08.19 - Mystery Solved

For years, I prided myself on being able to eat anything and everything. I had friends who were allergic to seafood, some to peanuts, and other friends who were lactose intolerant. But not me. I could eat it all.

But one random evening years ago while on break at my first job, a coworker offered me some guacamole from Chipotle. After having only one guac-covered chip, my entire throat and stomach started burning. I drank water until the feeling subsided but I was so surprised by it. I wasn't allergic to anything in guacamole-- not avocados, onions, cilantro, chiles, nothing. I considered it a freak accident, but that tainted my desire for avocado for years to come.

And over the years, I've found that other random things will cause allergic reactions. After eating peaches in the summer, my lips start to blow up. After having soy lattes from Starbucks a handful of times, I realized that soy milk makes my throat incredibly itchy. After drinking wheatgrass juice, I want to gag and die at the same time. I have similar reactions with cherries, almonds, and (as I found out just yesterday) hazelnuts.

So after a bit of research yesterday and a little help from my friend Wikipedia, the mystery has finally been solved. I have OAS (a.k.a. oral allergy syndrome)!! It's actually quite fascinating, really. I'm allergic to pollen (i.e. my eyes get super itchy and I sneeze like a crazy person), therefore I'm allergic to contact with "pollen foods" (mainly when they're raw). So what are these pollen foods, you might ask? Well, there are different kinds of pollen! Alder, birch, grass, mugwort, and ragweed.

Here's an overview of the different pollens and the foods they're associated with:

Alder pollen: almonds, apples, celery, cherries, hazel nuts, peaches, pears, parsley
Birch pollen: almonds, apples, apricots, avocados, bananas, carrots, celery, cherries, chicory, coriander, fennel, fig, hazelnuts, kiwifruit, nectarines, parsley, parsnips, peaches, pears, peppers, plums, potatoes, prunes, soy, strawberries, wheat; and potentially walnuts
Grass pollen: fig, melons, tomatoes, oranges
Mugwort pollen: carrots, celery, coriander, fennel, parsley, peppers, sunflower
Ragweed pollen: banana, cantaloupe, cucumber, honeydew, watermelon, zucchini, echinacea, artichoke, dandelions, hibiscus or chamomile tea

So I've established that I'm only allergic to alder, a little birch, and a little mugwort. Coooool, huh? Haha. Sorry. I'm just excited to finally know what's going on. And to realize that the guacamole incident was no accident after all. Crazy . . .