Talking Allergies

Has anyone here been diagnosed with a spice allergy or have a child with one? How did you figure out?






http://allergicliving.com/index.php/201 ... t-to-spot/

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Allergic to soy, peanut, shellfish, penicillin

according to several tests, i am severely allergic to ginger and garlic; however, i have never noticed anything when i eat them. this is my conundrum with many of the things that various tests show i am "allergic" to. i notice nothing when i eat anything that i'm allergic to.

My allegy test has found me to be allergic to bay leaf, oregano, and cinnamon. Also bell pepper and celery which is used for seasoning in a lot of stuff. It is very hard to avoid these...especially when I go out to eat. Luckily I don't have a life-threatening reaction.

My daughter is allergic to night shade vegetables, which includes bell pepper and therefore paprika, cayenne, curry and chili pepper. It is very frustrating. Most salad dressings, sauces, hummus and other condiments are labeled with the word "spices" and i cant risk it. My life would be easier if the labeling was specific! We live in the US.

So true and I doubt they will ever list spices on the label because it may affect their recipe/intellectual property/etc. That is why they are allowed to say "natural flavors" and other rubbish

I am allergic to cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and a variety of other spices that are all derived from evergreen plants. As far as I am aware, I am fine with any that I have tried from non-evergreen sources. Using a list of botanical food families - these can be found in the internet - was very helpful in identifying the common element, the evergreen source - in all of these spices and in determining some possible substitutions. I am also allergic to nightshades. This does make eating out very challenging, so we choose our restaurants carefully and sometimes phone in advance with questions about the menu. I also make good use of recipe web sites and food blogs for substitution suggestions - whereas I used to approach a cookbook with a rather pessimistic view, now that I have learned some great substitutions, I approach every new recipe with a pen and do my own editing. I have also found that some companies are prepared to let you know what their "spices" are if you phone or e-mail with very specific questions. Yes, it's tricky, but manageable.

Interesting for me as the magazine's editor to hear about. May I ask, was it hard to figure out your spice allergies?

I know I'm soy allergic, and until the symptoms became anaphylaxis and I did elimination diet work to start the process of figuring out, it was really hard to know the cause. Soy is buried as an emulsifier or as cheap protein in so many foods.

Similarly, I would think it must be hard to narrow a reaction cause down to a spice. Was it?

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Allergic to soy, peanut, shellfish, penicillin

Was it difficult to identify the spices that I was reacting too? I would say that without using an elimination diet, it would have been impossible. I react to cinnamon (anaphylaxis), Celery (severe intolerance), and more recently savory and sage (calling it an intolerance at this point as the vomiting isn't severe enough).

Because I am adept at avoiding my allergens, I was able to avoid the epi-pen for many years. I found that anything containing "spice" usually contains onion which I can't have and most of the other foods usually explicitly says "beef, chicken, pork"; is a soup (which will have celery and onion by default); or is Asian or Indian (which I can safely assume contains either Gluten [lo mein, Soy Sauce] and/or Cinnamon [graham masala, curry, Chinese 5 spice). Even canned Tuna contains Celery (under Veggie Broth) and maybe found in wrongfully marked can's of Tuna that claim no veggie broth. I don't eat Tuna anymore. FYI: Nightshades can also be in that Veggie broth in the USA.

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Asthma, SHF, GF, EF, Allergic: Meat, Poultry, Laurel, Mustard, Gras, Mallow, Plantain, Flacourtia, Pine family; ETOH, Vinegars, CremeTartar, Cucumbrs, Fenugrk, Most of Lily, Myrtle, Parsley, Nightshade, Composite familys. Pomgrante, Litchi, Starfrt

Mustard is our son's only "spice" that he's allergic to (that we know of). It was very difficult to determine this b/c, at the time, I knew very little about food allergies, never mind, spice allergy. Because mustard is present in many prepared foods, it was very difficult to determine what he was reacting to. When he reacted to dipping something directly into prepared French's mustard, I finally felt like we had determined it was mustard, which was later confirmed with an SPT (skin prick test) at the allergist. As an aside, our son does not like "curry" and I understand curry is a blend of several spices. It's hard to determine, with children having multiple food allergies if a dislike for something, is just that, or is it a reaction.

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14 yr old daughter: no health issues
11 yr old son: allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, fish, sesame, sunflower, mustard, poppy seeds, green peas, some fruits, instructed to avoid all other legumes (except soy & green beans), pollen, cats, horses

Actually, I developed all of my spice allergies as an adult - I could eat all of these foods as a child and teenager. I just had an inkling develop over a number of years that "something" had bothered me about something that I had eaten. Then when I started to make a mental note of what I had eaten in the previous 24 hours, I started the notice a pattern in the ingredients - a written journal probably would have helped me to pin down the culprits sooner. Initially, because the symptoms were mainly digestive, I assumed that the reactions were due to intolerances, but then I learned that not all reactions follow the "classic" anaphylactic picture of your throat closing up. Finally I was tested for several spices and foods and found out that yes, indeed, there was a measurable histamine skin reaction, so now when I am uncertain about ingredients, I simply say "No, thank you."

A chart from my husband's allergist - he has his own collection of allergies - describing botanical families helped me to relate what I thought were a large number of allergies and combine them into groups of related substances.

One of the most challenging aspects of spice allergies is that it makes it difficult to buy any prepared foods because of that cryptic word "spices" on the ingredients list. I no longer buy products with that kind of labelling or contact the company for more info.

It's also hard to decline those homemade baked goods that people give you when they cannot remember the ingredients - these days when I know that I am dealing with someone who either doesn't know us well or is not tuned in to allergies I just smile graciously, say "thank you", and re-gift or recycle.

Own allergies: nightshades (e.g. tomatoes, potatoes, peppers), evergreen spices (e.g. cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves), certain antibiotics

Family allergies: poultry, celery, sesame, hazelnuts, squid

Intolerances: lactose

Thanks for answers, all.

Marla, you're so right that people often fail to understand that a food allergy has many different symptoms (from respiratory to GI to skin and even at times, cardio), and you don't necessarily get them all. Also, to add to the confusion, you can have symptoms that are mild for years and suddenly have a serious reaction.

I personally missed milder soy allergy symptoms for years – thinking it was a flu or I didn't agree with a sauce .... I would think it would be easy to think such with spices, too.

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Allergic to soy, peanut, shellfish, penicillin