Ever since I was a teenager, I have been unable to eat fresh, raw fruit. Well, not all fruit - bananas and grapes and oranges are
ok. But most fruit with an edible skin (apples, peaches, pears, plums, cherries, nectarines, etc.) would cause my mouth and throat to itch like mad. Sometimes I would suffer through the itch, just to have a taste of a sweet juicy apple. But most days, it wasn't worth the suffering.
Interestingly enough, I can eat all of those above foods, if they are cooked or processed in any way. Raw apple? No. Apple pie? Yes!
I figured it was a pesticide that I was allergic to. It's frustrating walking through a garden market or grocery store, and seeing the mouth-watering array of fresh fruit, only to go home with the basic orange-banana-red grape combo. It gets boring after a while.
Well, I have had a lot of other (unrelated) allergy issues this year, and my doctor referred me to see an Allergist. Today was my appointment. We started with a 20-minute history of what I suspect I am allergic to, and my reactions to those things. Then came the scratch test; the serum of ~50 suspected allergens were placed on my forearms, and a nurse then used a tiny needle to scratch my skin through the serum. It didn't take long. My arms lit up like a Christmas tree.
Here's the interesting part: it turns out that all of my food allergies are caused by a singular allergy to birch tree pollen! Apparently, the protein in birch tree pollen has a specific marker; I have developed antibodies to that marker. BUT -- all of my fruit allergies above, plus additional sensitivities I have to carrots, celery, almonds and walnuts, are related to that marker. All of these foods have a protein marker with very similar characteristics to the birch marker that I am allergic to. So, my immune system goes a little crazy, reacts to the marker it thinks is birch, and boom! I have an allergic reaction.
Oh, and the reason I can have apple pie? Cooking or processing fruit destroys that protein. So the marker on the fruit protein no longer
resemmbles the birch protein marker. The antibodies won't react to the destroyed protein marker.
Amazing.
Now, this is all well and interesting, but there's nothing they can do about it. There is no "cure". I will never be able to eat those raw foods comfortably. And yet there is such a weight off my shoulders this evening! I'm thrilled to know that this is ultimately only one true allergy, and my body has not gone haywire/berserk to more things I can count.
And it's common. It has a name: Oral Allergy Syndrome, or OAS. This pleases me to no end. Because now I am not alone, I am not crazy, I am not a freak, I am not a hypochondriac. This is a legitimate syndrome, that people across the world suffer from. I am relieved at not being alone.
I still wish I could eat a raw apple though. I have always loved fruit. Fruit is the perfect filling food - sweet, fibrous, portable, tasty. All things that would be ideal when trying to lose weight.
(And apple pie is not - I checked.)
