When I was a kid we had a huge avocado tree in our back yard. We had grape vines on the fence and strawberries in the front yard. My grandma had a plum tree in her yard and a cherry tree. Living in California when I was a kid meant that I could pick a lemon off a tree in the neighbor's yard when I walked to school or eat a few Kumquats on the way home after school because the fruit tree's were everywhere and most people didn't care if you took a few as long as you asked first. Yeah, I like eating lemons the same way most people eat oranges, I always have.
I'd always loved avocado's and we had them all the time but after eating them I always noticed that I had a scratchy throat and my mouth burned. I never said anything to my mom because it was just something that happened and I really didn't give it much thought. But as I got older, I started finding I was having a more serious reaction to avocado's as well as other fruits and even some other foods. A few years ago I wrote a blog post about my allergy to raw shrimp. If you click on the link to it you'll see that I wasn't the only one with this allergy. I have dozens of comments from people who have the same reaction and believe me, I was surprised.
I saw a doctor years ago and he told me that I have a mild allergy to avocado and he asked me if I had the same reaction to any other foods and I do...kiwi, banana, cantaloupe and honey dew melon. With most of these fruits I just get a scratchy throat, burning lips, tongue and mouth but the symptoms usually goes away within an hour. But I had a vastly more severe reaction when I tried honey dew melon last year. My tongue slightly swelled up and my throat felt like it was on fire. I felt like I had strep throat and the symptoms lasted for over 3 hours. My entire mouth was burning and stinging. That was the first and last time I'll be eating honey dew melon.
Unfortunately my daughter has inherited my fruit allergy so when she came over the next day I asked her if she'd ever tried honey dew melon and she hadn't but she wanted to see if she had a reaction too. So she took a tiny piece of it and sure enough she had a bad reaction too. But at least now she knows not to eat that again.
My doctor said since I've had the same reaction to these fruits for so many years it's not likely to get any worst but it's my decision if I stop eating them. I like avocado too much to stop eating it and my daughter is the same way. I still eat the fruits that cause a mild reaction and I just deal with the scratching and burning for a while until it goes away. I won't be eating honey dew melon anytime soon though...ouch!
Have you ever had an allergic reaction to food?
Have you ever had an allergic reaction to food?
Food doesn't usually cause issues these days. However I had migraine after migraine for years (at least three a week). I decided I wanted a meat free week. No migraine (though that wasn't why I did it). I had a chicken meal. Migraine. I had a red meat meal. Migraine.
ReplyDeleteSo these days I am vegetarian. I suspect it is the things we do to meat rather than the meat itself, but at the time organic meat wasn't available and it is still expensive.
That's really interesting. I had no idea that meat or whatever they put in meat could cause allergies. I have a fb friend who has migraines, I'll have to tell him about this.
DeleteIf you're used to eating lemons then your immune system should be OK, I suppose.
ReplyDeleteI had a period of allergy to touching peaches. As I touched them my neck got covered with a red, itching rash. The allergy dissapeared all by itself.
Kiwi is not friendly to my stomach. But the frui is full with vitamin C and very tasty, so I don't give it up. I just cook it with some other fruit pieces (melon, apple, pear, loquat etc..)and enjoy a fruit 'compote'.
Yeah sounds like you got hives. I've read that the fuzz on peaches will cause an allergic reaction sometimes.
DeleteSo far I've been lucky to not have any food bother me.
ReplyDeleteThat's really good news. I still eat most of them anyway. lol
DeleteI'm lucky to not have any allergies to food - or not ones that I've yet discovered anyway. Being allergic to fruit must be really awkward for you especially with ones yenjoy like avocados
ReplyDeleteYeah I jut have to expect that I'm going to have a reaction and deal with it when it happens.
DeleteThat is interesting that it's such a wide variety of fruits. I've heard of people being allergic to just kiwi, or fruits that have a pit, like peaches, but not to so many like you are. My only food allergy is to a spice that's added to things like Doritos. I'm not 100% sure what it is, but it's cayenne pepper or something similar. I will immediately get blood blisters inside my mouth. I just avoid any foods with a spicy additive.
ReplyDeleteOh wow, that's some reaction. I wonder what it is.
DeleteThe first time it happened was 10 years ago or so and I was eating BBQ potato chips. It's happened about 6 times since then. There are usually so many ingredients in those types of processed foods that it's hard to determine what exactly causes it.
DeleteThat is so weird.
DeleteOh man! I would hate an allergy to avocado and other fruits.
ReplyDeleteI do have dairy intolerance which has symptoms equal to your mild allergy. But, one time I was on a home visit for work and accepted a sticky flaky dessert that was pistachio and honey flavored. However, there was also rose water in it. I learned that rose water, syrup, rose hips in tea are all breathing-emergency inducers. LOL, who knew. I'd never had rose flavoring in anything before.
Oh wow, that's awful. I'm glad you know to stay away from that now.
DeleteI'm allergic to shellfish but that was discovered when I was so young that I don't remember what happened. You're braver than I, if I had bad reactions to any food I'd just stop eating them.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear that. But at least you know what to stay away from. It's such a mild reaction for me that I just deal with it except for the honey dew melon, I won't be eating that again. lol
DeleteI don't have allergies but I have silent GERD. It's basically acid reflux but it irritates my throat rather than heartburn. I cough to the point of tears streaming and choking.
ReplyDeleteSo I can't have any acidic foods which bums me out. I LOVE tomatoes and citrus.
I hope I never get this because if I lost avocados and other fruit too I'd cry lol
Karen @ For What It's Worth
I still eat it, I just have to deal with a sore throat and mouth for a while. Sorry to hear you can't eat that.
DeleteOh yes I can understand! I love avocado as well and it's not easy to be that allergic to food...
ReplyDeleteIt's not easy but the payoff is worth it.
DeleteWow, I don't have any allergies to food. Aversion yes, allergies no. I am allergic to penicillin though.
ReplyDeleteOh wow, what a thing to be allergic to.
DeleteInteresting! I don’t have any food allergies that I know of. I would hate to give up eating avocados too!
ReplyDeleteIf I had to give them up it would be hard.
DeleteI don’t have any food allergies but Sister Zoe is allergic to chicken.
ReplyDeleteOh wow, I had an uncle that was allergic to turkey.
DeleteMine is dairy and you wouldn't believe how hard is it find things with out and dairy. I'm so glad it not life threatening.
ReplyDeleteCoffee is on
Oh I'm sure that would be hard because dairy in in so many things.
DeleteI havem't had any serious reactions to food but I know people who have. I know someone who can't have wine because of the sulfites that are in a lot of them. I've never been a big avocado fan, but at least if you enjoy them you can have them without too much trouble.
ReplyDeleteThat's good. Most of my family has no allergies to anything so I had to be the weird one. lol
DeleteAs far as I know, I'm immune to all foods
ReplyDeleteThat's good.
DeleteMy MIL says she can not eat bananas, but then those other things you mention, she totes eats those, hmmm. She might just claim an allergy cos she does not like them ;D
ReplyDeleteNo kiwis! Love those
lol I think some people do that because they don't like them. I love kiwis too.
DeleteThat must be hard to deal with. I love avocado and would be upset if it caused a reaction. But at least it isn't bad enough where you can't enjoy it from time to time.
ReplyDeleteYeah I would be upset if I couldn't eat them.
DeleteI've never been a fan of avocado and can't understand why people love it so much, lol. However, it would royally suck if I couldn't eat something I enjoyed so much so I get you... Maybe pop a benadryl just before or after eating?
ReplyDeleteBenadryl makes me crazy tired for like 5 hours and gives me restless leg syndrome. So I'll just deal with a burning mouth and throat for an hour.
DeleteI don't have any real allergies but kidney beans make my throat a little irritated and scratchy. My husband has a severe allergy to almonds but it didn't develop until he was an adult. Before he could eat them with no problems.
ReplyDeleteOh wow, that's so strange.
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