Most kids here in the valley are back to school by now. And I’m seeing a wave of cold, flu, and strep throat at my clinic. In the past two years, my son, now 8 years old, would fall sick with high fever and sore throat within the first two weeks of school. And my daughter’s asthma would flare up in no time.
This summer I was invited to a friend’s party. She let me try her home made onion soaked in red wine vinegar. It tasted wonderful, and it reminded me of a classic nature cure recipe for winter cold and flu prevention. The original remedy uses garlic, soaked in vinegar and honey. I never tried this remedy before due to my sensitivity to garlic. But since onion (Allium cepa) and garlic (Allium sativum) are in the same Allium genus, I decided to try the remedy with a little modification. So here is what I did:
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Slice one small or medium-sized yellow onion.
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Put the onion slices in a jar, and pour unfiltered apple cider vinegar in the jar until it covers all the onion.
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Stir in 1 to 2 tablespoons of raw honey.
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Let the jar sit in the refrigerator for at least 12 hours before serving.
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Every morning, eat a few slices of onion. Take a teaspoon of the onion infused honey vinegar by itself or diluted with water as well. If the onion has been soaked for several days, the vinegar alone will be just as effective.
We’ve been eating the honey vinegar soaked onion for a month now. Other than some mild sniffles and scratchy throat, none of us have fallen ill so far.
Yesterday afternoon, my daughter came back from piano class complaining of a headache and sore throat. Within one hour, she said her chest felt tight and asthma was kicking in. She already had her morning serving of onion. I gave her the homeopathic remedy that she usually takes at the onset of a cold, then another serving of onion. I told her that if she ended up escaping an asthma attack, I would write an article to thank onion. So here I am writing this article on Sunday. And you know why.