# Onion and garlic in IBD



## Irene3 (Mar 18, 2013)

After watching a doco on Korean food, where they have an average of 7 bulbs of garlic, per week, per person, I thought it would be a good idea to research wether they have, as high ibd rates, as westerners. Lately I've been looking into garlic and onions in ibd and ibs, as it is supposed to be a major contributor to ibs in particular, less research is available in cd and uc. 
  There are many articles online, that suggest garlic and onion is bad with any ibd. This was new to me, as far as I always thought, garlic in particular, is supposed to be extremely healthy.
 Apparently, after reading a couple articles just now, cd and uc is rising in Korea, but mostly, its put down to genetics. Come to think of it though, it's on the rise almost everywhere as far as I've read. Funny thing is, all cultures use garlic, and almost ANY health cleanse, natural diet, etc etc, includes garlic, or even increases it in diet, rather then eliminates it. I'll be starting fodmap with my daughter soon, which is the first diet iv ever heard of, that eliminates both onion and garlic. Have any of you, regardless of diet changes otherwise, completely eliminated both onion and garlic from your diet, for extensive periods? If so, what were your results?????

Here's a little of what I read about Korea. 
Familial occurrence of inflammatory bowel disease in Korea.


Abstract
BACKGROUND: Little information is available about the familial aggregation of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in Asian populations. We therefore determined the risk of familial aggregation of IBD among first-degree relatives of patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) or Crohn's disease (CD) in an ethnically distinct Korean population.

METHODS: Familial aggregation of IBD was evaluated in terms of family history, prevalence, lifetime risk, and population relative risk in first-degree relatives of 1440 unrelated patients with UC (n = 1043) or CD (n = 397).

RESULTS: A positive first-degree family history of IBD was observed in 27 probands (1.88%): 21 of 1043 (2.01%) with UC and 6 of 397 (1.51%) with CD. The crude prevalence of IBD in first-degree relatives of probands with IBD was 0.31%. The lifetime risk of IBD was 0.54% in all first-degree relatives of IBD probands, 0.52% in UC probands, and 0.67% in CD probands, with overall lifetime relative risks of 0.12% in parents, 0.79% in siblings, and 1.43% in offspring. The age- and sex-adjusted population relative risk of IBD was 13.8 in first-degree relatives of probands with IBD.

CONCLUSIONS: Although a positive family history, prevalence, and lifetime risk of IBD among first-degree relatives of Korean IBD patients are much lower than among relatives of Western patients, the population relative risk in first-degree relatives is about equal in Koreans and Westerners. This finding indicates that a positive family history is an important risk factor for IBD in Koreans and in Westerners.


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## Jim (POPS) (Mar 18, 2013)

Hi there, Garlic and onions give me alot of gas and pain from the gas in my tummy. I use to eat alot of garlic and onions before crohns and love it. It makes food taste so good, i do miss it but not worth the gas and pain i get from it.


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## Ozboz (Mar 19, 2013)

I have eliminated onion completely but i cook with garlic sometimes my dad eats a bulb of garlic everyday in his lunch and he has a gastric ulcer and it doesn't bother him at al he hardly gets sick and very healthy in general so cant be that bad


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## xX_LittleMissValentine_Xx (Mar 19, 2013)

I don't use much onion and garlic when I cook. I don't like the strong flavours and I think garlic gives me stomach pain.


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## Irene3 (Mar 19, 2013)

Little miss valentine- when I googled is garlic bad for you, one of the first things was- why does garlic make my stomach hurt. And there's a bit on onion as well. I thought if some people with crohns have no onion and garlic, but normal diet otherwise, and their symptoms improved, then it would motivate me more. I'm ok with food map, but garlic I love, and pretty much every diet iv looked at says its healthy. After a few months on foodmap, you can try just one thing at a time, for a couple of weeks, to see if you then have stomach aches. Garlic will be the first for sure.


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## Cat-a-Tonic (Mar 19, 2013)

Interesting.  I found out pretty early on in my IBD adventure that garlic is a trigger for me, so I avoid it.  I have never liked raw onion, but I can do cooked onion just fine without any issues.  The only side effect I've noticed is that if I eat too much onion, my sweat smells onion-y.    No tummy issues with it though.


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## amrycrohns (Mar 19, 2013)

You run into this with almost every single supplement, additive, food and drink.  There is a good and bad side, Just in my life time I have seen milk and eggs go back and forth from being horrible to miracle makers.  Coffee, green tea and other aswell.

Onion and Garlic in moderation seems tolerable to me, to much onion and game is over for a day or two.  So like so many other food and drinks I think it's just best to find what you tolerate and don't tolerate and go from there.

Studies and research will continue to find positive and negatives with everything long past our time and I am not sure if there will ever be a consensus.


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## SarahD (Mar 19, 2013)

I'm doing an elimination diet, so I cut out everything by doing a liquid diet and then introduced foods one-by-one, testing each new food for four days. I've tested garlic and boiled onion (not tested raw onion yet) and both were fine for me.


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## emmaaaargh (Mar 19, 2013)

Interestingly, both onion and garlic are fine for me. If there's one thing I can't stand it's bland food - they're essentials for me!


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## xSophiexx (Mar 19, 2013)

I read that garlic has anti inflamatory properties but for me its literally poison agonising fire explosion therefore i couldnt care less about its healing properties lol saying that i bet theres someone out there who it helps were all so different


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## Ihurt (Mar 20, 2013)

I gotta say a few years back I was trying everything under the sun to prevent the UTI's I get. I started eating a couple cloves of garlic a day( raw). Unfortunately it did not help with preventing the UTI's, but I gotta say everyone in my family came down with a Big nasty cold. I started feeling like I was coming down with it, but within hours it subsided! I did not get 1 cold while eating that garlic! It does definitely help in preventing sickness, but you have to eat it raw to get that effect. Only draw back is that noone will want to be near you! :ylol:






QUOTE=Ozboz;617896]I have eliminated onion completely but i cook with garlic sometimes my dad eats a bulb of garlic everyday in his lunch and he has a gastric ulcer and it doesn't bother him at al he hardly gets sick and very healthy in general so cant be that bad[/QUOTE]


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## Jam300 (Mar 20, 2013)

I love garlic, and supposedly if you can handle it it does wonders for your body. I go through a huge bulb a week and I put it in almost everything.


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## Daunting (Mar 21, 2013)

I love garlic and onions as well, but have realized that Garlic is a big no no for me as for onions and green peppers I seem to be okay as long as the onions are not completely raw. But I miss my garlic fingers and and garlic sauces.  But apparently even normal folks have problems to these types of foods, I spoke to my Gi and he said he has no tummy problems and he can't consume garlic and lettuce leaves. So were not alone.


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## Cat-a-Tonic (Mar 21, 2013)

I caved to temptation today and had a few slices of pizza, and there was definitely some garlic on this particular pizza.  I hadn't tried garlic in awhile so I thought, what the heck, see what it does to me.  Yeah, I'm glad I had some Zofran in my purse, because I got nauseous pretty quick.  Even in remission I cannot handle the stuff (I shouldn't have pizza either as dairy and grease also do me no favors, so in all honesty it might not have been completely the garlic's fault).


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## CrohnsChicago (Mar 21, 2013)

Yep, garlic and onion are fine for me. I enjoy using them in my food flare or not....I just make sure it is cooked well and don't eat them too much raw as with most of my veggies these days.


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