Allergy season: Unforeseen foods causing symptom exacerbation
Allergy Sufferers, buckle up! These foods can worsen your hay fever misery.
Summertime's footsteps are approaching, and so is the pollen rainstorm. For many hay fever victims, springtime is far from a joyride.
To manage symptoms, some rely on medication. However, diet can play a significant role as well. Certain foods can exacerbate symptoms and should be avoided, particularly during the pollen season.
Pollen season: Watch out for these culprits
Foods high in histamine are your enemies here. Histamine is a trigger for allergic reactions, and since it plays a crucial role in onset of typical hay fever symptoms, it's best to keep histamine levels in check through diet.
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Aged Cheese: Longer aging increases histamine content. Types like aged Gouda, Parmesan, Emmental, or Brie should be avoided.
Smoked Meats: Meat products like Salami, raw ham, or cervelat are high in histamine, especially those preserved naturally.
Fish Canned Goods: Canned foods like herring in tomato sauce, sardines, or smoked salmon are high-histamine offenders.
Certain Fruits: Beyond citrus, bananas, pineapple, kiwi, and strawberries also contain high amounts of histamine or promote histamine release.
High-Histamine Vegetables: Tomatoes, spinach, and sauerkraut are among the veggies that can trigger allergic reactions.
Wheat-based Products: Pastas, flours, and semolina are often poorly tolerated by pollen allergies, possibly due to long storage times.
Dark Chocolate: Chocolate lovers, beware! Dark chocolate contains high levels of histamine, so be cautious if you're sensitive.
Red Wine and Booze: Red wine comes with a hefty dose of histamine - up to four times more than white wine. Alcohol also blocks an enzyme that breaks down histamine in the body, potentially causing more problems.
Beer - Even the Non-alcoholic Variants: Top-fermented beer is problematic as it contains more histamine than bottom-fermented, and even non-alcoholic beer should be consumed in moderation.
Caffeine: Coffee and tea can aggravate allergies by inhibiting the enzyme that breaks down histamine, even though they don't contain histamine themselves. So mind the caffeine intake during pollen season.
During allergy season, it's wise to steer clear of these foods.
- To combat worsened hay fever symptoms during the pollen season, it's crucial to watch out for foods high in histamine, such as aged cheese, smoked meats, fish canned goods, certain fruits, high-histamine vegetables, wheat-based products, dark chocolate, red wine, beer, and caffeine, as they can trigger allergic reactions or promote histamine release.
- In the bonus reads section, it's suggested that older individuals might want to consider cutting out certain foods from their diet to keep the extra pounds at bay, with aged cheese being identified as a food high in histamine that should be avoided.
- For those with pollen allergies, wheat-based products like pastas, flours, and semolina could be poorly tolerated, possibly due to long storage times, which could exacerbate hay fever symptoms.
