What foods should not be eaten with allergic rhinitis

There is no universal list of taboos for allergic rhinitis. The only foods you should 100% avoid are the foods you are clearly allergic to - either the moderately or severely allergic foods found in allergen testing, or the foods that actually cause nasal itching, sneezing, or worsening nasal congestion the same day after you actually eat them. The rest of the taboos should be adjusted according to your own situation, and you don't have to follow other people's lists.

Two years ago, I met an older brother who had suffered from rhinitis for 10 years. He was severely allergic to cashews after checking his allergens. At the last party, someone handed him a cookie with chopped cashews. He didn't pay attention and ate half of a cookie. He sneezed more than 20 times on the spot, and his eyes were swollen until there was only a slit. When he was sent to the hospital, he also suffered from mild laryngeal edema. Don't take chances with this kind of food that has definitely touched the ground.

As for the most commonly circulated statement on the Internet, "You can't eat cold food", it's actually very controversial. If you are prone to rhinitis in autumn and winter, sneeze when blowing cold wind, and usually have cold hands and feet. If you drink a cup of ice milk tea, you may become clogged and unable to breathe through your nose within half an hour. Then you should avoid ice drinks and ice watermelon just taken out of the refrigerator. But if you are usually afraid of heat but not cold, eating something cold will not cause any discomfort at all. There is no need to strictly avoid it. I have seen many patients avoid cold food for more than half a year in order to "preserve rhinitis". The rhinitis has not improved. Instead, they have oral ulcers every day, and their mood is much worse. On the contrary, it is more likely to cause rhinitis attacks.

There is also the question of whether to avoid high histamine foods. Many people may not be allergic to seafood, but if they eat leftover fish that has been stored for a day or two, stale sashimi, or freshly marinated bacon and pickles, they will suddenly start to have an itchy and runny nose. This is because these types of food have been stored for a long time, fermented, and pickled. The food contains high histamine content. Originally, when allergic rhinitis attacks, the nasal mucosa is particularly sensitive to histamine. Eating these foods is equivalent to adding fuel to the burning inflammation, so it is best to avoid them during the attack period. If there is no reaction after eating a small amount during the remission period, there is no need to completely avoid the food.

Many people are still confused about whether they can eat spicy food. In fact, it also depends on the situation. If you are experiencing a rhinitis attack and the nasal mucosa itself is severely congested and swollen, and you eat spicy hot pot at this time, the stimulation of capsaicin will cause the blood vessels to dilate even more, which will only worsen the congestion and runny nose, so you must take some time off. But if you don’t have any symptoms and don’t react at all to some mildly spicy home-cooked food, there is no need to stop eating it completely. After all, eating well will make you feel good and your immunity will be more stable, which can actually reduce the frequency of rhinitis attacks.

Don’t blindly limit foods. I met a 6-year-old patient before. My mother heard that eggs and milk were “hair-raising foods” and she banned them for almost a year. However, he still had rhinitis. During the physical examination, he was almost 2 centimeters shorter than his peers. Later, he went for an allergen test and found that the child was not allergic to eggs and milk at all. He quickly resumed his diet and adjusted it for more than half a year before he caught up with the average level. If you are really unsure about what you can and cannot eat, just keep a food diary. Write down what you ate on a day when your rhinitis suddenly worsened. If you match it two or three times in a row, then avoid it. This is much more reliable than a random list of taboos found online.