Diagnosis
Diarrhea after a meal can be due to many different factors, therefore the anamnesis, i.e. the questioning of the affected person is of special importance. For example, the color of the bowel movement plays an important role in differentiating whether the diarrhea after a meal is due to a lack of fat or sugar breakdown. If the bowel movement is rather gray, colorless and shiny, this can indicate a bile stasis or a defect of the pancreas. However, if the diarrhoea after eating only occurs in connection with certain foods and causes cramp-like abdominal pain, an intolerance can be assumed. Depending on the presumed cause
- Subsequently, outlet tests of certain foods,
- Blood tests,
- Imaging (ultrasound of the gallbladder and pancreas) or
- A gastroscopy and colonoscopy for a definite diagnosis.
Associated symptoms
Depending on the cause of the diarrhea after eating, the accompanying circumstances are also different. For example, intolerances often lead to severe abdominal pain, stomach and intestinal cramps. These occur some time after eating and continue until the body has excreted most of the food that it cannot tolerate.
In contrast, symptoms based on poor functioning of digestive enzymes are quite different. Apart from diarrhoea, there are no sudden symptoms after eating, but rather deficiency symptoms (for example, a deficiency of the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E and K) can occur over time. However, an acute congestion of the bile or in the pancreas can lead to a characteristic pain in the upper abdomen (colicky in the case of biliary disorders or belt-shaped in the case of pancreatitis).
Let us help you to better differentiate your upper abdominal pain. Stomach cramps are a typical sign that the food you have just eaten is not good for your digestive tract. The stomach has a particularly acidic environment.
On the one hand, this serves as the first decomposition of the food, on the other hand it is intended to kill off pathogens. If stomach cramps and diarrhea occur repeatedly after eating certain foods, this can indicate an intolerance. On the other hand, stomach cramps after eating can also be the result of spoiled food.In this case the body tries to fight the pathogens, which can lead to stomach and intestinal cramps.
A short time later nausea, possibly vomiting and diarrhoea are added. Usually the symptoms subside within a few days after spoiled food. Abdominal pain is a very unspecific symptom.
Only in very few cases diarrhoea occurs without abdominal pain also being part of the symptoms. The reason for this is that the high water content of the bowel movement leads to increased peristalsis (directed movement of the muscles) in the intestine. This can lead to malaise, abdominal cramps or normal abdominal pain.
Depending on where the abdominal pain is located, however, different causes of the complaints can be concluded. If abdominal pain in the stomach area occurs immediately after eating and diarrhoea is added a little later, this is a strong sign that spoiled food has been eaten. Food intolerances, on the other hand, more often lead to pain that is not specifically distributed in the stomach, but always occurs after eating a particular food.
