Hacker News Reader

Comment by norea-armozel | Hacker News Reader

I wish I could eat some of these foods but one thing really hold me up which is how sensitive my gut is to certain fermented foods like sauerkraut. I don't think I could gently adapt to it because even a small amount of such food causes a very painful reaction. So, I think I'm boned when it comes to eating anything beyond boring US processed foods.

View on HN

Fermented foods are often high in histamine which can cause problems for people who lack the enzymes to break it down.

The histamine regulates acid production and other processes in the digestive system and having it in food can send them into overdrive.

What about yogurt?

Most yogurts play nice with my stomach in moderation. If I eat lots of it then gas city and pain for me.

ey—author of article here, aaron i had a similar issue when i first started eating fermented foods. but before that i had a lot of gas issues in general. eating fermented food made it especially bad, i had huge stomach aches. but i started preparing my own kombucha, and eating lots of sauerkraut type stuff. so yeah it got really bad for a while, my stomach was incendiary, but then after a month it actually passed. its like it hit some kind of plateau, where my stomach got used to it after beign totally surprised by it for a while. bonus: my general stomach aches and gas issues disappeared after i was more used to fermentation in my diet. im not saying it would be the same for you, but i do think its worth trying. be careful and see if you can deal with it, but dont be afraid if at first you have a bad reaction... that might change after a while.

Yeah I don't see signing up for weeks of pain for some possibility of benefit. Are folks desperate for some solution to gastric problems, that makes this an attractive route?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com