tangible effect to one’s health when digested, it has not shown to have any noticeable effects when strapped to a foot (or, for that matter, left within the vicinity of someone.)
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A video by Health Hacks in 2016 makes a number of identical claims about strapping an onion to your foot – namely
1. It has a cleansing effect on your blood and filters out germs and bacteria from the blood when absorbed through the foot.
2. The “stimulation of the sole activates various points throughout the body in a similar way to acupuncture.”
3. Your feet will smell better because the onion “draws” poisons out of your foot and cleans the air.
The first point is demonstrably nonsense, since if someone’s bloodstream contained bacteria, this would represent a serious health issue that would require urgent medical attention since bacteria in the blood would lead to sepsis and ultimately death.
The second point seems to be vague pseudo-jargon, and the third point again is simply just vague conclusions drawn from no evidence (if you strap an onion to your foot for any prolonged period of time, your foot will most likely – funnily enough – smell of onion.)
Of course, as is typically the case with folklore remedies, there are those that swear that it works while simultaneously falling foul of almost every logical fallacy in the book (I strapped an onion to my foot. Then by flu symtpoms lessened. Therefore the onion caused my flu to go. See Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc.)
However it is unlikely that the lack of verifiable and tangible supporting scientific evidence will have any effect on that. The good news, however, is that there are no health risks associated with having an onion strapped to your foot overnight, other than perhaps forgetting that it’s there when trying to get out of bed with it underneath you.
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