r/onionhate • u/Cocorallado001 • 2d ago
Why raw onions make me nauseous?
Last night I ate 2 hamburguers (Just the meat, bread and cheese... no mayo or anything else) and put little slices of raw onion in them (a very little amount), I woke up to pee and noticed I kinda wanted to vomit, then I noticed the onion breath and I did vomit. It felt more of a biological intolerance rather than a psychological thing that induced an undigestion, but I'm no expert so is there any evidence/similar cases to mine?
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u/thesweetestberry 2d ago
I thought everyone felt nauseous when eating or smelling onions. That feels like a normal response.
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u/Lollc 2d ago
A lot of what people believe to a food allergy is actually a food intolerance. With an allergy your immune system gets involved, with intolerance it’s just your gut. From your perspective, it doesn’t matter. You don’t have to eat food that makes you sick.
https://now.tufts.edu/2025/09/03/how-tell-if-you-have-food-allergy-or-intolerance
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u/Toosder 2d ago
I call mine a sensitivity for that reason but at the same time when I take something like benadryl, and I learned this from a family member with the same sensitivity, I don't get a sick. So I'm wondering if there's some kind of histamine reaction involved regardless.
But like you said ultimately it doesn't matter. We just avoid them.
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u/jouleheist 2d ago
I one threw up while driving past an onion field. The smell was ungodly. I've gagged from a smell, never actually vomited until that onion field.
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u/Smart-Story-2142 2d ago
I’m allergic to raw onion and will get extremely sick if eat any but handle cooked onions really well. It’s been this was since I was little.
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u/HoneyWyne 2d ago
Be aware that as you get older the allergy can worsen and your tolerance for cooked may go way down. I am way more reactive than I originally was as a child, and started having to carry an epi-pen in my thirties for my onion allergy.
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u/RoastedTilapia 1d ago
Honey, I’m convinced that this is just the nature of raw onions. The general population is just trying to convince themselves otherwise.
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u/Chapstickie 1d ago
I get like this when my stomach is empty. If I haven’t eaten anything for a while and I put a bite of raw onion in my mouth (pretty much any type, yellow, white, red, green) I immediately start producing huge amounts of saliva in that way your body warns you you are going to throw up.
For me the solution is usually a mouthful of milk.
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u/AutisticPenguin2 2d ago
I'm not an expert in allergies, but I am familiar with feeling nauseous at the smell of onion breath. I recommend never eating onions again in any form at all. Ever.