Allergic to raw fruits and veggies

For those who haven't heard of it, there's a pretty good explanation of Oral Allergy Syndrome on Wikipedia [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_allergy_syndrome] but the gist of it is that people who suffer from hayfever are sometimes allergic to raw fruits and vegetables because of cross-pollination. Cooking the food removes the allergen.

You are misunderstanding what Oral Allergy Syndrome is. OAS is your body recognizing a protein in a food and thinking it is the same protein you are allergic to in a pollen. It is NOT the same thing as this pollen getting on your food. Possibly the cooking is denaturing (not necessarily removing) the proteins to a point where you can eat these foods. I know this is possible with milk, but I have not researched this happening in other foods. I suggest seeking the advice of a board certified allergist (not a general practitioner or an ENT) and determining what you are allergic to. Allergies can potentially be life threatening if they become severe.

An explanation of Oral Allergy Syndrome from the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology

http://www.aaaai.org/conditions-and-treatments/library/allergy-library/outdoor-allergies-and-food-allergies-can-be-relate.aspx

I'm really surprised at the non-judgmental responses on this. Every blog, news article, message boards etc. that takes on the topic of food allergies seems to garner a negative or skeptical response from most people. people here are more empathetic which is nice :happy:

i became allergic to nectarine and peaches in my early 30's. until then i was fine with eating those fruits. i get OAS with fresh mangoes. if they're previously frozen or processed i'm ok. or course i passed my allergic genes to my child who has sever tree nut and peanut allergies.

i think with apples you can make cooked applesauce. i know it's not the same as eating raw apples but you can puree and then cook it down with a bit of water and maybe some cinnamon.

How about dropping them into boiling water, then freezing?

Baked apples is pretty awesome.

I love to take an apple, chopped up and put some cinnamon on it and microwave it just until they are soft. I sometime put a bit of brown sugar on them but if its a sweet apple it doesn't need it. Very yummy.

I have a very similar allergy. You need to have a full allergy test done by a specialist so that you know what to avoid. For myself, I found that I am not allergic to white fish, but I am allergic to the algae they eat. I am allergic to the grass pollens that mix with orchard fruits(which can be greatly helped with weekly allergy shots), I am allergic to citrus fruits, particularly those grown in areas that they can cross pollinate with rubber trees(very sensitive to latex). Some are in these genetic families, such as avocados are made from the same proteins as rubber. Cooking will only work if you get the temperature high enough to denature the proteins and break down the allergin. Which also breaks down the nutrients. But there are some ways around this and your allergist will know exactly what to do for you. I am allergic to onions and garlic, cooking doses not break them down enough, but dehydrating does. So I can now cook with powdered onion and garlic and still retain some nutrients. Again the allergist can give you specific advice how to get around each allergy or how to avoid it.

I have OAS, but really haven't been to an allergist. I violently vomit if I eat any raw almonds or if I eat fresh carrot with the skin. The older the carrot, the easier for me to eat it. I'm also allergic to strawberries (I get hives). I'm sorry I don't have any recipes but I just had to say it's just good to "hear" conversation about this. So thank you.

I suffer from this too! Hazelnuts, green apples, carrots, and nectarine / peaches are the worst. I can eat them in a fruit saled however if I have poured orange juice over them and:happy: left for a couple of hours. Cherries were the worst offenders but can eat them in yogurt.

xx

Wow! Your story is the same as mine. I ate all these fruits raw as a kid, although, I did have severe allergies to grass pollens. My first reactions to raw foods happened after pregnancy; this is a time when the immune system has to withdraw and change so it will not attack the fetus of the developing child.

During pregnancy with my first child I ate pistachios by the bag full...just couldn't get enough. Some time after the second child I ate 8 pistachios and was in the emergency room..

.then it was a kiwi...then it was a lychee nut...then it was mangos...(ten hours in emerg with two different drugs being pumped in through I.V.s)

I am allergic to wheat, all of it, not just gluten...my daughter and cousin are celiac; they could eat wheat grass if they chose, as there is no gluten in the grass portion...I would break out in hives!! I am terribly allergic to wheat germ, although I ate it when I was younger with no problems...read an interesting article on wheat germ agglutinin to help me understand this allergy...wheat is terribly fattening, btw.

then celery, carrots, parsley, strawberries, apples...if I touch the apples when I chop them up I get severe hives,(not so with the others, except mango, mango is bad!) Then the nuts...my favourite, hazelnut, then almonds, cashews (darn!), no real problems with walnuts. Carrots, celery, parsley and such are related plants. Strawberry, lychee, kiwi are also related, and they are all somehow related to trees and when I had allergy tests it showed I was allergic to ALL trees, especially cedar and birch.

Cooking or freezing solves everything. Sad, cause I want to go on a raw food diet. Funny thing is, it is fairly cyclical, in that I am not always as allergic; there are times when I can eat carrots, and celery raw, but, never mangos. I did have a reprieve with apples for a spell...mmmm...crunching into a fresh apple without having to take benedryl first. I used to take a benedryl, wait an hour, and then eat everything I couldn't normally eat, but benedryll screws with your heart if you take it too often. Arrhythmias.

I found milk, or yogurt seemed to diminish the effects of berry allergies, but I just play safe...if they are frozen and then thawed they are fine, so why take a chance?

When it first started the doctor said it was probably pesticides and such, and suggested peeling the fruit, but that's not it, as I grow organic fruit in my yard...peeling did not help.

My cousin developed a severe shellfish allergy after her pregnancies...there is some information on how progesterone works to stabilize the immune system...very good research.

I have a little sinful, and naughty secret I learned a year ago; I bought a fancy e-cigarette with nicotine liquid for my roommate so he didn't have to go out in -45 to smoke, but he thought it looked dorky; not wanting to waste it and knowing nicotine increases metabolism and suppresses hunger, I thought I'd just use it up....heck, maybe I could finally curb my appetite and lose a few!

so, after only 15 puffs of vapour my sinuses opened up and I could breathe, my lungs opened up and I could breath deeply....did the research...nicotine is a powerful anti-inflammatory, and anti-histamine, so much so research is being done to synthesize it so it can be an over the counter drug.

The best part is that when I am bitten by a bug, or have a reaction to something I just puff away and it is all neutralized without putting me to sleep for hours (benedryl)....so, not something I could recommend to anyone (btw, I have never been a smoker...disgusting taste, and hate the burn in the lungs) I don't think smoking cigarettes is the same thing as there are too many other chemicals involved....and vaporizing is not the same as smoking. My son used pot during chemo and used a vaporizer so his lungs did not suffer.

btw., again, Mayo clinic and several other sources state that nicotine by itself is not addicting and I can attest to that, cause I have no urge to use this gadget, and will forget about it most of the time (and lose it lol)....but it has helped me tremendously with regards to allergies and chronic pain in joints, and the swelling in my lower leg is gone...but, again, not something I could recommend to anyone...you'd have to research how nicotine receptors in the brain affect your body. Very hard to find research on nicotine as an isolate because most research is directed toward nicotine in commercial cigarettes.

Good luck to everyone with food allergies....what a pain!!!

You don't need to add anything to fruits or vegetables for cooking. Things like salt, fat or sugar are added for flavor. Boiling, steaming, microwaving, baking are ways to cook without oil.

Have you tried looking for fruits and vegetables grown in a greenhouse? There should be no cross pollination with hay in those.

Oh for veggies, I buy frozen and microwave them. The steamfresh bags are great, comes out tasting quite good and the plain ones have not added salt.