Fresh onions/garlic actually *cause* me to get bad colds, migraine & my throat closes up. It's an allergy. See the About.Com onion-allergy testimonials
Re: Estrogens
Tell your friend to check out the sensiblehealth.com website by Julia Chang. She mentions foods and herbs with estrogenic effects. It's a good site. Interestingly, one of the foods she mentions is cherries, and both myself & some other women I've communicated with, have found that cherries has the effect of *stopping* bleeding, though J.Chang's site seems to say the opposite. Still, I know for a fact that cherries do have *some* effect on the menstrual cycle, since I've observed it for myself.