Foods that make you sick?

[mels88]

I was just curious to see if there are any foods (not sure if that's an actual word...) out there that you guys have to avoid because they always/frequently make you feel sick. That's the whole point to this topic. :) Could be something you wish you could eat but can't.

I can't eat Mexican food. There are rare occasions when I can, provided I only eat a little bit. I was never too big a fan of it to begin with so I don't mind for the most part, but sometimes I find myself really craving a burrito. I can't eat fast food like KFC or McDonald's either - especially KFC. But then a lot of people I know say that they can't eat fast food either.

Anyone else?

[Naguere]

Sago Pudding, or tapioca.

The only dish that makes me gag. there is a strange feeling in the back of my throat when as a schoolboy I was made to , made to ......and that is the end of it.

[sockii]

Raw garlic is my nemesis, which really sucks. It took a long time to figure out why certain foods I loved eating always gave me the worst gas pains, stomach aches, and other even worse ill effects, sometimes even for days afterward.

I can tolerate garlic if it's well cooked (pan-fried/sauteed), but even oven-roasting doesn't seem to kill whatever it is in raw garlic that makes me so ill. I have to be really careful with certain restaurant foods like hummus, bruschetta toppings, bread dipping oils, etc where either there can be raw or for me "undercooked" garlic. Basically I avoid any menu item which lists garlic as a prominent ingredient and have to be careful with "red gravy/Americanized" Italian restaurants that think Italian food = tons of chopped garlic all over everything.

And yesterday I figured out why certain Korean dishes I love make me feel ill afterward - had a great BiBimBap, but the red spicy sauce is apparently loaded with raw garlic as I was sick all night from it with my typical garlic reaction. So yet another food to cross off my list, unless I make it myself and saute the garlic first :(

[linguafood]

The first thing I had to think about was Wegmans Caesar with chicken. I don't know if it's the dressing, or a combination of red onion, raw 'shrooms, and who knows what.... but the few times my man and I picked that up, neither one of us had a great reaction. Without getting into any details, we don't get it anymore. The rotisserie chicken at Wegmans is hit or miss for us, too. I'm not sure if it's the fat. I generally don't shy away from using fat when I cook at home -- be it butter, bacon fat, or olive oil.

But often, restaurant cooking can make both of us really uncomfortable, and I am guessing it is an overuse of butter.

Spicy food, otoh, has its effects, but I'll take 'em. Not gladly, but I'll deal.

Indian food can make me feel like I had a basketball for dinner for hours afterwards, so I don't have it too often. Once again, don't know if it's the ghee or something else...

I'll say I'd have to have a really strong (painful or otherwise) reaction to a food I like to avoid it.

That said, I haven't eaten a frozen pizza baguette in the last 21 years. I came home one night after partying, had two of those nuked, and ended up being sick for a couple days. Not a food I miss.

[jumpingmonk]

When I go out to lunch I have to be leery of any dish involving "marinated" steak (sandwitches etc) as there is something in what they use to marinate at some places (Applebee's and Outback come to mind) that hits my guts like a kick from a mule. It's a real pain since I find a lot of the lunch offering at places like that a bit on the bland side, I'm not a huge fan of chicken and one gets tired of burgers after a while.
Also I'm not sure you could call it getting "sick" but there in some additive in many canned iced teas (like Nestea and Lipton brisk the kind you cna get out of a soda machine) that makes my saliva get really thick and me feel like I'm really congested. any other bottled tea and I'm fine, its just something in those.

[bushwickgirl]

I have some major sort of intestinal response to fresh coconut water but don't want to get into the graphics of it.
Also, red wine makes my ears hot and red (no kidding), no one has ever been able to tell me what's that's about.

[invinotheresverde]

Rice gives me the worst hiccups ever. It doesn't make me "sick" sick, but it's super annoying.

[babermoon]

i can't eat any kind of fish egg. It's so strange! It's not an allergic reaction, more like something gets stuck somewhere in my torso and wants to break out thru my belly. Makes sushi (which I love) troublesome. The same thing hapeens with onion rings. The sorrow!!! I love onion rings.

[lisa13]

this is really gross, but you asked....

when I was small, I could not eat chocolate without throwing up almost immediately. But it didn't stop me: I would eat, puke, eat, puke, eat....puke.

sigh...I'm not sure what my mom was thinking to keep giving it to me. Luckily I'm recovered and have no problems like that now - I can eat anything =)

[Aliecat]

Due to having part of my upper intestine removed, I can no longer eat anything with seeds (including tomatoes), ground beef. lettuce, most raw veggies, nuts, fatty foods, or high fat dairy.

[funklight]

Pine nuts consistently make me violently ill. I mean writhing-on-the-bathroom-floor-in-agony, sweating, moaning, alien-popping-out-of-my-chest pain. I was once caught off-guard on the train home from a restaurant after unknowingly eating something with pine nuts ground into it. I barely made it off the train with my bike in time to puke (profusely) into a trash can. Another time i had to sequester myself in a four-stall bathroom at work because of a cannolo.

[John P.]

Anything with lactose. I feel okay, but Iget so gassy that it smells like I'm rotting from the inside.

[Melanie]

Unfortunately, it's Kimchi. I had a bad stomach bug within a day of eating the stuff, and although I'm not entirely sure it is the culprit, for some reason it kept popping into my mind during my nauseous spells. Oh, and White Russians, which basically ruins any hope I ever had of aspiring to become 'The Dude.'

[jumpingmonk]

Balsamic vinegar- if I eat anything containuing it, I get severe gas pains followed by a bout of small, hard, diarreha. I think it may have something to to with the varios fungi spores balsmaic vinegar is supposed to get during it's ageing (I remember reading somewhere, that some doctors were using balasmic vinegar to induce labor in overdue women. Maybe there's something screwy with my hormones. (I'm a guy))

Carbonated beverages after around 4PM, particualry chartruese mixed citrus ones ( I.e. Mountain dew, Mello Yello and thier varios generic knockoffs) Since I don't start even thinking about drinking carbonated beverages until around lunchtime (12ish) this gives me a pretty small window.

"good" cheese when I don't enforce severe moderation (i.e. when I grab a hunk and some crakers and just keep muching till it's all gone)

White chocolate "straight"; makes me queasy. If it's mixed with other chocolate I'm fine

Milk/ice cream. Can manage it during the day if I take a couple Lactaid's first, but if it's the last thing I consume before going to bed (i.e. a bowl of Ice cream for dessert) I still then to get the intolerance reations when I wake up the next morning.

[Jacey]

Anything peach flavored. I can handle actual peaches in moderation. The first time I got really drunk and sick was off of peach snappss. So you do the math why I don't like this flavor...

Also, very sugary drinks make me sick. I hate all those fruity drinks at bars. They are so gross to me and end up making me feel nasty.

[tlegray]

Cilantro-I'm allergic. I get terrible headaches just from the smell never mind how sick I get when I eat it.

Peaches & blue cheese-makes we feel like I have fuz or hair in my mouth.

[modthyrth]

I generally have a stomach of steel as well, but there are a couple culprits.

Movie theater popcorn (without the butter stuff). My husband loves it, but if I eat more than about a cup full, I'll feel nauseated for hours.

I adore Ethiopian food, but I always have horrible indigestion afterward. I have no problems with other heavily spiced, saucy cuisines. Maybe it's the teff in the injera that does me in? Whatever it is, it's worth the pain every few months!

[hungryabbey]

I totally agree with the popcorn. I can have just a small handful and instantly I am in pain. I think its the fake powdered butter crap they pop it in?

[modthyrth]

I think you're right, since regular homemade popcorn (even made in oil) and microwave popcorn don't do it to me. I typically have a stomach of steel, but that movie theater stuff gets me every time.

[LindaWhit]

For me, it's avocado. I was able to eat it back when I first tried it in the mid-1980s, but after a few years, every time I had some on a salad, let's just say it went through my system rather quickly. So I've avoided it since then.

Oh - and Vodka and orange juice. Although it was an early 20s issue of drinking WAY too much, I still can't abide the taste of those two.

ETA after reading Jen76's post: Green bell peppers. I'm fine with red; but green peppers - raw, sauteed, grilled - give me horrible gastrointestinal problems.

[weezycom]

oh, the drinking thing.... that's the reason I haven't had chicken cordon bleu since about 1985.

[LindaWhit]

There's a story there..... ;-)

[weezycom]

I'm sure you're right but I don't recall the details ;-D

[LindaWhit]

Which, to paraphrase Martha, is probably a VERY good thing.

[weezycom]

strawberries in abundance. If I eat a civilized amount, no problem. If I eat more than about a cupful in one sitting, then I start getting queasy.

[Sam Fujisaka]

weezy, what makes you queasy might well make me wheezy rather than queasy

[weezycom]

Come sit by me and we'll eat fresh peaches instead.

[Emmmily]

Just the opposite here. There's a great photo of me in Greece a few years back, recovering from a nasty bout of food poisoning, sitting on top of one of the hills with a 2-lb bag of strawberries in my lap, happily munching away. They were the only think I could stomach that afternoon.

[kchurchill5]

Cast Iron Stomach here. A few foods I don't like, liver for one. But I have tried it and it doesn't bother me. Being on the road I do eat Micky Dee's, Taco Bell, KFC, etc. When you already running behind schedule and there is not much else around, that is my choice. I can drink a cold beer with spicy Mexican food followed by ice cream and nothing. I can't come up with a single food that bothers me. A few I don't like but nothing that bothers me.

But one thing that does make me sick is getting a sandwich where the bread or roll is soggy. That I can't eat. It is more the texture not the food itself.

[mojoeater]

Kashi cereal. I can eat oatmeal and other whole grains with no problem. But a bowl of Kashi makes my stomach rumble within 20 minutes and I'm running to the bathroom for over a day.

[nkeane]

probably from the different amounts or soluble vs. insoluble fiber. Oatmeal has a better balance of soluble/insoluble than Kashi does......too much insoluble(the kind that acts a bit like Drain-o in your system) will have that effect on people sensitive to it. Not good times!

[Vetter]

Bell peppers. They just sit like rocks in my stomach. Edamame are just slightly better.

[Humbucker]

Restaurant Indian food destroys me. I feel bloated after eating it. I think it's the excessive use of ghee or cream.

[greygarious]

I'll bet you it's the salt - though it doesn't taste as obviously salty as, say, things with soy sauce, there is a heavy amount of salt in Indian restaurant food. A friedn who took Indian cooking classes (in India) told me this, but I already knew by my swollen ankles!

[Humbucker]

I don't feel bloated in a water retention kind of way, rather it's my stomach that feels heavy and full of gas, which tends to happen when I eat any greasy cuisine like restaurant Chinese or Indian.

[Cinnamon]

I've gotten a weird headache several times after eating bamboo shoots - probably canned. Now wondering whether that veggie leaches something in from the metal or reacts with it.

[Jen76]

Bell peppers of any color. About 20-30 minutes after eating something with bell peppers in it, I will double over in gastro-intestinal pain for about 4-5 hours until they work their way through my system. I don't know what it is about bell peppers, but they hate me. Bell peppers are often really hard to avoid at restaurants.

[pepperqueen]

Jen--must agree with the bell peppers; they affect me the same way. I can eat every kind of hot pepper and not have a problem. Also have a major problem with watermelon, cantelope and most other melons and cucumbers.

[Jen76]

Yeah, I can eat every other kind of pepper up to my (low) tolerance for heat. Ha. I don't have a big issue with melons unless I eat too much. But bell peppers, man, it takes such a small amount that it's verging on bizarre. I've been substituting with mild chiles in any recipe that calls for bell peppers.

[KaimukiMan]

I am not fond of celery, and in many recipes that call for celery I substitute... you guessed it, green bell pepper. Maybe you could consider reversing this, using celery in place of bell pepper. The flavors they impart to cooked food are surprisingly similar.

[Kagey]

I have the exact same problem with bell peppers. And it took me ages to realize what it was, since I'd been eating them with no problem until my early 20s. I still shudder to think of the pain, and the couple of times I couldn't walk home after a meal. So glad that doesn't happen anymore!

Otherwise, I can eat pretty much anything. Some blue cheeses give me a headache, but not bad enough that I'd stop eating them. And I don't drink much, but once in a while I like a gin and tonic. For some reason, Gordon's gin gives me the most excruciating headache. Even after just one drink. Any other gin, no problem. I have no idea why.

[Kajikit]

My mother has the same bell-pepper sensitivity that you do. They won't kill her, but they'll make her wish she was dead for about 12 hours! The only food I ever got to eat with peppers on it was pizza because they weren't allowed in the house... even the smell of them cooking was enough to make her ill.
I didn't get to cook with them until I got married... but in the last three years, DH has also developed a sensitivity to peppers and chillis - about an hour after he eats anything with chilli or peppers, he regrets it for the rest of the day. So I've had to give them up again!

[KaimukiMan]

I've always been blessed with a cast iron stomach, but there used to be a restaurant that served chicken. Everyone loved it, including me. But every time I ate it I spent half the rest of the afternoon in the bathroom. It always went right through me like greased lightning. There wasn't anything wrong with it, no one else had problems. And I never was able to identify what it was that caused the reaction.

Sadly the place is gone now (not so much for me) cause the chicken was really good.

[milkytea]

Coffee, in any form. Even a latte with half a shot of espresso will lead to... discomfort.
Though it's neither the caffeine (given how much tea I drink), nor the milk (only cream and ice cream tend to give me issues).

[Jacey]

This is not that strange. There is an enzyme in coffee that affects some people.

[queencru]

Frozen custard and shakes. I love them, but they do make me have some fairly unpleasant stomach issues. There are several foods that give me migraines as well- mainly dark/bittersweet chocolate and soy sauce. Sometimes I will have those anyway and am typically fine if I take medicine within 30 minutes of eating.

[mpjmph]

Oh yes, soy sauce is a bad one for me. In small quantities it's ok, but any dish with lots of soy sauce (or rice doused in it) gives me a headache, though not migrane-level.

Turmeric is another that bothers me. OK in small quantities, but too much makes me feel queasy. It took me a while to figure out that turmeric was the culprit but after several bad experiences with dishes that had turmeric-colored sauces I connected the dots.

The only other strong food intolerance I have is eggs. I'm ok with eggs in baked goods, but the smell of cooked eggs has always made me feel ill, especially fast food eggs or cooked eggs that have been packed (like in a styrofoam to-go box).

[Sam Fujisaka]

Rice should never ever be "doused in [soy sauce]"!!! makes me sick thinking of it.

[Cinnamon]

Yeah, me too.

[mpjmph]

Yes, I know. It's nice when a food intolerance forces me to eat things the "correct" way :) I had a hard time learning to like sushi because the friends who were "teaching" me drenched every piece in soy sauce - I would be miserable for the rest of the night if I ate it like them. Fortunately I found a sushi-friend who doesn't drown herself in salt to show me the ropes.

[OCEllen]

I am extremely tyramine sensitive - not just getting migraines but other sorts of weird symptoms, even to the point of having had one seizure - so soy sauce, chocolate, red wine and most cheeses are on my do not eat list.

[queencru]

I have asthma attacks when I get a whiff of red wine and some types of beer, so I feel you there.

[chloesabrina]

I try to avoid salads in certain restaurants, not sure why they make me feel queasy afterwards? Maybe some places don't wash the greens/lettuce well enough.

[babette feasts]

Things that make you feel kind of gross but don't actually induce vomiting?

I find that my tolerance for really fatty foods is getting lower and lower, especially if the fat is solid and animal. That is, pork belly always seems like a good idea, but I can only eat a few bites, likewise foie gras. Today I had duck for lunch and could only eat the skin of the first 1/3 of the dish, then couldn't take any more fat and only ate the meat. Luckily, my tolerance for cheese is still high!