Being a seasonal allergy sufferer most of my life, I was dismayed when I develop food sensitivities (Hazelnuts were the first.) and oral allergic reactions to fruit (Melons and raw fruit with a pit). Thank you for providing this chart. I'll be putting one on my fridge too!
Lisa so interested to hear you’ve got similar sensitivities to mine. I’d forgotten about hazelnuts - haven’t eaten them in a while and now I remember why! And they are so tasty. Ugh!
The interesting thing is that when I was pregnant, I had no seasonal allergies at all.
I’ve asked several doctor friends if there may be a hormonal component to allergies, but no one can answer that. I was hoping that menopause may have the same effect, but unfortunately, no.
Oh, I wish! But ha, I haven't had that experience either. But so interesting about your pregnacy experience. If it wasn't hormones, I wonder what it was?!
Thank goodness you recovered from the emergency--so scary! It’s interesting that so many of the foods on your chart also happen to be common FODMAP triggers for people w/IBS and related disorders.
Wren that IS interesting and I will have to look into that more. There’s also a whole other overlay of foods that contain histamines and foods that can triggers histamines - the whole histamine thing is very understudied so I didn’t even go there with that. yikes - so complicated !
dear Susie... it's raining and pouring for you. I'm holding Farmer in the light and giving thanks that you and your husband recognized a need and dealt with it rather than dismiss the symptoms. This is a fascinating look at food relationships and natural connections.
Hi Lorraine. I am certainly glad too! You just never know. I hope I will learn more about this from the allergist so that I’m not tiptoeing around a lot of ingredients. But if I have to I will! Thank you re: Farmer, too. ❤️
Holy wow, Susie! It seems very lucky that your husband got you to the ER quickly! That kind of sensitivity in the bullseye of livelihood and passion would piss me right off. It's a good thing you're more even tempered than I am! Glad you're better, and learning. And big, big love to you and Farmer!
Aw thank you Ellen. So many things we just have to deal with, right?! Never know what's coming! Thank you for the doggie love - he's hanging in there - such a good boy! xo
I am glad your episode with an oral food allergy was nipped in the bud and grateful for Doug’s quick assessment. I am sorry you had to deal with this and grateful for your excellent explanation of the process and culprits involved. Sounds like a new adventure as the learning continues. And thank you for the update on Farmer. Be well. ❤️
Susie! So glad you're ok, what a bummer. Hope you can figure out the triggers so you can keep creating and cooking and tasting all those delicious recipes.
And for your beloved Farmer, praying for his comfort and your peace and for him to have many more good days. Love to you and your family 💜 melanie
Hi Melanie. Thank you, you are so sweet. Are you going to the reunion? I thought about it, but we just can't work it out. I want to show my husband North Carolina, but this just isn't the right time.
Yikes! I'm so terribly sorry, Susie! I can't imagine how this will affect the rest of your life! I really have no words to tell you how badly I feel for you! I will continue to pray for Farmer, you and your husband.
Ethel, you are always so kind and I know how much you are dealing with so right back at you. I will figure out how to work around these food issues, I am confident. And thank you again for always thinking about Farmer. We're going to take good care of him!
Whoa. Thanks for the great info. As an airborne allergy sufferer who eats whatever he wants, I’d never thought about the cross allergies with veggies. Glad Farmer is doing OK—they are amazing at hiding their pain. Unlike us human whiners 😉
So true. I just keep asking the vet, when will we know if he is in pain? Because I just want him to be comfortable. And yes, the allergy thing really has a lot of tentacles to it, so good to be aware of potential mindfields!
Thank you for this article! My husband has ragweed allergies among a slew of others. Makes his sensitivities to melons, etc., during the summer months more explainable. He and I are going to be more alert to the foods on the chart you posted, his reactions, and have a conversation with his doctor. Wow!
Hi Susan, I'm glad it was helpful. I feel like I should keep repeating the disclaimer that I'm not an expert in this stuff (!), but it does seem like a lot of hay fever sufferers are not aware of the potential food-pollen connection, so it's good to at least get some info out. So interesting that your husband has the melon thing, too!
Thank you...as someone who works in the food world and has a food sensitivity, it is incredibly difficult. I cannot eat nightshades because I lack the capacity to produce an enzyme to digest the alkaloids present in the plants. It makes my work really hard sometimes.
Also, AGAC is one of our most curable cancers!!! Good luck with your pup.
Michele, that nightshade sensitivity is terrible - I'm so sorry. They show up everywhere!
And I so appreciate you (as a vet) passing along the information about AGAC. Farmer is 13 and had degenerative myelopathy too (supposedly though not confirmed through extensive testing), so I know he is not going to live forever, but I'm hopeful that if the cancer hasn't metasticized yet, that we may have some time. Will be talking to the docs more this week. Thank you!
I am so glad you are alive. i’m a food allergy trainer and consultant and want to make a couple of points that many people (even some doctors who are not allergists and MANY school nurses!) get wrong.
1) Benadryl should never be the first course of treatment. It does not stop anaphylaxis and in fact, can mask some symptoms which could be dangerous if one were not aware.
2) there is no harm in giving epinephrine even if it turns out later it was not needed.
3) most important to remember and to share: prior reaction does not predict next reaction. “I just get a little itchy, a couple of bites will be okay.” No. Molecules can kill. It may be helpful to think of light switches: with intolerance being a dimmer switch and allergy is on/off switch.
4) little is known about adult onset’s causes and only in the last decade has research shown some adult onset food allergies can actually go away.
5) the OAS is usually tied to a seasonal pollen (e.g. birch pollen is not my friend) Spring is tricky. Stone fruits, apples, pears can be eaten is cooked, raw if carefully washed and peeled. But this is not the case “true” food allergies. No amount of washing and cooking will prevent anaphylaxis to something you are allergic to.
6) dining out, even at well meaning friends’ homes is very risky. (See 3 above: molecules). This is not taught in culinary schools and the “chain of custody” (sorry retired lawyer) means what you tell a waiter gets passed along to someone in the kitchen and possibly more than one person handles the components of your dish then it sits on pass next to another persons standard version of the dish, so many opportunities for mistakes, now add busy hours, different languages and lack of training.
I am sorry to hijack your comment section but there is so much misinformation in the general public.
A final note: I’ve written for Washington Post and created ten tips for restaurant industry mag, and often recommend a chef card: with a significant caveat: the chief Food allergy resource group is primarily a lobbying organization. They provide handy templates for wallet cards that people can print and carry. They also have a significant/life-threatening error in one translation which I have tried mightily to get them to correct. Their response was “our designers say it’s fine.” Unconscionable. So the tool should not be used in Spanish, without modification.
Sorry again, this scenario of anaphylaxis can ramp up from “this is odd” to lethal in minutes. I’m so glad this did not happen to you. Happy to talk any time offline. It’s a very complex and potentially deadly arena with much misinformation around. Always happy to help support, clarify, educate.
Do not worry about hijacking the comments - I very much appreciate it, and I hope everyone reads each of your six points because they are all important.
I was nervous about writing about this because it is SO complex. I've been doing as much research as I can myself, because the GPs I've talked to know very little or nothing about food-pollen sensitivity. They sent me on to a GI a couple summers ago when I had what I thought were food-related stomach issues, and the GI flat out told me he didn't treat food allergies, end of conversation. I hope when I get to the allergist this time, I will get at least a little clarity.
And from what I can tell, studies on Oral Allergy Syndrome are relatively recent in the past few years, so there are still lots of hay fever sufferers who don't know it exists.
Thank you for re-emphasizing the seriousness of quick action with anaphylaxis. It is scary. And I will look for those cards - eating out is a scary endeavour!
Oh Susie, what an ordeal. But sharing your story will help so many. About 15 years ago, I was cooking for some people looking for a chef for their new vegan restaurant + I had a first/alarming experience just handling mushrooms, not even ingesting. It never got as serious as what happened to you, but the rash did progress overnight + I saw doc + allergist very next day.
Kim, are you still allergic to mushrooms? Yikes, that's so hard for a cook. And so interesting that it came from just handling. I think I had celery root juice/stuff all over my hands and that getting it in my eye was my real undoing. But now that I know that celery root and peanuts can egg each other on (and I also ingested both), I'm feeling lucky it wasn't any worse (or at least that I got help before it peaked!). Hope all is well in PA!
I still am, yes. Because there are so many varieties of mushrooms, I decided to forego altogether. As much as I miss mushrooms, it's a manageable allergy compared say to dairy, soy, wheat. I hope you're taking good care + I too would be looking forward to that allergist appt to get all the details!
Thank you for sharing your experience. I’m glad your husband acted quickly as time is of the essence. The OPAS information was very informative and I will keep on hand! So frightening isn’t it? Nothing prepares you for it.
Thank you, thank you, Susie for such an informative post. And all my sympathies to you too. I cried real tears when I learned I was allergic (anaphylactic) to all fish and seafood. It’s changed my life, not for the better, fish and seafood byproducts are hidden in everything it seems. My immediate family has lettuce (haven’t figured out the extent of that one yet) and dairy allergies; and extended family includes gluten allergies. Oh I forgot to mention food preservatives too. Cooking for family get togethers has become a challenge. Good luck on your food allergy journey and keep educating us. And all my sympathies regarding Farmer…that’s heartbreaking.
Hi Karen. Oh, I am so sorry about your serious fish and shellfish allergies. I am living in dread of developing those, so you have my sympathy. It's amazing how seafood byproducts make their way into things - ugh, so difficult. I'm now realizing, upon reading labels, how much celery seed/celery powder/celery juice there is out in the world since it is used as a preservative. It does seem like preserved and processed foods are a minefield. And you mention lettuce - I didn't even realize that was a possibility until I was doing my research and saw lettuce on one of the lists. I don't know what I would do if I couldn't eat lettuce! I'm so sorry you have so many of these things to contend with in your family. Tricky cooking indeed!
Hi Doris. From what I can tell, oral allergy syndrome studies are a relatively recent thing, and the information is certainly not widespread - ugh. I hope that changes! Thanks for weighing in and hope you're well.
What a horror show!
Being a seasonal allergy sufferer most of my life, I was dismayed when I develop food sensitivities (Hazelnuts were the first.) and oral allergic reactions to fruit (Melons and raw fruit with a pit). Thank you for providing this chart. I'll be putting one on my fridge too!
Lisa so interested to hear you’ve got similar sensitivities to mine. I’d forgotten about hazelnuts - haven’t eaten them in a while and now I remember why! And they are so tasty. Ugh!
Glad you’ll have your chart on the fridge!
The interesting thing is that when I was pregnant, I had no seasonal allergies at all.
I’ve asked several doctor friends if there may be a hormonal component to allergies, but no one can answer that. I was hoping that menopause may have the same effect, but unfortunately, no.
Oh, I wish! But ha, I haven't had that experience either. But so interesting about your pregnacy experience. If it wasn't hormones, I wonder what it was?!
Thank goodness you recovered from the emergency--so scary! It’s interesting that so many of the foods on your chart also happen to be common FODMAP triggers for people w/IBS and related disorders.
Wren that IS interesting and I will have to look into that more. There’s also a whole other overlay of foods that contain histamines and foods that can triggers histamines - the whole histamine thing is very understudied so I didn’t even go there with that. yikes - so complicated !
dear Susie... it's raining and pouring for you. I'm holding Farmer in the light and giving thanks that you and your husband recognized a need and dealt with it rather than dismiss the symptoms. This is a fascinating look at food relationships and natural connections.
Hi Lorraine. I am certainly glad too! You just never know. I hope I will learn more about this from the allergist so that I’m not tiptoeing around a lot of ingredients. But if I have to I will! Thank you re: Farmer, too. ❤️
Holy wow, Susie! It seems very lucky that your husband got you to the ER quickly! That kind of sensitivity in the bullseye of livelihood and passion would piss me right off. It's a good thing you're more even tempered than I am! Glad you're better, and learning. And big, big love to you and Farmer!
Aw thank you Ellen. So many things we just have to deal with, right?! Never know what's coming! Thank you for the doggie love - he's hanging in there - such a good boy! xo
I am glad your episode with an oral food allergy was nipped in the bud and grateful for Doug’s quick assessment. I am sorry you had to deal with this and grateful for your excellent explanation of the process and culprits involved. Sounds like a new adventure as the learning continues. And thank you for the update on Farmer. Be well. ❤️
Thank you Kay. I know you have some experience with these things - more adventures, right?!! Sending love and see you soon!
Susie! So glad you're ok, what a bummer. Hope you can figure out the triggers so you can keep creating and cooking and tasting all those delicious recipes.
And for your beloved Farmer, praying for his comfort and your peace and for him to have many more good days. Love to you and your family 💜 melanie
Hi Melanie. Thank you, you are so sweet. Are you going to the reunion? I thought about it, but we just can't work it out. I want to show my husband North Carolina, but this just isn't the right time.
Hey! Yes, we are going. Only an hour away so quite a bit easier than from an island in MA!! Pardoe is coming, we'll miss you.
Take good care of yourself and Farmer - oh, and the husband! He sounds like a keeper🤣🥰
Oh you guys will have fun Melanie! And thank you (yes to the keeper!!)
Yikes! I'm so terribly sorry, Susie! I can't imagine how this will affect the rest of your life! I really have no words to tell you how badly I feel for you! I will continue to pray for Farmer, you and your husband.
Ethel, you are always so kind and I know how much you are dealing with so right back at you. I will figure out how to work around these food issues, I am confident. And thank you again for always thinking about Farmer. We're going to take good care of him!
Whoa. Thanks for the great info. As an airborne allergy sufferer who eats whatever he wants, I’d never thought about the cross allergies with veggies. Glad Farmer is doing OK—they are amazing at hiding their pain. Unlike us human whiners 😉
So true. I just keep asking the vet, when will we know if he is in pain? Because I just want him to be comfortable. And yes, the allergy thing really has a lot of tentacles to it, so good to be aware of potential mindfields!
In my experience Susie having cared for 7 rescue dogs until their last moments—they let you know. You will know when it’s time.
okay, I appreciate that Dee.
Thank you for this article! My husband has ragweed allergies among a slew of others. Makes his sensitivities to melons, etc., during the summer months more explainable. He and I are going to be more alert to the foods on the chart you posted, his reactions, and have a conversation with his doctor. Wow!
Hi Susan, I'm glad it was helpful. I feel like I should keep repeating the disclaimer that I'm not an expert in this stuff (!), but it does seem like a lot of hay fever sufferers are not aware of the potential food-pollen connection, so it's good to at least get some info out. So interesting that your husband has the melon thing, too!
Thank you all for your comments - I’m on the road driving down to DE to see my dad so will look forward to responding tonight!
Thank you...as someone who works in the food world and has a food sensitivity, it is incredibly difficult. I cannot eat nightshades because I lack the capacity to produce an enzyme to digest the alkaloids present in the plants. It makes my work really hard sometimes.
Also, AGAC is one of our most curable cancers!!! Good luck with your pup.
Michele, that nightshade sensitivity is terrible - I'm so sorry. They show up everywhere!
And I so appreciate you (as a vet) passing along the information about AGAC. Farmer is 13 and had degenerative myelopathy too (supposedly though not confirmed through extensive testing), so I know he is not going to live forever, but I'm hopeful that if the cancer hasn't metasticized yet, that we may have some time. Will be talking to the docs more this week. Thank you!
I am so glad you are alive. i’m a food allergy trainer and consultant and want to make a couple of points that many people (even some doctors who are not allergists and MANY school nurses!) get wrong.
1) Benadryl should never be the first course of treatment. It does not stop anaphylaxis and in fact, can mask some symptoms which could be dangerous if one were not aware.
2) there is no harm in giving epinephrine even if it turns out later it was not needed.
3) most important to remember and to share: prior reaction does not predict next reaction. “I just get a little itchy, a couple of bites will be okay.” No. Molecules can kill. It may be helpful to think of light switches: with intolerance being a dimmer switch and allergy is on/off switch.
4) little is known about adult onset’s causes and only in the last decade has research shown some adult onset food allergies can actually go away.
5) the OAS is usually tied to a seasonal pollen (e.g. birch pollen is not my friend) Spring is tricky. Stone fruits, apples, pears can be eaten is cooked, raw if carefully washed and peeled. But this is not the case “true” food allergies. No amount of washing and cooking will prevent anaphylaxis to something you are allergic to.
6) dining out, even at well meaning friends’ homes is very risky. (See 3 above: molecules). This is not taught in culinary schools and the “chain of custody” (sorry retired lawyer) means what you tell a waiter gets passed along to someone in the kitchen and possibly more than one person handles the components of your dish then it sits on pass next to another persons standard version of the dish, so many opportunities for mistakes, now add busy hours, different languages and lack of training.
I am sorry to hijack your comment section but there is so much misinformation in the general public.
A final note: I’ve written for Washington Post and created ten tips for restaurant industry mag, and often recommend a chef card: with a significant caveat: the chief Food allergy resource group is primarily a lobbying organization. They provide handy templates for wallet cards that people can print and carry. They also have a significant/life-threatening error in one translation which I have tried mightily to get them to correct. Their response was “our designers say it’s fine.” Unconscionable. So the tool should not be used in Spanish, without modification.
Sorry again, this scenario of anaphylaxis can ramp up from “this is odd” to lethal in minutes. I’m so glad this did not happen to you. Happy to talk any time offline. It’s a very complex and potentially deadly arena with much misinformation around. Always happy to help support, clarify, educate.
Jacqueline,
Do not worry about hijacking the comments - I very much appreciate it, and I hope everyone reads each of your six points because they are all important.
I was nervous about writing about this because it is SO complex. I've been doing as much research as I can myself, because the GPs I've talked to know very little or nothing about food-pollen sensitivity. They sent me on to a GI a couple summers ago when I had what I thought were food-related stomach issues, and the GI flat out told me he didn't treat food allergies, end of conversation. I hope when I get to the allergist this time, I will get at least a little clarity.
And from what I can tell, studies on Oral Allergy Syndrome are relatively recent in the past few years, so there are still lots of hay fever sufferers who don't know it exists.
Thank you for re-emphasizing the seriousness of quick action with anaphylaxis. It is scary. And I will look for those cards - eating out is a scary endeavour!
Oh Susie, what an ordeal. But sharing your story will help so many. About 15 years ago, I was cooking for some people looking for a chef for their new vegan restaurant + I had a first/alarming experience just handling mushrooms, not even ingesting. It never got as serious as what happened to you, but the rash did progress overnight + I saw doc + allergist very next day.
Kim, are you still allergic to mushrooms? Yikes, that's so hard for a cook. And so interesting that it came from just handling. I think I had celery root juice/stuff all over my hands and that getting it in my eye was my real undoing. But now that I know that celery root and peanuts can egg each other on (and I also ingested both), I'm feeling lucky it wasn't any worse (or at least that I got help before it peaked!). Hope all is well in PA!
I still am, yes. Because there are so many varieties of mushrooms, I decided to forego altogether. As much as I miss mushrooms, it's a manageable allergy compared say to dairy, soy, wheat. I hope you're taking good care + I too would be looking forward to that allergist appt to get all the details!
That's smart. And true, it is a single ingredient so you can zero in on watching out for that. Yes, looking forward to getting to the allergist!
Thank you for sharing your experience. I’m glad your husband acted quickly as time is of the essence. The OPAS information was very informative and I will keep on hand! So frightening isn’t it? Nothing prepares you for it.
Thanks Maggie, and thanks for sharing this. It is crazy, and you just never know! It really is a lesson on "when in doubt..."!
Thank you, thank you, Susie for such an informative post. And all my sympathies to you too. I cried real tears when I learned I was allergic (anaphylactic) to all fish and seafood. It’s changed my life, not for the better, fish and seafood byproducts are hidden in everything it seems. My immediate family has lettuce (haven’t figured out the extent of that one yet) and dairy allergies; and extended family includes gluten allergies. Oh I forgot to mention food preservatives too. Cooking for family get togethers has become a challenge. Good luck on your food allergy journey and keep educating us. And all my sympathies regarding Farmer…that’s heartbreaking.
Hi Karen. Oh, I am so sorry about your serious fish and shellfish allergies. I am living in dread of developing those, so you have my sympathy. It's amazing how seafood byproducts make their way into things - ugh, so difficult. I'm now realizing, upon reading labels, how much celery seed/celery powder/celery juice there is out in the world since it is used as a preservative. It does seem like preserved and processed foods are a minefield. And you mention lettuce - I didn't even realize that was a possibility until I was doing my research and saw lettuce on one of the lists. I don't know what I would do if I couldn't eat lettuce! I'm so sorry you have so many of these things to contend with in your family. Tricky cooking indeed!
Thank you for this potentially life saving article. We were both in the medical field and much of the info is new to us.
You may save lives with this column.
Hi Doris. From what I can tell, oral allergy syndrome studies are a relatively recent thing, and the information is certainly not widespread - ugh. I hope that changes! Thanks for weighing in and hope you're well.