Garlic: It’s Often a Painful Love Story
The good news is it doesn’t have to crush you
I often think of garlic as a gift from the gods.
But as lovable as it is, it’s off the table for many sensitive foodies. Some people have an allergy, which is an immune system reaction that causes the body to go into a fight-or-flight response. Typically it involves body systems that are unrelated to eating, like the chest, head or skin and fortunately it’s quite uncommon.
Many more of us just can’t stomach it, or much of it, because it upsets our tummies with the usual symptoms of bloating, gas (top and tail), heartburn or nausea. Food intolerance symptoms like these mean your gut is struggling to digest, or reacting to a substance in a food or food group. In the case of garlic, the most likely culprit is called an oligosaccharide — the ‘O’ in FODMAP, an acronym for the substances in certain foods that commonly cause intolerances.
Meet the alliums
Garlic is part of the same ‘allium’ food family as onions, leeks, shallots and chives, a renowned dysfunctional family rich in those irksome O’s. If you know you react to one of them, look out for an intolerance to others. Also be warned that this family gets around! As cooking staples, they are near ubiquitous in packaged, ready-made, canned and processed foods.
On the positive side, even if you’re reacting it’s worth testing to see how sensitive you are. You may find, as I did, that it’s once again too much that’s not the good thing — you’re only intolerant to eating more than you can calmly digest.
What you can do
- Know how much is too much: Test yourself by first excluding it completely and then slowly re-introducing a little bit at a time.
- Watch out for the in-laws: Some sensitive foodies can deal with one member of the allium family and not another.
- Read the labels: Between thickening and flavoring, garlic and the other alliums are core to many recipes, like store bought sauces, and anything ready made etc.
Use garlic-infused oil instead
If you discover that you’re highly sensitive, garlic-infused olive oil could be your salivation (who doesn’t love a food pun?). It’s the perfect way to keep the flavor in your life without the pain.
Why is it tummy safe?
The oligosaccharide molecules in garlic that cause digestive symptoms are not soluble in fat but the compounds that give the taste are! This means that when garlic is left in oil for a period of time, the taste is released into the oil while what hurts you stays out.
Test and tell!
I’m lucky enough to tolerate small amounts of garlic but I’ve tested the oil with friends who are highly sensitive and it worked. If it sounds too good to be true, there’s one way to find out! Try it and let me know what you think.
You just read another post from In Fitness And In Health: a health and fitness community dedicated to sharing knowledge, lessons, and suggestions to living happier, healthier lives.
If you’d like to join our newsletter and receive more stories like this one, tap here.
