Digestion and intolerances

A balanced diet contributes to health and physical fitness just as much as plenty of exercise in the fresh air and sufficient sleep. But what if healthy foods such as fruit, vegetables or milk suddenly cause unpleasant complaints such as flatulence or abdominal pain after eating?

The trigger can often be clearly narrowed down through observation (e.g. with the help of a food diary). Consultation with your family doctor or a nutritionist is advisable in any case. If the complaints are food-related, then two possibilities come into consideration: an allergy or an intolerance. While an allergy is always an overreaction of the body’s own immune system, food intolerance usually involves the body not being able to break down certain substances or only being able to do so insufficiently.

The triggers for the complaints can come from a very wide range of foods. Cereals containing gluten in particular have recently come into focus in this context. Gluten is a protein that gives bread dough its consistency, for example. However, it can lead to chronic inflammation of the mucous membrane of the small intestine in people with a predisposition to this. This disease, called coeliac disease, is hereditary, but occurs relatively rarely (in less than 1% of the population in Germany). Whether gluten sensitivity can also exist without a corresponding genetic predisposition is still up for discussion.

About the same number of people are sensitive to histamine, a natural substance that plays an important role in allergic reactions and in the immune system. However, bacterially fermented foods such as salami, hard cheese, sauerkraut, red wine and beer also contain histamine and can trigger allergic reactions in people with histamine intolerance.

A lesser-known but widespread food intolerance, on the other hand, is oligosaccharide intolerance, which can cause symptoms after eating beans and cabbage, for example, due to indigestible carbohydrates. Similarly, many people cannot tolerate fruit and vegetables because they suffer from fructose intolerance. If you experience a rumbling stomach when eating dairy products, it is very likely that you are lactose intolerant.

Every little bean will make its own little sound. As prosaic as it sounds, the metabolic processes behind this phenomenon are complex. For some people, their digestion does not run quite as smoothly after eating pulses or grains. The cause may be a common food intolerance: oligosaccharide intolerance. Beans, cabbage, peas, onions, soy, wholemeal and wheat products, as well as some fruits, are particularly rich in these polysaccharides. In the small intestine, an enzyme is responsible for digesting these almost exclusively plant-based nutrients: alpha-galactosidase. We have provided a shopping guide for you on the topic of oligosaccharides in food.

Alpha-galactosidase is an enzyme used by microorganisms in the digestive tract to break down and digest multiple sugars (oligosaccharides) from complex carbohydrates. If this enzyme is missing, oligosaccharides enter the large intestine undigested, where they are broken down by bacteria, i.e. fermented. This produces carbon dioxide and hydrogen, which can result in abdominal pain and flatulence!

It is not advisable to stop eating healthy foods such as wholemeal bread, beans or even some types of fruit because they contain valuable nutrients and you should consume them regularly. For example, pulses are not only good sources of vital substances, but also indispensable sources of vegetable protein. In addition, the oligosaccharides contained in these foods, similar to dietary fibre, bind lots of liquid and support digestion. If necessary, preparations for the dietary treatment of oligosaccharide intolerance with alpha-galactosidase can facilitate the digestion of such “problematic” foods.

You can also read about digestive problems when eating fruit, vegetables or milk in our brochure: “When food causes discomfort…”