Anyone have radical reaction to pineapple?

Hotshoe1200
Hotshoe1200 Posts: 46 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Years ago, i used to get indigestion from almonds. After some time passed, I would try a couple and eventually I could eat them again. I went through the same thing with lettuce, but now I can eat it again, no problem. Lately, it's been the same way with pineapple. I got a little complacent today and put a 1/2 cup of them in my shake and within 20 minutes, I was in horrible shape! Upset stomach, nausea, cramps...it was awful. I also get this sick from clams.

I wonder if this will pass, too? Does anyone else have this problem?

Replies

  • Petrusilly
    Petrusilly Posts: 37 Member
    Turns out unripe pineapple can have this effect on most people. I accidentally made a smoothie out of unripe pineapple one day... my body was in a chaotic state for many hours :-/.
  • dbmata
    dbmata Posts: 12,950 Member
    I get itchy all over from pineapple.

    Doesn't stop me from eating it, but that's because I'm an idiot.
  • BraveNewdGirl
    BraveNewdGirl Posts: 937 Member
    Yes! In my early twenties, I had an awful reaction to pineapple on two occasions. It not only made me sick, but once I'd vomited and expelled it, I still felt symptomatic. I had brutal nausea and stomach cramps for a while. The second time, an ER visit determined that it was an "allergy" to pineapple. The weird bit? I accidentally ate some in a wrap a couple of years ago with no reaction whatsoever. I've had pineapple since with no negative effects! The stuff's delicious!

    I can only assume what Petrusilly said is true, that unripe pineapple can have a nasty effect on a lot of people and that's what accounts for my earlier reactions!
  • Gidzmo
    Gidzmo Posts: 905 Member
    I haven't had that reaction. However, if you're eating a ripe pineapple and having that reaction, I'd consider having a doc check you out for possible allergies.
  • RodaRose
    RodaRose Posts: 9,562 Member
    I cannot deal with pineapple. When I need a shot of vitamin C I buy some fresh cut up pineapple, have two pieces and give the rest to hubby. That is all I can take for the next six months.
    Oh, but my goodness, I love and get along with dried pineapple --- so nice.
  • NYfirefighter
    NYfirefighter Posts: 31
    for me pineapple (along with all exotic fruits) are deadly because of latex allergy
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,978 Member
    Makes me talk like Spongebob..................................wait, I can do that without pineapple.

    It may be the bromelain in it.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • Hotshoe1200
    Hotshoe1200 Posts: 46 Member
    I'm kinda relieved that I'm not the only one this happens to. I just find it so odd that I can eat something for years and then suddenly I can't. The almond thing really perplexed me. I noticed it after eating probably most of a bag of almond m&ms (that was the old me!) and then after that I would notice a slight indigestion from even an Almond Joy bar (the old me!). But now I have been eating them as snacks and seem to handle them fine.

    So now, my prohibited foods include: scallops, clams, pineapple, eggs and the light kind of melons (musk melons?). Last night was enough to put me off pineapple for a long time.
  • Garaba
    Garaba Posts: 2 Member
    I have issues with pineapple as well. I get around it by cooking it on an electric griddle.
  • Kestrelwings
    Kestrelwings Posts: 238 Member
    Looking at it scientifically...

    There are two sorts of 'bad' reactions that can happen to pineapple.

    One is a direct chemical effect. This is where your body reacts badly to some chemical contained in the pineapple, This is not a true 'allergy' per se, because it does not involve your immune system, but can mimic it pretty closely. An example is lactose intolerance, where someone gets a bad stomach if the drink milk because they lack enough of the enzyme needed to digest lactose. Another example is the reaction you get if you eat a dozen hot chillies, you are not allergic to them but your body cannot handle the amount of capsaicin it is exposed to. These are therefore often reactions that most people would get if you fed them enough of the food, but some people are much more sensitive to it than others, so get symptoms after only a tiny nibble.

    The second is the true allergy, and is mediated by the immune system. Here the reaction is not to a chemical, but to a protein. Your body mistakes the shape of part of the protein as belonging to a threat, and triggers the reaction. Allergies can occur out of the blue, and to something you previously ate without problem. This is because he immune system has only now decided that the protein is a threat. Once it has decided that the protein is harmful, it can start to react identically to any other protein it sees that is roughly the same shape. This is why you get 'families' of allergies where an allergy to one food often means problems for the rest of the family. One example of this is that allergy to banana, which often goes hand-in-hand with allergy to advocado, kiwi, chestnut, and also latex.

    One way of getting around allergy is to try and alter the shape of the protein in the food. The easiest way to do this is to cook it. As a result, many people who are allergic to egg are able to have small amounts of it as long as it has been well cooked. Another way is to calm down the immune system and teach it not to treat the protein as harmful. In some allergies, this happens naturally. The best example is babies who have Cows milk allergy. Many of them will 'grow out of it', and be able to tolerate cows milk when they are older. We can also train the immune system artificially, by exposing it to tiny amounts of the protein repeatedly until it no longer sees it as a threat. This is done for bee and wasp venom allergies for example.

    Back to the OP:

    It may be that you reacted to a chemical in the pineapple, which is more common if it is under ripe, and you may find that going only for very ripe ones will work. It may have been a true allergic reaction, in which case you may find that cooking it will allow you to eat more of it in future.
  • firstsip
    firstsip Posts: 8,399 Member
    Probably the bromelain; that stuff is literally digesting you. BUT PINEAPPLE IS SO DELICIOUS.

    As for you getting a similar reaction to clams, I wonder if you've been getting ill-prepared clams.
  • jessready
    jessready Posts: 129 Member
    If I get too much Fructose build up I'm horribly ill. Check out this article?
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fructose_malabsorption
  • JustinAnimal
    JustinAnimal Posts: 1,335 Member
    My radical reaction: after taking a bite of pineapple, I instantly started surfing on a wave of lava, wearing aviators and holding a falcon out on the end of my wrist.

    It was pretty rad.
  • Hotshoe1200
    Hotshoe1200 Posts: 46 Member
    Looking at it scientifically...

    There are two sorts of 'bad' reactions that can happen to pineapple.

    One is a direct chemical effect. This is where your body reacts badly to some chemical contained in the pineapple, This is not a true 'allergy' per se, because it does not involve your immune system, but can mimic it pretty closely. An example is lactose intolerance, where someone gets a bad stomach if the drink milk because they lack enough of the enzyme needed to digest lactose. Another example is the reaction you get if you eat a dozen hot chillies, you are not allergic to them but your body cannot handle the amount of capsaicin it is exposed to. These are therefore often reactions that most people would get if you fed them enough of the food, but some people are much more sensitive to it than others, so get symptoms after only a tiny nibble.

    The second is the true allergy, and is mediated by the immune system. Here the reaction is not to a chemical, but to a protein. Your body mistakes the shape of part of the protein as belonging to a threat, and triggers the reaction. Allergies can occur out of the blue, and to something you previously ate without problem. This is because he immune system has only now decided that the protein is a threat. Once it has decided that the protein is harmful, it can start to react identically to any other protein it sees that is roughly the same shape. This is why you get 'families' of allergies where an allergy to one food often means problems for the rest of the family. One example of this is that allergy to banana, which often goes hand-in-hand with allergy to advocado, kiwi, chestnut, and also latex.

    One way of getting around allergy is to try and alter the shape of the protein in the food. The easiest way to do this is to cook it. As a result, many people who are allergic to egg are able to have small amounts of it as long as it has been well cooked. Another way is to calm down the immune system and teach it not to treat the protein as harmful. In some allergies, this happens naturally. The best example is babies who have Cows milk allergy. Many of them will 'grow out of it', and be able to tolerate cows milk when they are older. We can also train the immune system artificially, by exposing it to tiny amounts of the protein repeatedly until it no longer sees it as a threat. This is done for bee and wasp venom allergies for example.

    Back to the OP:

    It may be that you reacted to a chemical in the pineapple, which is more common if it is under ripe, and you may find that going only for very ripe ones will work. It may have been a true allergic reaction, in which case you may find that cooking it will allow you to eat more of it in future.

    That is very good info and makes sense to me in many ways. My favorite pizza is Hawaiian, so maybe that is why the pineapple there didn't bother me so much. And I had a fruit salad not too long ago that contained canned pineapple and that was okay as well. So now I'm thinking that it was probably unripe pineapple. I may take a small bit of it and cook it to see what happens. I sure won't have a full half cup like I had the other night!

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