>Why does stomach inflammation happen in general? And for a person who experiences stomach inflammation from eating certain foods, why does it only happen when that person eats certain foods?

Thanks for your question u/PeanutSalsa !

If you’re referring to gastritis, there are a few reasons this might arise.

In short, gastritis occurs when the balance between the mucosal lining of the stomach and the production of stomach acid begins to fall apart.

This can happen for several reasons such as infection by bacteria or viruses (Helicobacter pylori being a common one), Alcohol/painkiller consumption, and food poisoning, all the way to more autoimmune reasons, such as your immune system destroying the mucus producing cells. Even your lifestyle can cause acute inflammation if you are stressed or struggling with depression.

If you’re more curious about food triggers causing gastrointestinal symptoms…so are we!

As you said in your question, certain foods can trigger symptoms in some but not others. This is mainly due to the muscles within the gastrointestinal tract responding to hormones and other compounds that are released during digestion. The problem is, the gut’s response to foods will differ person to person. For some, eating foods high in dairy can cause diarrhea because they are unable to digest lactose (a type of sugar). For others, dairy might be fine, but they might experience severe GI distress after eating FODMAP foods, such as apples, because they are unable to break down and absorb the sugars that are present.

It’s important to note that triggers aren’t always dietary. Stress can cause GI discomfort as well. Similar to how you might feel like you need to go to the bathroom right before a big meeting.

Identifying food triggers is tricky and takes a lot of trial and error. It’s one of the features of our app we’re most proud of]! We want to be doing everything we can to help people understand their gut as quickly as possible so they can avoid any GI discomfort in the long run.

Hope this helps!

LC