Garlic and onions are integral parts of most cuisines. Besides being healthy for most, they’re also very flavourful and can add depth to different foods. Onions and garlic are common in most recipes, and it’s hard to pinpoint them as the problematic ingredients.
Garlic is filled with sulfur, hence why it’s healthy and used as a herbal remedy. Additionally, its antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties make it a great herbal medicine. Most cultures also use it as an antibiotic.
Onions are very common ingredients in food; in the US alone, about 6.75 pounds are produced yearly. Even though they’re produced massively, many people get sick after eating onions.
An intolerance to garlic and onions occurs when a food-specific IgG reaction occurs. Often, the characteristics you’ll experience include difficulty digesting some types of foods or an unpleasant physical response to them.
While intolerance to garlic and onions can make grocery shopping hard, it’s not impossible. You’ll need time to adjust; then, you’ll find the perfect ingredients to replace both items in your diet.
Onion and garlic intolerance symptoms
You’ll often find intolerance symptoms of onions and garlic take a few hours to a few days to show up. It can take up to 3 days for the symptoms to appear. The severity of onion and garlic intolerance symptoms varies from one individual to the next. However, it’s common for people to suffer from severe symptoms if they consume large quantities compared to smaller amounts of the trigger food.
Common onion and garlic intolerance symptoms include:
- Diarrhea
- Stomach pain
- Flatulence
- Joint pain
- Nausea or vomiting
- Rash or hives
- Nasal congestion
- Swelling and itchiness of the tongue, lips, and throat
Causes of onion and garlic intolerance
Even though the root cause of food intolerance is unknown, many people have an intolerance because their small intestines lack sufficient enzymes to break down substances in their food. Therefore, when this happens, most food doesn’t get digested in the small intestines like it should.
It’s, however, pushed into the large intestines where the stomach bacteria ferment it to release gas. During fermentation in the colon, the undigested food also draws water into the colon, which causes bloating and water retention. Later on, you’ll experience diarrhea because of this excess water.
Also, you can have onion and garlic intolerance if you have issues in the lining of your intestines. This can be due to an infection or illness affecting your intestines. Common conditions associated with food intolerance include chrons disease, bacterial overgrowth, celiac disease, and irritable bowel syndrome.
If you have digestive illnesses like irritable bowel syndrome, eating foods that are hard to digest can cause more digestive symptoms. Therefore, it’s advisable to get help from a doctor to know if you have any intestinal illnesses and treat them as if they’re the root cause of your problem.
When your intestinal barrier is damaged, sulfur in garlic can irritate the intestines, causing a release of gas, and symptoms will arise. You can also develop garlic intolerance because of your sensitivity to sulfur. Sulfur is naturally present in some foods; if you’re sensitive to it, you’ll be sensitive to garlic and other sulfur-containing foods.
You should also check for things you’re intolerant to, like a leek. Garlic is the leek family, and if you have garlic intolerance, many other foods in that family could cause your symptoms.
While some people can tolerate onions when cooked, others can’t and get intolerant symptoms either way. Sometimes, those with onion intolerance can cook them to break their proteins and won’t suffer from the signs anymore.
Your sensitivity to FODMAPs could also cause onion and garlic intolerance symptoms. FODMAPs are a group of carbohydrates that are hard for the intestines to break down. Often, garlic and onions are found in this category. You can consult your doctor about following a low-FODMAP diet.
Foods to avoid with onion and garlic intolerance
By taking a Sensitivity Test, you’ll know which foods you must avoid. The test shows you which foods are causing your symptoms. Often, you can find that it could be onions and garlic and other food in the allium family, foods in the leek family, or FODMAPs.
However, you can’t know this definitively without a test. After your test, you can work closely with a dietitian to understand your body better and form a balanced diet using food that agrees with you.
Most cuisines use garlic and onions in their foods, so you may need to wait to eat outside your home until you figure out how to go about dining out. Since they’re used as bases, you’ll need to check the ingredient lists of seasonings, sauces, and prepared foods to avoid intolerance symptoms.
Sometimes, it’s easy to spot some foods with offending ingredients, like garlic bread or onion soup. However, check seasoning blends. In your favorite restaurant, check if they can make you food without these offending ingredients.
What to use instead of garlic and onions in food
We all love a little spice in our foods and cooking without garlic and onion can initially seem boring. However, you’ll be on a roll when you find other herbs and species to replace these. If you’re making meals that require onion and garlic at the end of the cooking, you can alternatively use lemon, chili, or horseradish.
If you want the depth and flavor of browning onions, you can try cumin and ginger as a base. Caramelized onions have some sweetness to them. To replicate this, try out pepper and celery, and even sprinkle some sugar.
Some flavors and tastes, such as umami, can often be replicated by soy sauce, finely grated ginger, and fish sauce. So, to experiment with flavors that replace garlic and onion, try out the following:
- Ginger
- Soy sauce
- Fish sauce
- Miso
- Coriander
- Chilli
- Lemon zest
- Asafoetida
- Celeriac
- Fennel
Final thoughts
Dealing with an onion intolerance and garlic intolerance can be daunting at first. However, when you know what foods obtain these ingredients, avoiding them is easy. You’ll have to do some research on what to avoid. Your dietitian will help you. The best way to confirm your onion and garlic intolerance is by taking a Sensitivity Test. This test will help you know if it’s just onions, garlic you should avoid, FODMAPs, or the allium family. This way, you’re better able to manage your diet and symptoms.
