– If stomach acid is so strong, why sometimes do different food combinations make us sick / vomit? l.e. “The X, Y, Z are not agreeing with me.”

Question

Shouldn’t stomach acid be able to break down most anything? If so, why should different combinations sometimes make us sick?

In: Biology

Answer 1

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.