Garlic and onions are a chef’s best friends. They can put a little pizazz into any dish and inject flavor into an otherwise boring meal. However, if your stomach cramps up after eating garlic and onions, we have sad news — you may be allium intolerant.
Alliums are a family of vegetables that include garlic, onions, chives, shallots, and leeks. Like being intolerant to dairy or grains, allium intolerance can cause nausea, bloating, gas, heartburn, cramping, vomiting, and diarrhea.
Eleanor Cummins wrote about her allium intolerance for Popular Science in 2017. Before her official diagnosis, doctors encouraged her to use the FODMAP (Fermentable Oligosaccharides, Disaccharides, Monosaccharides, And Polyols) elimination system to streamline her diet and figure out what was making her life miserable. By eliminating and then reintroducing these specific types of foods into one’s daily diet, one can pinpoint the cause of one’s gastrointestinal issues. For Cummins, it was garlic, onions, and other alliums.
As Cameron Linville, who also lives with allium intolerance, explained per Mind Body Green Health, those with an allium allergy cannot absorb the allium’s oligosaccharides (also known as fructans) via their small intestine.
Instead, those oligosaccharides sit within the small intestine and ferment, thus causing the bloating, gas, and overall discomfort.
However, people with food intolerances will experience different symptoms. Some may experience symptoms that last for days and can range from Irritable Bowel Syndrome-like symptoms to hallucinations.
Others may experience more topical reactions like skin rashes.
Unfortunately, not a lot is known about why some of us become intolerant of allium and other food groups. Because for the most part, these types of allergies are not life-threatening, research to cure them is not as pertinent as other, more serious food allergies.
Talk to your doctor if these symptoms sound familiar. Or, try cutting alliums out of your diet in an effort to better your gut health on your own. Sure, garlic and onions may taste great. But your wellbeing is so much more important.
