Fruit Allergies

Something I’ve had to deal with all my life was being allergic to fruits. Fruit allergies are a form of a food allergy in which someone has an abnormal immune reaction to the proteins found in fruits. It’s just my luck too that I absolutely love fruit, and can’t go a day without eating one. Luckily, I am not allergic to all fruits. I am able to eat grapes, watermelon (and mostly all melons), oranges, etc. A lot of my favorite fruits are still available for me to safely consume. Unfortunately, a lot of my other favorite fruits will eventually bite me in the bottom later. Or in this case, bite me in the throat.

The symptoms of fruit allergies are a nuisance. Your throat begins to close up or become extremely itchy. Your ears, tongue, and lips can all become extremely itchy. Sometimes you grow temporary hives around your lips that are excruciatingly painful. These can last somewhere between 5 minutes to an hour. Depending on the consumption of fruits that you were allergic to. Personally, I suffered some painful symptoms in my days of fruit eating. I had no self control and because I so loved pears, mangoes, plums, and cherries, I just ate them!

This brings a topic of whether or not people can grow out of these allergies. I’ve researched this and found that some people have lifelong allergies and there is no evidence that people could potentially outgrow it. No studies were found to suggest that it grows worse overtime, but by personal stories I can say that my allergies gradually got worse. The more I ate fruits that I was allergic to, the worse the symptoms got (I know, I have serious self-control issues!).

The most common allergies in fruits are found in the rosaceae family. The fruits in that family consists of apples, plums, pears, mangoes, cherries, and peaches. Of course those are all my favorite fruits and I’m unable to eat them. However, something I noticed was that I am allergic to most fruits that have skin that people typically peel off. This brought me to another question. Do the pesticides on fruit play a factor in my allergic reactions? I found that many people get fruit-allergy symptoms through the pesticides found on the fruits that are used to prevent bugs from eating them. The pesticides then contaminate the whole fruit, so peeling the skin off does not help remove the pesticides.

This is something that bothers me. There are no cures to this allergy and that’s very upsetting to me and those who have fruit allergies. I’ll never be able to enjoy a nice succulent apple without enduring the pain afterwards. I’m curious to see if anyone else suffers the same problem as me? If so please share your comments below!

Sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fruit_allergy

http://www.swallergy.com/fruit-vegetable-allergy.html

http://www.allergyuk.org/allergy-to-fruit-and-vegetables/allergy-to-fruit-and-vegetables

http://www.medicaldaily.com/antibiotic-pesticide-residue-food-may-cause-severe-allergies-fruit-contaminated-300926

http://srxa.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/fruit1.jpg

5 thoughts on “Fruit Allergies

  1. Patrick Emil Jackson

    This is a fascinating post due to the increasingly large population of Americans who suffer from some type of allergies. According to a WebMD article, allergies affect nearly 20% of people in the U.S. For some people, an allergic reaction to a particular food may be uncomfortable but not sever. However, for others, an allergic food reaction has the potential to be life threatening. After looking at some other cases of people with fruit-allergies, I found that pollen-food allergy syndrome (sometimes called oral allergy syndrome) is a common occurrence for many people. In lots of people who have hay fever, this syndrome can cause swelling of the throat or even anaphylaxis. This would serve as an example of cross-reactivity. Proteins in fruits and vegetables cause the reaction because they’re similar to those allergy-causing proteins found in certain pollens. This goes to show the potential of unknown confounding variables that may affect those with allergies. However, for people suffering from this type of reaction, there is a solution. Cooking fruits and vegetables doesn’t cause cross reactive oral allergy symptoms and can help avoid harmful reactions. Overall, this is a great post and provides a lens into a topic with many different details to consider.

  2. Olivia Diane Talbot

    Fruit allergy?! I have never heard of a fruit allergy! I have heard of people growing out of allergies before, like dairy and nuts but I have also heard of allergies worsening. I think it really depends on the person. In an article I read online a long time ago, allergies can also be related to vaccines we received as little kids. This might be far fetched, but maybe the vaccine can slowly ware off and so does the allergy? (probably completely wrong but it makes a little bit of sense). Maybe in the future there will be a pill to relieve allergy symptoms before they happen, like there is for people who suffer from lactose intolerance.

  3. Alyssa Marie Gregory

    This must suck being allergic to your favorite fruits! It is safe to say this rules out reverse causation . While I enjoyed your personal connections to the blog that added a great voice to it I would’ve loved to see some scientific experiments to further support your claims. To me it is important to see what others experience as well. I personally am allergic to pineapples and like you I have a tough time staying away from it. You see we are allergic but still eat it . What about the people who are deathly allergic to eating these fruits we still consume ? I would like to see hear their stories and how they’ve learned to grow and work around this serious allergy. Here is a link that shows my personal experience with eating pineapples. This article explains that sometimes you may experience a rash if allergic to pineapples (i get a rash) http://www.livestrong.com/article/448567-pineapple-reactions/

  4. Katelyn May Schreckengast

    I’m not allergic to fruit, but I am allergic to milk and I suffer from some awful belly aches and a rash on my arms. My doctor, when I was younger, told my parents that eventually I would grow out of my allergy. He had my parents incorporate small amounts of dairy into my food and I gradually increased my intake. Now I pretty much eat whatever I want (I mean I live right across from the creamery so it’s almost inevitable) with minor problems. Although we both have personal anecdotes, I think this is something that hopefully will pop up in the science world soon.

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