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Q: Have you noticed waxed onions at the vegetable markets?
I've seen it with my own eyes over here in Hunan Potamus. For the last few months, I noticed the onions went from being "passable" to almost flawless. Curious as to why, I picked up several and began to fondle them ferociously. Oh, wax.
They do the same to apples.
You know that shady wink others give when they try to get you to try something, only to discover it was spiked with urine? Then you end up killing the whole town in revenge, and getting sent to Juvenile Hall for 5 years with an additional 5 years of probation and intense psychotherapy? Yeah, that wink.
I went to a vendor and told her to stop using wax on the onions since it's dangerous and unnatural, and she gave me the same shady wink. Then someone bought the onion and caught Throat AIDS Simplex F from it.
Just a heads up... be careful when buying vegetables from the market. If they're really shiny, they've probably been waxed.
11 years 3 weeks ago in Health & Safety - China
Sounds a bit sketchy to me - I once saw a greengrocer spraying something (presumably pesticide) on a bunch of tomatoes, once I asked him what it was he just shook his hand and put the bottle down.
My girlfriend got waxed once. It must be the same with vegetables, because she was really shiny...
They probably use unsafe wax (as with everything else), but can't you just peel off the skin before eating?
Nessquick:
No because just right under the skin is 90% of apple vitamins
t91camp:
Apple sure, onion not so much. Besides, apple skins usually taste like shit. Most of the nutrition is in the skin of an orange too but nobody eats that. Wax honestly isn't that big of a deal, I'd rather peel the skin than eat rotten fruit.
And really, a downvote for that? Jesus, I'm starting to feel like Martian (however he spells his name).
Traveler:
Orange jam is made out of orange peel. It's just eaten a different way.
I love apple skin. We had an apple tree in our yard when we were kids, and used to eat them straight off the tree 
Hulk:
I downvoted you for suggesting we should just peel the skin off and accept getting shit on. The posions are still there.
t91camp:
@Traveler So you're making orange jam in China? No? Then it doesn't matter lol. That reminds me, I need to learn how to make my own tortillas.
@Hulk At least you own up to it, I can appreciate that.
My point was this is just a trivial thing to get upset about. In case you didn't know, most fruit in China is still grown with Cold War-era pesticides which will fuck you up in ways you can't even imagine. The farms are covered in raw shit, human and otherwise, because the average Chinese person doesn't understand the basic concept of "germs". Almost all rain in China is acid rain and almost all the water is unfit for human consumption, yet of course it's used, unfiltered, in food production. As Traveler mentioned below, Chinese markets spray formalin on their fruits and vegetables, which causes breathing/digestive problems and cancer. Farmers feed clenbuterol to livestock to speed growth, which has been banned in the US for over 20 years. Most restaurants use gutter oil, the dangers of which have been discussed over and over again.
Most, if not all, of these things are illegal in China, yet an incompetent/bribe-based law enforcement system means you're definitely being poisoned in some way or another.
And here you are, worried about wax? Come on. Just peel it, man. It's probably the one thing you can do to make what you eat in China a little bit less likely to kill you.
Hulk:
Thanks for telling me about the other poisons I didn't know about.....................
t91camp:
I can tell I was just like a ray of sunshine on your cloudy day.
Wax is the least of your problems. Many merchants use formalin (formaldehyde) to make the fruit and vegetables look fresher. The Chinese government concedes about 30%, which is probably a low estimate.:
http://www.scmp.com/article/1000385/bak-choi-found-be-sprayed-formalin
The same with clothes:
http://www.scmp.com/article/1002246/tv-report-tainted-clothes-sparks-fear
