Food-Pollen Allergy Syndrome: sometimes an allergic reaction is triggered by eating fruit
According to this article, sometimes eating certain foods (primarily fruit) can trigger the same symptoms as a seasonal allergy. This is known as "oral allergy syndrome."
"Some people who have seasonal pollen allergies in response to common culprits such as ragweed, grass, alder, mugwort (a weed) or birch, might get an allergic reaction shortly after they eat certain foods. "You may get itching of the lips, the inside or roof of the mouth, and the back of the throat," said Dr. John Costa, director of allergy services at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. "It happens almost immediately." Other symptoms of oral allergy syndrome include a tingling in your mouth, an itchy tongue and throat and lips that feel swollen (although they usually appear normal). "This reaction lasts anywhere from 10 minutes to half an hour," said Costa."
This happens when your immune system mistakenly perceives the fruit as an allergen and reacts. This is called a "cross-reaction." Proteins in fruit are very similar to those in certain plant allergens. Luckily, these allergic reactions are very short-term. The physical reactions don't last long because the digestive system (acid and enzymes) breaks the food down and stops it from affecting the body negatively.
Though these reactions are not terribly common (about 25% of pollen allergies have cross-reactions), many people don't realize that this is what is happening to them when they have an itchy or sore mouth (like short-term hives in your throat). These food-pollen allergies do not tend to appear in very young children (like most food allergies), but instead in older children and adults.
An interesting thing is that when these particular triggering foods are cooked first (instead of eaten raw) - the foods do not trigger allergy symptoms. Cooking or heating the foods seems to damage the proteins that can cause a reaction. Making the food safer to eat.
The article also mentions that – if your children are complaining about fruits and veggies – it might be because they are having an uncomfortable reaction (not just because they don’t want to eat healthy foods). This might be worth looking into, if your child has seasonal allergies and seems to detest fruits.
So what should you do if you have symptoms of food-pollen allergy syndrome?
~Try removing a peel from fresh fruit before eating.
~Try eating freshly-picked fruits because sometimes storing the fruit can add to the allergen.
~Try a different variety of fruit (ie: a different type of apple) to see if you don't react.
~Doctors don't recommend avoiding these foods altogether, but instead suggest patients try to tolerate the foods out-of-season or by processing them different (cooking, chopping, etc).
~Also getting an allergy shot (ie: hay fever) may help.
~Even drinking water soon after eating might dilute the proteins within the mouth.
Do you have oral allergy syndrome or food-pollen allergy syndrome? Have you had reactions to fruit (or other foods) that remind you of other pollen-triggering reactions? Do you have any tips for preparing fruit or triggering foods that lessens their effects?
(I wonder if these particular triggering proteins are exactly why some people rave about the raw food diet - because many of the nutrients are only present while the food is raw? If this is true – I wonder if there is a way for those who suffer from food-pollen allergies to still get the nutrients from the protein (even if they have to cook or prepare the food differently). I suppose it would all depend on exactly how many nutrients are lost when trying to prepare the foods for safe-eating. I'm sure that sacrificing a few extra nutrients is worth protecting yourself from throat-hives.)
"Some people who have seasonal pollen allergies in response to common culprits such as ragweed, grass, alder, mugwort (a weed) or birch, might get an allergic reaction shortly after they eat certain foods. "You may get itching of the lips, the inside or roof of the mouth, and the back of the throat," said Dr. John Costa, director of allergy services at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. "It happens almost immediately." Other symptoms of oral allergy syndrome include a tingling in your mouth, an itchy tongue and throat and lips that feel swollen (although they usually appear normal). "This reaction lasts anywhere from 10 minutes to half an hour," said Costa."
This happens when your immune system mistakenly perceives the fruit as an allergen and reacts. This is called a "cross-reaction." Proteins in fruit are very similar to those in certain plant allergens. Luckily, these allergic reactions are very short-term. The physical reactions don't last long because the digestive system (acid and enzymes) breaks the food down and stops it from affecting the body negatively.
Though these reactions are not terribly common (about 25% of pollen allergies have cross-reactions), many people don't realize that this is what is happening to them when they have an itchy or sore mouth (like short-term hives in your throat). These food-pollen allergies do not tend to appear in very young children (like most food allergies), but instead in older children and adults.
An interesting thing is that when these particular triggering foods are cooked first (instead of eaten raw) - the foods do not trigger allergy symptoms. Cooking or heating the foods seems to damage the proteins that can cause a reaction. Making the food safer to eat.
The article also mentions that – if your children are complaining about fruits and veggies – it might be because they are having an uncomfortable reaction (not just because they don’t want to eat healthy foods). This might be worth looking into, if your child has seasonal allergies and seems to detest fruits.
So what should you do if you have symptoms of food-pollen allergy syndrome?
~Try removing a peel from fresh fruit before eating.
~Try eating freshly-picked fruits because sometimes storing the fruit can add to the allergen.
~Try a different variety of fruit (ie: a different type of apple) to see if you don't react.
~Doctors don't recommend avoiding these foods altogether, but instead suggest patients try to tolerate the foods out-of-season or by processing them different (cooking, chopping, etc).
~Also getting an allergy shot (ie: hay fever) may help.
~Even drinking water soon after eating might dilute the proteins within the mouth.
Do you have oral allergy syndrome or food-pollen allergy syndrome? Have you had reactions to fruit (or other foods) that remind you of other pollen-triggering reactions? Do you have any tips for preparing fruit or triggering foods that lessens their effects?
(I wonder if these particular triggering proteins are exactly why some people rave about the raw food diet - because many of the nutrients are only present while the food is raw? If this is true – I wonder if there is a way for those who suffer from food-pollen allergies to still get the nutrients from the protein (even if they have to cook or prepare the food differently). I suppose it would all depend on exactly how many nutrients are lost when trying to prepare the foods for safe-eating. I'm sure that sacrificing a few extra nutrients is worth protecting yourself from throat-hives.)
Tags: allergy, cross-reaction, food, fruit, oral, pollen, preparation, reaction
Add a Comment
-
Comment by trang89 on October 22, 2009 at 5:35pm - Hello everyone...TO SARAH. I know what you mean by making those funny noise with your throat to make the itch to go away. I have to do that too when i have a allergic reaction to a fruit that i eat. Yes my mom would say just eat it its not going to do anything to you, what its gonna go down your system the wrong way?and im like no really im like allergic to it. I'm allergic to cantalope, honeydew, and i can't have too much watermelon, and fresh pineapple will make my lips swollen and my gum itch.
-
Comment by emaya77 on May 12, 2009 at 10:11pm
- I woke up this morning and the roof of my mouth was itchy and didn't feel smooth like usual, around my lips also feel strange. Now tonight, I just discovered a blister type bump on my lip. I definetly do not think that it's any form of herpes, I am thinking it's an allergic reaction to something...and maybe seasonal allergies with a counter reaction from food?? But not sure what...if I ate cooked celery, carrots, etc...could that cause a reaction? Or do they have to be uncooked only?
-
Comment by Ruth Smith on April 15, 2009 at 2:34pm -
Hi Amanda, I didn't realize this was a blog post as well. Somehow I completely missed it when reading your post in the health and allergies section. I've copied my response from there below as I think it's relevant.
If you google oral allergy syndrome you can find lists of pollen allergies and what fruits cross with them. I did not realize I had OAS until my son's food allergy diagnosis. He would scratch at his tongue upon eating baked goods with egg and say it was itchy. Who knew?
"Hi Amanda, I have OAS to melons which is a cross reaction from ragweed. Ironically ragweed comes out here in the fall and I don't have fall allergy symptoms-but severe spring ones.
I ate melons as a child and my OAS started within the last five years. One bite of melon gives me an upset stomach, and itchy tongue and throat.
Honestly-I avoid all together. I know some foods can be cooked which will alter the protein and those with OAS will be able to eat.
Also-as you've suggested above-one might not have symptoms to ALL fruit types. I am "guessing" that it is related to your area or where you have lived in the past and the pollen there. My mom spent a number of years in Washington and now has OAS symptoms to red delicious apples harvested in Washington...but can eat other apples."
-
Comment by Sarah on April 12, 2009 at 12:00am -
I have this! I grew up saying that corn and carrots and melons made my throat itchy and I would have to make these weird throaty noises to make the itching stopped. It still happens with lots of fruit - so I avoid most of it sadly.
Melons, celery, carrots and sometimes mangoes do this to me! WEIRD that there's an actual explanation. I am going to point my mom this direction so that she can see that I am NOT (as) crazy!! She thought I was making it up to avoid eating my fruits & vegetables!
-
Comment by Ellen S on April 9, 2009 at 2:25pm -
This was a terrific post Amanda, thank you so much for explaining it better than my allergist!
Yup, I get this all too often. Some of my favorite foods are at issue. Most annoying is when that itchy feeling creepy-crawls its way into my eustachian tubes. Eeeekkk! No amount of drinking, blowing, showering, coughing, or wiggling my tongue around in my throat like a dork, seems to help.
*sigh*
-
Comment by amanda on April 8, 2009 at 2:43pm -
marie, i hope it was just a bad pepper or a bit of a cold coming on! (well i don't hope that - but it would be better than discovering you have OAS!)
it wouldn't be a fun thing to discover you react to them, though, because red peppers are so delicious and versatile! (at least you could still roast them or something? yum)
i'm a little nervous about reacting to food i eat now. i don't have any allergies (that i know of) but knowing that allergies and sensitivities run in my family and that i'm probably not-so tolerant to certain foods really makes me wonder.
(sometimes when i do research i get a little hypersensitive that i have the illness/symptoms! like when someone mentions 'lice' or 'itches' and i start itching like crazy. haha.)
-
Comment by Marie on April 7, 2009 at 3:26pm -
Amanda, thank you for posting this!
I think that this may have happened to me yesterday. I had a very odd reaction to a red bell pepper, my throat immediately began to feel scratchy and (thanks to all my time reading food allergy posts) I got concerned I was having some kind of allergic reaction...but it never got worse than a scratchy throat.
Knowing me, I probably just have a cold, but I'm definitely going to read up on this.
© 2009 Created by Marie
You need to be a member of WEGO Health to add comments!
Join this Ning Network