Fried foods, chocolate, ice cream, mashed potatoes with cream… these delicious and widely loved treats are not actually suitable for everyone. If you have a sensitive digestive system, here is how you should eat the following 10 most difficult-to-digest foods.
Warning: Nine of the Hardest Foods to Digest
Fried Foods
Fried foods like chicken nuggets and french fries are inevitably high in oil and fat. These two substances can accumulate in the stomach and cause illness. Oil produces a substance called "acrylamide" at high temperatures, which is difficult to digest. Tara Gidus, a nutritionist in Orlando, Florida, says: "If you already suffer from diseases like gastroenteritis, you should pay special attention to eating less oily and high-fat fried foods, otherwise it may cause some discomfort symptoms, such as nausea and diarrhea."
Fried foods like chicken nuggets and french fries are inevitably high in oil and fat
Solution: To satisfy your cravings, you can get a tasty feeling without giving up fried food. For example, if you want a crunchy experience, eating salty potato chips is definitely not healthy, but you can find other ways to make potato slices, such as baking instead of frying, or choosing low-fat or fat-free foods like crisp crackers or hollow popcorn.
Spicy Foods
Red chili peppers or jalapeños can irritate the inner wall of the esophagus, causing an unpleasant burning sensation after eating and increasing the burden on the stomach. Even if you add some sour cream to cool it down, you will still get the same irritation. Moreover, adding things like sour cream can lead to other side effects.
Solution: For people with a weak stomach or a "heaty" body, if you really can't resist the temptation of spicy food, you might as well choose some mildly spicy foods and eat fewer green and red chili peppers.
Chocolate
Eating a large amount of chocolate not only brings excess calories, but also people who suffer from gastroesophageal reflux disease have experienced the uncomfortable stimulation after eating chocolate. This is because chocolate can relax the lower esophageal sphincter, causing stomach acid to reflux and irritate the esophagus and throat.
Solution: When choosing chocolate, dark chocolate is the best choice. This is because dark chocolate contains various beneficial minerals for the human body, such as calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, and copper. Among all chocolates, it has the lowest sugar and fat content. In addition, dark chocolate also has the effect of lowering blood pressure and preventing atherosclerosis. However, even good things shouldn't be eaten too much; you can only eat two small pieces a day at most.
Citrus Juice
Acidic drinks can irritate the esophagus and stimulate sensory nerves, causing the irritated area to become red and swollen. If your first thing in the morning is to drink a large glass of citrus juice, it will increase the acidity in your stomach and intestines. If you are drinking sweet lemonade with a high concentration of fructose at this time, you need to be even more careful, because excessive sugar intake can cause diarrhea.
Solution: Citrus juice is rich in vitamin C and is suitable for regular consumption. As long as you choose the right time to drink it, you don't have to worry about irritating the esophagus. The best time to drink citrus juice or other acidic juices is with a meal or between meals.
Creamy Mashed Potatoes
Potatoes are low in calories, high in protein, and contain various vitamins and trace elements, known as an ideal diet food. It seems that nothing is more popular than a bowl of mashed potatoes. This is why when it comes to so-called "convenient foods," mashed potatoes is always listed first. But mashed potatoes with cream or cheese are not as good as you might imagine. In the United States, there are 30 to 50 million people with lactose intolerance, but if you are one of them, you are not suitable for enjoying creamy mashed potatoes. This is because the milk, cream, or cheese added to the mashed potatoes will make your stomach very uncomfortable.
Solution: It is best not to buy takeout mashed potatoes. You can easily make pure mashed potatoes at home with fresh potatoes, steamed or boiled without any seasonings.
Raw Onions
Onions, garlic, and chives are full of various nutrients and are very beneficial to health, such as protecting the heart, but they can also cause digestive discomfort, such as gas and abdominal cramps. However, cooking seems to neutralize the nutrient mix that causes digestive problems.
Onions, garlic, and chives are full of various nutrients
Solution: American nutrition expert Mary Ryan suggests that when eating these foods, you can use a mixed cooking method of raw and cooked. This way, you can not only reap the health benefits but also avoid negative effects.
Ice Cream
There is no quick way to determine if you are lactose intolerant; you will only know after you sit down and eat a large bowl of ice cream. When you feel bloated, have abdominal cramps, or are gassy, these physical reactions are telling you to stay away from these dairy-rich foods. Eating too many cold and raw foods like ice cream, popsicles, and iced drinks can affect the normal function of the digestive system, making food difficult to digest and easily damaging the spleen and stomach. Although it is delicious to eat, it will later lead to a loss of appetite and also irritate the spleen and stomach, creating a vicious cycle of bloating and abdominal pain.
Solution: If you don't want to give up cool frozen foods, the only solution is to switch to lactose-free frozen foods, such as pastes made from beans or rice flour. But even if you are not lactose intolerant, ice cream contains a lot of fat, and fat stays in the stomach longer than other foods. Therefore, it is best to eat cold and raw foods less or not at all.
Broccoli and Cabbage
Broccoli and cabbage are both outstanding members of the "cruciferous" vegetable family. They are not only rich in vitamins and dietary fiber but also have anti-cancer and anti-aging effects. But even though they are rich in dietary fiber and various nutrients, these vegetables cannot be completely trusted as healthy. This is because high-fiber vegetables can help expand your stomach capacity and easily lead to the accumulation of excess gas in the intestines.
Solution: The solution is simple. Just blanch them in hot water before eating to soften them, which will neutralize the sulfur compounds that produce gas. These two vegetables are most suitable for cold salads and stir-frying.
Beans
Beans are notorious for causing indigestion. The oligosaccharides in beans, such as stachyose and raffinose, are fermented by intestinal bacteria, which can produce gas, leading to symptoms like belching, borborygmi, bloating, and abdominal pain. Patients with severe peptic ulcers should not eat bean products because they are high in purines, which can promote gastric juice secretion. Patients with acute gastritis and chronic superficial gastritis should also avoid bean products to prevent stimulating gastric acid secretion and causing gastrointestinal bloating.