Allergy woes: Unusual edibles that intensify your pollen-related discomforts
Hey there, pasta lovers! Here's a heads up for you hay fever sufferers.
With summer approaching and temperatures rising, so does the pollen count. For many allergy-prone folks, spring isn't all sunshine and rainbows. To manage symptoms, medication is often the go-to, but diet plays an overlooked role in allergy management. certain foods can worsen symptoms and should be avoided.
Hay Fever and Food: Watch What You Eat
Foods high in histamine can aggravate allergic reactions since histamine augment hay fever symptoms. Hence, it's advisable not to overload our body's histamine levels through diet during pollen season.
Foods to Steer Clear Of
- Aged Cheese: Cheeses aging longer tend to build up more histamine, like aged Gouda, Parmesan, Emmentaler, or Brie.
- Smoked Meats and Sausages: Foods such as salami, raw ham, cervelat, and other smoked meats are high in histamine.
- Canned Goods and Preserved Foods: Canned herring in tomato sauce, sardines, and smoked salmon come with high histamine levels.
- Certain Fruits: Along with citrus fruits, bananas, pineapple, kiwi, and strawberries are also considered high in histamine or histamine-releasing.
- High Histamine Vegetables: Tomatoes, spinach, and sauerkraut are among the varieties that can elicit allergic reactions.
- Wheat-Based Products: Although wheat itself doesn't have histamine, it may not sit well with many hay fever sufferers, given the long storage times during which histamine forms in products like pasta, flour, or semolina.
- Cocoa and Dark Chocolate: Dark chocolate, especially, contains significant amounts of histamine and should be approached with caution by those sensitive.
- Red Wine and Alcohol: Red wine contains considerable more histamine than white wine, sometimes up to four times as much. Alcohol also hinders the enzyme diamine oxidase (DAO) that breaks down histamine in the body and can even release existing histamine.
- Beer - Even Non-Alcoholic: Top-fermented beer is particularly troublesome as it contains higher histamine levels than bottom-fermented beer. Even non-alcoholic beer should be consumed in moderation.
- Coffee and Tea: Caffeine can pose problems for allergic individuals, as it obstructs, like black and green tea, the enzyme DAO and may exacerbate symptoms - even without containing histamine itself.
During allergy season, it might be wise to avoid these foods.
In the realm of hay fever management, it's essential to consider dietary changes due to certain foods worsening symptoms. Aged cheeses like Gouda, Parmesan, Emmentaler, or Brie, smoked meats and sausages such as salami, raw ham, cervelat, and canned goods and preserved foods including canned herring in tomato sauce, sardines, smoked salmon should be avoided.
Fruits like bananas, pineapple, kiwi, strawberries, as well as citrus fruits, certain vegetables like tomatoes, spinach, and sauerkraut, wheat-based products, cocoa and dark chocolate, red wine and alcohol, beer (particularly top-fermented and even non-alcoholic), and caffeinated drinks such as coffee and tea may also trigger or aggravate allergies.
When dealing with hay fever during spring and summer, adhering to a diet focused on health-and-wellness, fitness-and-exercise, and nutrition, while following food-and-drink recipes carefully, can significant improve symptoms. Cooking meals at home helps maintain control over the histamine levels and potentially allergy-triggering ingredients.
By understanding the relationship between food and hay fever, and managing our diets accordingly, we can enjoy a balanced lifestyle that prioritizes health and wellness, all while continuing to indulge in our love for food-and-drink and cooking.
