Mine allergies have blossomed.Pardon the pun, but today I was diagnosed as a textbook case of Oral Allergy Syndrome. This is the reason I have never liked salad, why I've hated dieting or eating carrot sticks, why fruit salads have become my sworn enemy. Turns out I am (quite) allergic to all pollen including the pollen found in raw/uncooked fruits and vegetables. My five-year-old self would be so excited; my twenty-five year-old self not so much. While I am Incredibly relieved to finally have an answer as to why I feel like crap 9 days out of 10, however, I'm pretty nervous about developing more severe allergies than I do now which sounds like a likely outcome.
Courtesy of Wikipedia, here are the following foods which I will run into the most problems with:
- Birch pollen: almonds, apples, apricots, avocados, bananas, carrots, celery, cherries, chicory, coriander, fennel, fig, hazelnuts, kiwifruit, nectarines, parsley, parsnips, peaches, pears, peppers, plums, potatoes, prunes, soy, strawberries, wheat; Potential: walnuts
- Grass pollen: fig, melons, tomatoes, oranges
- Mugwort pollen : carrots, celery, coriander, fennel, parsley, peppers, sunflower
- Ragweed pollen : banana, cantaloupe, cucumber, honeydew, watermelon, zucchini, echinacea, artichoke, dandelions, hibiscus or chamomile tea
I should reiterate for those of you that don't keep close tabs on my health, that I don't have an anaphylactic response to these foods; they just irritate my throat making it difficult to breathe, tighten my chest kind of feeling indigestion-like, and sometimes tummy problems depending on the food.
I am quite grateful that my symptoms can be managed by a simple antihistamine on a daily basis or two hours prior to eating some of the devilish foods. This should make my trip to Italy SO much more pleasant. I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't taste the wine (yes, wine's on the list too), the tomatoes, the pastries with fresh fruit, etc. ! Italy would certainly not be the same!
