Allergy to spring vegetables – can young radishes cause allergies?

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The long-awaited spring vegetables – lettuce, cucumbers, radishes, chives appear on the stalls in spring and tempt with their appetizing appearance. However, more and more people talk about their negative impact on our health. Can spring vegetables sensitize? Expert explains why fresh vegetables can cause allergies?

1. Some people may develop allergy symptoms such as rash, hives, headaches, and digestive problems after eating early vegetables.
2. Most often, it is not the young vegetables themselves that are to blame, but the chemicals added during their cultivation to stimulate faster growth
3. An allergist advises on how to deal with an allergy to early vegetables and what vegetables to buy to avoid unpleasant symptoms
4. You can find more such stories on the TvoiLokony home page

Allergy to early vegetables – symptoms

After the long winter weeks, we all wait for fresh vegetables to appear on the table. Cucumber salad, lettuce with cream, cottage cheese with radish and chives are popular spring dishes.

Unfortunately, some people after consumption complain of ailments characteristic of allergies: hives, rash or watery eyes. Other symptoms may also occur: headache, vomiting and diarrhea.

However, it is worth considering the source of these ailments, because in the case of spring vegetables, the cause may be not only the vegetables themselves, but also the chemicals contained in them. Lettuces, cucumbers or radishes growing in greenhouses, on peat substrates, are fertilized with nitrogen compounds in order to grow quickly. When these are used in the right amounts, they will not harm us. However, some producers, wanting to achieve a satisfactory effect much faster, exceed the quantitative standards of fertilizers, and then use fungicides to prevent crops from rotting during transport. This is how vegetables filled with chemicals go on sale.

Allergy to spring vegetables – how to deal with it?

Thus, being allergic to spring vegetables may not be an allergy to the vegetables themselves, but the body’s reaction to harmful chemicals contained in them. You can deal with this problem effectively: – Symptoms of intolerance that occur after eating early vegetables can be neutralized. In case of hives or rash – take oral antihistamines, and in case of nausea, vomiting or diarrhea – refill fluids by drinking plenty of water, also take antihistamines. When itchy and stinging eyes, it is worth reaching for drops such as artificial tears or drops with hyaluronic acid and ectoine. Ectoine is a natural soothing substance, which additionally creates a film that protects and protects the eye – explains Dr. Marta Kołacińska-Flont, MD, PhD, allergology specialist, expert of the campaign “Protect your eyes from allergies”.

Nowalijki – how to buy? The most important rules

Does this mean that we should give up all the novelties? No, there are also farmers who respect the permitted amounts of fertilizers, pesticides and fungicides. However, it is worth remembering about a few rules that will make us eat vegetables free of poisonous substances.

What is worth remembering when buying early vegetables?

1. Do not buy exceptionally plump vegetables – it may indicate their excessive fertilization
2. Choose vegetables without discoloration, spots, signs of rotting, and the smell of mold
3. Peel cucumbers, young vegetables and tomatoes – harmful substances accumulate directly underneath it
4. Nitrite and other substances adversely affecting our body are often water-soluble, which means that thorough washing and soaking of vegetables for about 15 minutes. helps to get rid of unwanted substances. In ecological stores, you can buy special preparations containing water, lactic acid, citric acid, malic acid, aloe leaf extract, which help to flush out dangerous compounds.

When allergic to apple, celery or kiwi

However, we often notice allergic reactions after eating e.g. apples, celery, kiwi, nuts or seafood. Symptoms especially intensify during the pollen season and most often take the form of tingling, itching or swelling in the mouth. This is called oral allergy syndrome, which is a cross-reaction in people allergic to, for example, some of the inhaled allergens, such as birch pollen, mugwort, house dust mite allergens and latex.

How is such a combination possible? Well, the proteins present in pollen or in mite excreta are sometimes identical or very similar in molecular structure to some food allergens. The immune system produces IgE antibodies that “match” both types of proteins, resulting in allergic reactions to food allergens in people who are allergic to inhaled allergens.

Unfortunately, more and more people complain that after eating raw apples, kiwi or celery, they feel disturbing itching in their mouth and throat. – Oral allergy syndrome is a type of food allergy, so the basis of treatment is to eliminate allergenic foods from the diet, because the symptoms may worsen and may lead to, for example, swelling of the throat, and sometimes even anaphylactic shock – warns Dr. Marta Kołacińska, MD, Ph.D. Flont, specialist in allergology, expert in the campaign “Protect your eyes from allergies”. And adds:

– Good news for some people who complain of allergy to stone fruit is the information that the allergenic potential of these fruits significantly reduces their peeling, and practically eliminates thermal treatment (cooking or baking). However, this depends largely on the type of sensitizing molecule. Oral allergy syndrome typically develops in people who are allergic to birch pollen. In our latitude, inhalation allergy appears first, food allergy usually occurs later. The experience of patients undergoing specific allergen immunotherapy with birch pollen shows that in the course of this treatment – apart from combating the symptoms of allergic rhinitis and conjunctivitis – it may also alleviate the unpleasant symptoms of the oral cavity. I encourage you to undertake desensitization – going through this process significantly increases the quality of life – concludes the allergist.

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