Water-based foods like iceberg lettuce and watermelon?
Just a WAG.
Nope. I’ve personally known someone allergic to watermelon.
Personally, I think whatever food you name someone somewhere has been allergic to it.
Human flesh? That would be an interesting study.
And how did this person know they were allergic to watermelon? This is a serious question. Did they have a double blind challenge? Have formal skin prick testing?
Or did they just decide they reacted to watermelon and so they must be allergic?
Self-reporting of food allergies runs as high as 30% in countries where the official tested rate is no more than 4%. Most people who think they have allergies don’t. Nor do they have food intolerances or anything that is consistent and testable. They reacted and decided. Not the same thing as an allergy.
Had had no other food that day. Was at a picnic, picked up a slice of watermelon, and took a big bite. Mouth, lips, tongue, throat swelled up. Wheezing and difficulty breathing ensued. Paramedics called. Much consternation, administered oxygen, spoke of “shock”. Taken to ER and treated. Doctors instructed patient to avoid watermelon in the future and issued an epi-pen.
I don’t know - do you really need a “double-blind” challenge or formal skin prick testing after anaphylatic shock?
Said person also told to avoid other melons as a precaution, as cross-reactivity does occur sometimes, but I have no idea if said person had formal testing for, say, cantaloupes. But, definitely, watermelon was a problem.
Testing for bee sting allergy came up negative - apparently the docs did consider the possibility of a bee being on the slice he bit into, but that seems to have been eliminated.
Mind you, I completely agree that allergies are over-reported and testing is valuable. However, not everyone saying “I have an allergy” is lying or mistaken. Myself, I have had formal allergy testing, I do have genuine allergies (I’ve had two trips to the ER myself from them), and your level of skepticism can, under some circumstances, be really annoying even if I would normally fully support said skepticism.
Yes, I am always skeptical of these claims. I am skeptical when someone claims to have had no food at all in a day. I also note that that the Mayo Clinic discusses the fact that:
If ragweed is the primary underlying cause then saying that the person has an allergy to watermelon can leave that person open to a shock even in a watermelon-less future.
Allergy is almost always more complicated than people think it is.
How does he live? :eek: What does he eat?
Well of course She did. She also created avocados, and made the pits too big, so I’m not saying She didn’t have an occasional Senior Moment.
But I thought the standard Bible lore is that manna was an emergency survival ration for the people (whoever they were) who would otherwise have starved; realizing you were allergic to it would have been quite a blow to one’s self-esteem, and I don’t think AG Herself would be that thoughtless.
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And if the person doesn’t have a ragweed allergy they might well be reacting to watermelon in which case he really should avoid it.
I’m not privy to the man’s exact medical history. Neither are you. As I said, while I applaud skepticism too much of the sort you exhibit can make my life hell as people earnestly try to convince me I’m not allergic to foods that I have actually been proven to be allergic to.
You might notice that I’ve been arguing that people should know more about their allergies, not less. And that people, including you, shouldn’t diagnose others on the basis of no sound medical opinion. And that it isn’t about you.
The gentleman I mentioned was diagnosed by medical doctors who told him he had an allergy to watermelon and to avoid it in the future. I had and still have no reason to question that. You were the one who cast doubt on a diagnosis by trained medical personnel.
Almost any “natural” (i.e., not highly processed) foodstuff is going to have some protein in it, including things like like watermelons. Just because they are are largely water does not mean that there are not potential allergens in the part that isn’t water. I don’t know about watermelons specifically, but I myself am mildly allergic - or in some way sensitive, anyway - to cantaloupe. It causes a nasty and persisting itching sensation in my throat, not unlike what I have also experienced from hay fever. I have confirmed this on numerous occasions, as I like the taste of cantaloupe very much, and can usually get away with one or two pieces before the itching gets too bad; but if I eat much more it gets really quite unpleasant.
Oh God. I’m busted.
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A close friend of mind claims to be now allergic to some salads (I don’t know if one of them is lettuce or not).
However,although she does have a variety of severe allergies, and to more and more foodstuff as time pass, her claims are about specific foods are often dubious and variable (she has a mild allergic reaction and decides apparently a bit randomly that it has to be, say, the lettuce).
She hasn’t been tested for salad (I don’t even know if you can be tested for that), so, take this anecdote with a grain of salt.
It’s a more common allergy than wheat in Japan. For some reason people get allergic to their culture’s staples… Soy bean allergy is also very common here. These two points told me by my son’s allergist.
(And my son is mildly allergic to rice and quite allergic to soy. Sigh.)
This first cite seems to be reporting anaphylaxis on the part of the mother, which seems even stranger than an infant being allergic to its mother’s milk.
So, uh… glucose? Yeah, glucose.
Reported.