What foods should not be eaten if you have facial allergies?

During a facial allergy, the first thing you must avoid are foods that you know will induce or aggravate your allergy after consumption, as well as foods that are positive in allergen tests. Other foods that are highly allergenic, highly irritating, and may aggravate the inflammatory reaction are recommended to be avoided during the attack.

Not long ago, a young girl who just graduated came to consult me. She suffered from pollen allergy in spring and her face was red, swollen and itchy for almost a week. It was almost gone. My friend made an appointment to eat garlic crayfish, thinking that it would be fine if it wasn't spicy. After eating half a portion, her face was so hot that she could fry an egg. She also developed a small rash, which took almost a week to heal. She later checked her allergens and found out that she was slightly intolerant to shrimp protein. She usually ate one or two and was fine. During the allergy period, her immune system was disordered, so this intolerance directly triggered her symptoms.

In fact, the aggravation of allergies in many people is not caused by eating some "hair-raising substance", but by stepping on the trap of high histamine foods. For example, stale seafood, cured fish and bacon that have been pickled for more than half a year, aged cheese that has been fermented for a long time, and even mangoes and pineapples that are ripe and soft have high histamine content. When allergic, the capillaries of the facial skin are already in a state of dilation and leakage. Too much histamine intake will completely add fuel to the fire, and the symptoms of redness, itching, and swelling will be doubled. The same is true for alcohol, strong tea, and spicy food, which will speed up blood circulation. The red blood streaks that were originally eliminated may come back after eating butter hot pot.

Speaking of this, some people must ask, are the beef, mutton, and seafood mentioned by the elders not allowed to be eaten? This is actually still controversial. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that such pungent and warm foods will aggravate body surface diseases, but modern medicine does not have a clear definition of "hair substance". Among the patients I have interacted with, some people ate beef stew every day to supplement their nutrition during the allergy period, and they recovered faster than anyone else. There were also people who ate a mouthful of steamed fish and their face swelled into a bun the same day. There is really no unified standard of taboos. There is no need to ban all highly nutritious proteins. On the contrary, the immunity cannot keep up, and the allergy is delayed for a longer time. If you are really unsure, just take one or two small bites and observe that it does not get worse for a long time and then you can eat normally. If you feel uncomfortable, just avoid it next time.

There is another detail that is easily overlooked. If you often go out to bask in the sun when you are allergic, it is best to avoid photosensitive foods such as celery, coriander, and gray cabbage. I met a patient before who ate dumplings stuffed with celery for three days in a row when his allergy was almost over. He also spent twenty minutes in the sun every day when he went out to eat at noon. The rash on his face that had subsided appeared again, and the brown discoloration remained for a while. This is because the photosensitive food aggravated the irritation of ultraviolet rays on the skin, which is equivalent to adding an allergen to himself.

In fact, there is really no universal list of taboos for facial allergies. The most reliable thing is to combine your own actual reactions. After all, everyone's physical condition is not the same. What others eat with no problem may be aggravated by your exposure. If you are really confused, just keep a simple food diary. Mark what you eat and whether you have any reactions on your face. It is much more useful than blindly searching for taboo lists on the Internet.