Shouldn’t stomach acid be able to break down most anything? If so, why should different combinations sometimes make us sick?
In: Biology
Yes, stomach acid is strong and effective at breaking down food, but different food combinations can make us sick because they can affect digestion in various ways. Some foods take longer to digest, others may produce excess gas, and certain combinations might disturb the balance of acidity in the stomach. Additionally, food sensitivities and the impact on stomach emptying can contribute to discomfort or nausea.
Sure, it breaks down lots of stuff.
Sometimes or breaks it down into really noxious stuff we don’t want in our bodies, or the process of breaking it down releases a lot of gas, or the reaction of breaking it down releases even more acids that don’t mix well. There are a lot of possible options.
And of course some things aren’t particularly reactive with acids, stomach or otherwise, and need to be broken down by other enzymes or bacteria usually in your intestines. For those the same sorts of things can happen, but you can also be missing key enzymes or bacteria that make it impossible to break down or it gets broken down in one of those negative outcome ways I mentioned by something else. Lactose intolerance being a good example.
First of all, stomach acid is not super acidic. It’s a similar acidity to vinegar, or even less. It also becomes weaker when you add food to it, although your body keeps adding more stomach acid as you digest things. Acids are good at breaking down some things, but not others. It also takes time for things to be broken down by the stomach acid.
So, your body is not going to rely on the acid in your stomach to break down things that make you sick. You might feel sick because your body is responding to something toxic, some possible infection, or you might be too full, or any other number of reasons
Stomach acid, while somewhat potent, mostly exists to allow digestive enzymes(little molecules designed to go in and dice your food up into smaller bits the body can use) to be able to do their job.
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