Oral Allergy Syndrome: Why do Pollens and Foods Cross-React?
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Apples and Peaches and Oral Allergy
The better news for spring is that although trees such as maple, oak and poplar produce allergenic pollens, they don’t share reaction-causing proteins with foods. Nor does having allergies to birch, alder, grass or ragweed mean you’ll necessarily cross-react with the implicated foods.
And, if you do react, you may not be allergic to every food on the list.
Some fruits and vegetables, however, are more troublesome. Apples, for instance, more often trigger oral allergy syndrome than pears. According to Japanese research, in the plum family, cherries and peaches are more likely to irritate than apricots and plums.
It may even depend on which variety of the fruit you eat. European studies, for example, have found that gala and golden delicious apples have higher levels of allergenic proteins than Braeburn or Santana apples, and are more likely to cause reactions.
Reactions Beyond the Spring
What foods you will react to also depends on genetics, and where you live, Ham Pong adds.
Although hay fever lasts just weeks or months, people with oral allergy syndrome typically react to the offending foods year-round. Some, however, find symptoms worse during allergy season.
Still, if OAS sounds like nature’s cruel double whammy, take comfort in the upside: most of these pan-allergens succumb to cooking.
Next: Cooking Out Trouble
canteatraw
I would love to see a follow up article with Dr. Ham Pong discussing treatment options, and I do not mean avoiding the fruit or cooking it. What is lacking in the published literature is effective immunotherapy treatment. I am one of the 1-2% of people who will go into severe allergic reaction–anaphylactic shock to any raw fruit, raw nut, and most raw vegetables. I carry an Epipen.