Why is Asian food appearing to cause me such digestive issues?

[Ecrire]

I am Asian, born and bred - and have quite literally been weaned on to curries. I have lived in the UK for some 17 years now - and am unsure if that's somehow caused my digestive plumbing to re-adjust? For example - life as a19 year old involved routine home food multi course curry meal, centred on rice and fish. Life as a 40 year old in the UK rarely sees home made curries. This is for context.

I am experiencing these inexplicable digestive issues with my most beloved two cuisines - Chinese/other Asian, followed by Indian. The day after an Indian or other Asian takeaway/restaurant I am inevitably -

1. Somehow gaining 4 lbs overnight
2. Stomach distended
3. Very significant bloating/discomfort
4. Feeling thoroughly parched and drinking loads

I am getting so very miserable because - 1) These two cuisines are my absolute favourite for the rare occasions of going out/eating out and 2) they derail any attempt to lose weight by 4 lbs overnight and it takes 3 days or so to get back.

What I am also failing to understand is how is someone born and raised in that cuisine/culture for 20 years - have apparently developed these bizarre issues? Or is it the case that home food as I knew it back home is not what is served in a restaurant here, and contains some ingredient I am having this sort of reaction to?

I researched it and it comes up with FODMAP and avoiding onion and garlic which makes me want to weep as onion, garlic and chillies are pretty much the reason I eat! Herbs, and "mild" things dont do it for me.

Or perhaps it could be MSG? But would it randomly cause such strong overnight weight gains every time I eat this sort of food?

I think so of the issue here is water retention rather than weight gain. Certain foods like food with a lot of salt or MSG can make the body retain water for a while. It goes after a few days.

When I saw the title, I thought you had obviously lost your tolerance to spicy food, but that would probably cause a bit of diarrhoea rather than the extreme bloating you're getting.

I did think of salt. But thinking back to being a kid/teen up until I left country of origin at 20 - salt is very liberally used in home cooking. There is no national discourse about avoiding salt for babies etc at all. Salt is liberally added. I dont remember my everyday life being so full of bloating every day though which surely would have been as I was living and eating such food month in month out, every year of my life?

The stomach looks 9 months pregnant the next day. For e.g. went out for a meal on Friday evening to an Indian restaurant. It has taken till today for the magical 4 lbs that appeared on Saturday morning to disappear, and for me to feel all right again.

For me the digestive issues were a precursor to developing a full blown adult-onset allergies to cinnamon and tomatoes. Garam masala, 5 spice powder, and many curry powder mixes all contain cinnamon. Tomatoes are easier to avoid, but in many dishes. At this point I can’t step foot in an Indian restaurant because of the airborne issues.

hopefully your issue is not the same.

Do you get the issue with home cooking or just restaurant/takeaway? My first thought was MsG.

And just to reassure/reiterate - I have mapped it for a while now - this bloating is 100% always, and only the morning after Indian/chinese meal. It never occurs for other foods, other cuisines, or any time else. Today - flat belly - absolutely for example. Saturday (day after Indian restaurant) i looked pregnant and scales were 4.1 lbs shot up!

This is really interesting. My love of spicy food is well known and a kind person recently gifted me some Chinese spice mixes recently. I cooked some home made chilli chicken with peppers with some of this mix (black bean paste) and I ad exactly the same issues the next morning. Two spoons was used for a meal for 2. DH doesnt suffer at all. I cannot see why MSG would cause these extreme effects (Also would Indian places use MSG?) but it could explain it...

Miserable making as I crave home food sometimes and lack the time - and DH loves Asian food too as do friends/colleagues...

Your body and what it’s used to will have changed, we can develop intolerances, and it could be that the UK places you are eating/taking out at add ingredients different to those in the home cooking / places you enjoyed in your youth.

It might be interesting to try making some dishes at home to see if you react.

Your body has changed and as it is not exposed to a lot of salt/spices etc on a daily basis like it was in a child it has changed in how it processes it.

It is a bit like if you get really hot chillis for years and do not find them hot but give them up for years, and when you restart eating them you find them much more hot than before.

Goodness sounds so difficult. Hopefully not the case with me...

The body change is also possible. It makes me really sad. And makes me jealous of white british DH born and bred England, never had a curry till 16 or 17 - who can gorge mounds of all such food and be perfectly ok the next day. So unfair.

WIll try to cook some proper home food from country of origin one day - just lack the time to do home food as was made back home as very labour itnensive.

Sudden change or slow change?
Aging makes your body change.

Could it be asafoetida?

Could it be asafoetida? Common flavour-enhancer in Indian food, but from latex plant so might be reactive...

Good point about Hing (asfoetida) which i hate the smell of - but since both Indian and Chinese/Vietnamese/Indonesian is causing issues I am beginning to think it is possibly MSG/salt combination....

MSG makes me bloat.
Bodies/tolerances do change as you age though. Dh had cheese and marmite sandwiches for lunch pretty much every day from weaning and in his 50s is now lactose intolerant.

Yeah I’m coming to accept that my body has now over 17 years adapted to a western diet despite being born and bred in the home of curries + I clearly have some sort of issue with MSG.

Still, on occasion, there will be the odd Chinese or Indian restaurant outing. Is there anything you all would recommend on those occasions that might mitigate things like -

1. Consciously drinking more water
2. Green tea with meal rather than Coke Zero (I am teetotal)
3. Any digestive enzymes/activated charcoal of any use?
4. Anything to rid the water retention? Does magnesium work?

I guess - given my love for my food of origin - need to find the time to cook such food now and again - or learn to cook Chinese takeaways at home to where I can decide what to use and what not to. The good thing is that I love cooking and am v good at it but the bad thing is that life with FT work and two smalls inevitably mean we are on quick and easy meals that can be whipped up super quick.

If it was just takeaway I'd say it could be the oil, lots of places have changed which one they used to cook in due to cost etc. As its at home as well not sure, could be a particular ingredient that happens to be in all of them; i used to love cauliflower and leeks but I can't eat either now as it leaves me in agony for some reason!

Have you been unwell recently? I got ecoli and ever since I can't eat spice or dairy. It caused ibs like symptoms. My GP said that the ecoli affects the good bacteria in the gut and things can take a while to settle down. In the meantime I have some pills for ibs. If I'm eating certain food I have to take the pills 30mins in advance or I spend days looking 6 months pregnant.

Your symptoms were like mine. Lactose intolerance in my case.

No, I haven’t been unwell and no, it doesn’t happen if the food is cooked at home by me. So it isn’t the onion garlic et cetera. It is very specific to Indian or other Asian restaurants or takeaways only.

I suspect it might be the type of oil they use. You probably use quite high quality oils while you're cooking, but most takeaways woudl not. And would be very generous. So if you are intolerant to oil (or fat) or a particular one, that might be the problem.

Having said that, after I had DS, I kept getting something similar but it was so random but it did tend to be after an Asian takeaway. Then one day it happened after I'd had a pre-prepared roast chicken at my sister's house. So I checked the ingredients... and realise that I appeared to have become intolerant to cumin - it was the only ingredient in the chicken thatyou might expect to find in a curry!

So I cut out cumin entirely for a while which solved the problem, and now I'm back to having no problems with it. So that was definitely a bit odd.

Chinese can be done very quickly at home for at least some dishes.

i react to quite a lot of restaurant foot and as I’m a bit of a foodie I also cook at home a lot of Asian (Vietnamese/Chinese/thai). Home made I don’t react to.

restaurant stuff will have a lot of extra things that home made just doesn’t.

Ditto!!! I get it from “high street” Indian restaurants but interestingly not from the more authentic homestyle dishes on get in areas with high south Asian populations or high end cooking either means it’s something they use in their cooking. I cook from scratch at home without issue. I recommend making your own pastes in bulk and freezing for convenience, they taste better anyway.

When I got to about 40 I couldn't drink fizzy drinks with a meal anymore, made me feel really bloated.