Food allergies

I just need some sympathy, I've become allergic to 2 things I truly have loved all my life.
About 3 years ago I ate a couple of almonds from one of my trees and got a scratchy feeling in my throat. A couple of days later I ate a few more and my throat basically started to constrict. I took some Benadryl and that fixed it, but I realized I was allergic to almonds. Saturday my wife and I braved swarms of peach eating yellow jackets and managed to pick about 30 pounds of peaches. I ate one, and my throat and eyes swelled shut, took a bunch of Benadryl and got it under control after a couple of tense hours. Peaches and almonds are from the same family(with apricots and nectarines) so they are all off limits, and I love all those fruits. Plus I have a bunch of peach and apricot preserves from last year.

My sympathies. I had no idea that almonds were in the same family as peaches/apricots/nectarines. Does that also mean that cherries and plums are off limits too, since they too are part of that family?

I think it's both fascinating and terrifying that you can literally have a life threatening allergy pop up out of nowhere to something that you've otherwise loved all your life.

That stinks man. I love peaches. Sounds like you may want to carry an epi-pen just in case you run into anymore new allergies.

My senior year of highschool, I was hospitalized for pneumonia that have collapsed my lung, and was on a morphine drip with no issues. When I shattered my ankle a few years back, I got some morphine in the ED and had a horrible reaction. Its weird how you go from not being allergic to something to all the sudden having it be life-threatening.

Qhrumphf said:

My sympathies. I had no idea that almonds were in the same family as peaches/apricots/nectarines. Does that also mean that cherries and plums are off limits too, since they too are part of that family?

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If you compare a peach pit with an unshelled almond you'll see thte connection. My almonds on the trees look exactly like immature peaches(green and fuzzy), But plums and cherries are actually not in the same family(I think), and I ate some of each of them today without any problems.
I do a lot of hiking and rockhounding so I make my own trail mix with no almonds-it has cashews and peanuts, and they don't have any ill effect.

corkybstewart said:

If you compare a peach pit with an unshelled almond you'll see thte connection. My almonds on the trees look exactly like immature peaches(green and fuzzy), But plums and cherries are actually not in the same family(I think), and I ate some of each of them today without any problems.
I do a lot of hiking and rockhounding so I make my own trail mix with no almonds-it has cashews and peanuts, and they don't have any ill effect.

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Thought they were all of the Prunus "stonefruit" family.

Of course i am neither botanist nor doctor.

Either way, it'd suck to no longer be able to eat something I love.

Qhrumphf said:

Thought they were all of the Prunus "stonefruit" family.

Of course i am neither botanist nor doctor.

Either way, it'd suck to no longer be able to eat something I love.

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You're correct, but there are some subgenus differences so maybe I can keep eating apricots:

Prunus subgenera:
Subgenus Amygdalus, almonds and peaches: axillary buds in threes (vegetative bud central, two flower buds to sides); flowers in early spring, sessile or nearly so, not on leafed shoots; fruit with a groove along one side; stone deeply grooved; type species: Prunus dulcis (almond).
Subgenus Prunus, plums and apricots: axillary buds solitary; flowers in early spring stalked, not on leafed shoots; fruit with a groove along one side, stone rough; type species: Prunus domestica (plum)
Subgenus Cerasus, cherries: axillary buds single; flowers in early spring in corymbs, long-stalked, not on leafed shoots; fruit not grooved, stone smooth; type species: Prunus cerasus (sour cherry)
Subgenus Lithocerasus: axillary buds in threes; flowers in early spring in corymbs, long-stalked, not on leafed shoots; fruit not grooved, stone smooth; type species: Prunus pumila (sand cherry)
I know the bowl of cherries and the 4 or 5 plums I ate at lunch gave me horrific farts, but they have never impeded my breathing.

You just got to eat that allergy away. Overwhelm it. Build a resistance. Don't let it be the boss of you.

<< Also not a botanist or doctor. Or a serious post.

I have known people though who were only allergic to shellfish at certain times. Mainly shrimp. There's speculation that it's caused by proteins or enzymes only present at certain times, or it's from something in the water the shrimp pass on to people, even after cooking.

Point is, allergies can come and go. Maybe you get lucky.

When the almonds first hit me I convinced myself that they were fresh from the tree, possibly not completely ripe, that's why I had the reaction. But a couple of months later i had some roasted almonds and the same thing happened. I had peach pie on vacation in June, a friend even served us apple pastries with some king of almond paste in the crust, and I survived. My wife got a little panicked when she tasted the almond,but it never affected me

Food allergies are no joke. I get ridiculously mad at people who fake allergies. If I hear one more person say "i'm eating gluten free to lose weight" I'll cram a scone down someone's throat.

I had a similar experience, one day I brought an avocado to work for lunch. Peeled it open and proceeded to eat it as I did hundreds of times before, my tongue swelled up and my throat started to close. Luckily they have benadryl and it stopped an emergency from happening. A couple weeks later I had the same reaction to bananas. Then I started having reaction to certain nuts, pecans, walnuts are the worst. I have been trying to slowly introduce small amounts of avocado into my diet to build a resistance to the reaction. Because life without guacamole is just a sad existence.

corkybstewart said:

If you compare a peach pit with an unshelled almond you'll see thte connection. My almonds on the trees look exactly like immature peaches(green and fuzzy), But plums and cherries are actually not in the same family(I think), and I ate some of each of them today without any problems.
I do a lot of hiking and rockhounding so I make my own trail mix with no almonds-it has cashews and peanuts, and they don't have any ill effect.

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I'm allergic to cashews and being lame so I feel your pain.

My wife has a wheat intolerance - basically gets stomach cramps and crazy ****s from it. Not quite life threatening like yours could be, but it still blows. We both love nice breads, so that hurt. I still eat breads on my own, but it's been a long time since I had a good pasta. I could boil two separate ones, but I'm too lazy for that so i just eat some ****ty rice/quinoa blend with her.

Austin said:

I'm allergic to cashews and being lame so I feel your pain.

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I eat cashews every day, I'd hate to become allergic to them. But every day, I wonder if something new is gonna try and kill me.
My daughter had 2 allergic reactions when she was in high school, the first one almost killed her, she was unconscious in the ER waiting room and it took 4 hours for a packed team to get her stable. The second one wasn't as bad because she got treated immediately, but we never found out what caused it and in the past 12 years it hasn't happened again.

iijakii said:

My wife has a wheat intolerance - basically gets stomach cramps and crazy ****s from it. Not quite life threatening like yours could be, but it still blows. We both love nice breads, so that hurt. I still eat breads on my own, but it's been a long time since I had a good pasta. I could boil two separate ones, but I'm too lazy for that so i just eat some ****ty rice/quinoa blend with her.

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I feel your pain(French for bread). I get sick if I eat most kinds of bread in the morning, by lunch it goes away. So when I eat breakfast it is usually a red and green chile pork burrito, extremely spicy, garlicky, delicious, and it doesn't bother me. But a piece of toast sets off heartburn that can't be controlled with OTC medication, but by lunch I can eat any bread. Yes, I'm pretty damn weird.

Im allergic to crab but only showed symptoms in the last five years all other seafood im good to go. Our bodies are weird in how they react to an allergen swell and drop blood pressure to keep it from moving......smart plan there body we dont need no stinkin oxygen to survive when weve got almond dust in our veins!!!!

corkybstewart said:

I eat cashews every day, I'd hate to become allergic to them. But every day, I wonder if something new is gonna try and kill me.
My daughter had 2 allergic reactions when she was in high school, the first one almost killed her, she was unconscious in the ER waiting room and it took 4 hours for a packed team to get her stable. The second one wasn't as bad because she got treated immediately, but we never found out what caused it and in the past 12 years it hasn't happened again.

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I eat almonds every day. No kidding. I'm like Bubba of almonds. Smokehouse, Wasabi, Roasted, Plain... that's really it. Marzapan! Yeah, Marzapan.

Marzipan is gross.

ewww marzipan

Ive had very bad food allergies in the past, learned what foods to not eat, have had several issues over the years, now the big bummer....recently Ive been buying up a years worth of hops rebagging and storing them and also drinking a lot of very hoppy beer, my face started turning red recently, now Ive narrowed it down to raw hops, even had my throat close one week, its really depressing because I love hoppy beer

Ozarks_Mountian_Brew said:

its really depressing because I love hoppy beer

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I foresee a lot of Wee Heavy in your future. But are you certain it's hops? Have you tried hop oils?

just pellet hops so far, I am allergic to preservatives and hops are a natural preservative

FYI, for most allergies, they do not "come and go". You always have been, and always will be allergic to it, what varies is your REACTION to the allergen. There are a lot of different things that can affect how much of a reaction you have to the allergen at any given time, and those reactions could vary from something that is not noticeable to something that is life threatening.

So, if it has been confirmed (likely by an allergist) that you are allergic to something, it is NEVER a good idea to expose yourself to it. Sure, you might get away with a small amount of exposure with no reaction from time to time, but that same amount of exposure could have a very different reaction another time.

I think just too much exposure at one time proved it to me like handling and repackaging 10 pounds in a day, dealt with this my whole life No worries, not giving up home brewing any time soon lol

Ozarks_Mountian_Brew said:

I think just too much exposure at one time proved it to me like handling and repackaging 10 pounds in a day, dealt with this my whole life No worries, not giving up home brewing any time soon lol

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That's a tough call. If you've only had a problem with hop leaves and pellets, I'd guess that it's possible that you aren't actually allergic to hops, but something else that was in the hops, but doesn't make it into finished beer. It's also possible that the reaction you had wasn't an allergic reaction at all, but just some irritation from too much hop dust or oil on your skin.

BTW, I am not an allergist or doctor. I don't even have any known allergies myself. My wife did some research on food allergies for an article she wrote a while back and we've talked about it quite a bit because she's allergic to fungi (no mushrooms for her).

your right about the dust, not sure if its a skin or breathing issue but cleaning the dust off the table will make my face itch the next morning, also the end of a very hoppy keg where the sediment gets into the last 2 beers will do the same thing

iijakii said:

Marzipan is gross.

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I told you to meet me at the local grocer so we could fight this out and prove once and for all that marzipan is awesome.

Where were you?

Apologies, Ive been in Germany since the 24th. I fly home tomorrow night, we can meet for fisticuffs at high noon.