In many cases, nausea has a clear cause. For example, a balance disorder, food poisoning, or foul odor can make you very nauseous. However, nausea can also be caused by food. You can get really nauseous if you:
- Eat too much
- Consuming spoiled food
- Use of alcohol
However, there are also many people who become nauseous from normal food for no apparent reason. Therefore, here are 11 causes for nausea during and after eating. And ways to remedy this kind of nausea…
1) Nausea after eating: often due to digestive problems
Nausea after eating is in the vast majority of cases related to your digestion. For example, it may be that a portion of food is not well tolerated by your digestive tract or that something cannot be processed properly for some reason (indigestion) and thus causes blockages (constipation).
You can protect your digestion by not overeating, eating slowly, and chewing well. Intestinal disorders of your digestive tract such as Crohn’s disease, an intestinal infection, or intestinal bleeding can also cause nausea during and after eating. Contact your doctor immediately if you suspect that your nausea is caused by a disorder of your gastrointestinal system.
2) Food Allergy Can Make You Nauseous While Eating
If you get nauseous from the same food over and over, it may well be a case of food hypersensitivity, food intolerance, or food allergy. For example, you can become very nauseous if you eat food proteins that you actually cannot tolerate. The main foods to which people may be hypersensitive, intolerant, or allergic are as follows:
- Dairy (milk proteins)
- Soybeans (soy proteins)
- Gluten (grain proteins)
- Nuts (nut proteins)
- Peanuts (peanut proteins)
- Fish + crustaceans & shellfish
- Eggs (egg proteins)
- Meat (meat proteins)
- Cocoa (cocoa proteins)
- Seeds (sesame, mustard, etc.)
- Certain fruits (kiwi, citrus, etc.)
- Certain vegetables (celery, tomatoes, etc.)
- Herbs & spices (nutmeg, turmeric, etc.)
- Yeasts (processed meat, bread, powdered soups, etc.)
- Sulfites (preservatives and others)
3) Nausea after eating due to your taste center
Your taste experience is linked to the taste center in your brain. The way your taste center interprets flavors can be disrupted by dysgeusia, hypogeusia, hypergeusia, parageusia, phantogeusia, or a similar taste disorder. As a result, certain flavors can be wrongly perceived as nauseating. While what you eat is actually very tasty.
Nausea caused by misinterpreting certain foods as nauseating is usually mild in form. However, with a severe disturbance of your taste center, severe nausea can occur. Taste perceptions and taste sensations have to do with sweet, salty, sour and bitter, but also with smells, textures and temperatures. So you can also get sick from skins on your pudding or unexpected lukewarmness of food.
4) Nausea while eating due to stimulation of your vomiting center
Your taste center is linked to your vomiting center. If food doesn’t sit well, your body wants to get rid of it. Your vomiting center can be triggered rightly (for example with food poisoning), but also unjustly (for example with a taste disorder). Unjustified vomiting tendencies are not very common, but they are quite regular. A tendency to vomit is mainly triggered by unbalanced & nauseating flavor combinations.
If your nausea is regularly the harbinger of vomiting or actual vomiting, it is best to contact your doctor. There may well be an underlying condition underlying your nausea. Nausea after eating accompanied by vomiting tendencies can also be triggered by stress, food allergies or stomach complaints.
5) Sorting odd flavors cause nausea
Many people get sick of pronounced flavors or certain flavor combinations. For example, eating foods with strongly contrasting or clashing flavors can make you nauseous. A rigorous example is a broccoli with chocolate sauce or potatoes with whipped cream. Flavors have to pick up and complement each other, otherwise, it can make you nauseous.
There must be a certain balance in a dish. Some flavors just don’t go together within a certain flavor profile. Your palate will experience the flavor combination as offensive, aggressive, and/or nauseating. When you eat anything, make sure the flavor content, flavor complexity, and flavor type are balanced. As you gain experience combining and sorting flavors, you’ll be less likely to feel nauseous from food.
6) Limited Flavors Can Prevent Food Nausea
Also, keep dishes simple if food often makes you nauseous; just don’t use too many different ingredients. Synthetic additives (E numbers) such as chemical preservatives, flavors and colorings can also cause nausea after eating.
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Preferably use organic food that comes directly from nature if you often feel nauseous after eating. After all, you are more likely to feel sick from a full greasy cheese sandwich with surrogate cheese and a spicy cream sauce than from a piece of cucumber. In addition, keep in mind that fresh flavors (chewing gum, mint tea, fruit, etc.) or savory flavors (licorice, broth, salt, etc.) can sometimes break nausea.
7) Nerve Disorder Can Cause Nausea After Meals
The flavor is transmitted from the taste buds on your tongue via countless nerves to the taste center in your brain. Abnormalities in or damage to the central nervous system (brain & spinal cord) can therefore cause nausea during and after eating.
For example, epilepsy can cause a nauseating feeling in the abdomen (“epigastric aura”) and smell and taste hallucinations. Sarcoidosis of the central nervous system can also cause a severe outbreak of nausea. Nausea from nerve disorders can be reactivated or exacerbated by certain foods and flavor combinations.
8) Nausea after eating is often caused by fats
Fats are known to promote nausea. Animal fats such as fatty meats, processed meats and full-fat dairy can especially cause nausea.
Trans fats in fried snacks, chips, cookies and ready-made pizzas also cause nausea after eating in many people. If food often makes you nauseous, avoid saturated fats and trans fats as much as possible.
9) Nausea is often caused by sugars
In addition to saturated fats, simple sugars are also known to cause nausea during and after eating. In particular, it is best to avoid refined sugars such as table sugar and sugars in cookies, candy, soft drinks, and syrups if you quickly become nauseous from food.
Synthetic sugar substitutes such as aspartame, sorbitol, xylitol, saccharin and cyclamate can also be very nauseating. For example, do you drink a lot of Diet Coke or do you use a lot of sweeteners in your coffee or tea? Then your nausea may well have to do with sweeteners and sugar substitutes!
10) Upset Stomach Can Cause Nausea
Nausea can be caused by all kinds of stomach complaints. Often there is also belching, belching, and/or heartburn. Examples of stomach upset that can cause nausea during and after eating include:
- Abnormal stomach or gastric valve
- Stomach inflammation
- Stomach ulcer
- Stomach bleeding
- Gastric perforation
- Stomach cancer
With severe stomach complaints, you are usually not only nauseous, but you also suffer from bloating or even severe stomach pain and stomach cramps. Therefore, if you experience nausea after eating that is accompanied by extreme stomach complaints, go straight to your doctor.11. Stress can trigger nausea after eating
Nerves, stress & tension can cause or worsen nausea during or after eating. You then have no appetite, you do not have to think about food and you become nauseous just from food smells. Stress has an effect on your stomach.
Food becomes difficult to swallow and digest due to stress; so you quickly become nauseous from food. If tension and nervousness make you nauseous, it’s important to find a way to de-stress. This includes relaxation exercises or tranquilizers.
11) Medications Can Cause Nausea After Eating
If you often feel nauseous during and/or after eating, you may be able to take anti-nausea medication. Medicines that cause nausea are also called antiemetics. An antiemetic treats nausea by inhibiting stomach acid, affecting the vomiting center, or blocking impulse transmission to the brain. Some examples of effective pills and tablets against nausea are:
Finally, osteopathy or treatment of the abdomen by an osteopath can offer a solution in case of nausea during and after eating.
