Banana allergy: to eat or not to eat - that is the question

Banana is a fruit that smells good and is never sour, which is why children like it so much from an early age. Adults are also not averse to pampering themselves with a sweet fruit with a pleasant aroma and delicate taste. Manufacturers take advantage of the little weaknesses of consumers and actively add banana fruit to baked goods, yoghurts, cereals and other products. The banana smell, and sometimes the taste, is used by cosmetics manufacturers. You won’t surprise anyone with a banana-scented deodorant or hygienic lipstick. Of course, there is little left of the banana itself. Let's return to the fruit itself.

Why do allergies occur?

In recent years, bananas have become an indispensable product for many families.
This sweet tropical fruit is loved not only by children, but also by adults. Pediatricians even recommend introducing it (in small quantities) as complementary food to babies in their first year of life. But not everyone knows the fact that bananas can provoke an allergic reaction. According to statistics, from 0.2 to 1.2% of the population suffer from this disease. Experts say one of the reasons for the development of a similar situation is excess serotonin, which is found in large quantities in bananas. Therefore, such a reaction is called pseudo-allergic, indicating an excess of the “happiness hormone” in the blood. If you exclude fruits enriched with serotonin from your diet for a while, the level of the substance in the body will normalize and allergy symptoms will go away.

True (true) banana allergy is very rare. This immune system response is associated with intolerance to certain substances that tropical fruits contain.

Most often, allergies are provoked not by bananas themselves, but by the chemicals that were used to process them during transportation and storage. Young children are especially at risk of developing a pathological condition.

Preventive measures

Whether you can be allergic to bananas depends on many factors. When it is already present, the main method of prevention is to completely exclude this fruit from the diet. If there is no intolerance, but there is a tendency to food allergies, then the product simply should not be abused. In such a case, a hypoallergenic diet would be desirable. This will be enough to avoid problems.

Banana is a moderately active allergen that can sometimes cause an allergic reaction, so its use should be approached with caution, especially when introducing the product into a child’s diet. Regardless of age, intolerance can develop due to chemical processing, and therefore do not forget to wash the fruit before eating.

Banana allergy in infants

A banana allergy in a newborn baby can begin after the mother ate a banana and breastfed him. Because a banana component entered the body along with milk, which causes a reaction.

One way to avoid this problem is for the mother to eat bananas in limited quantities during pregnancy. In this case, the child will be prepared to use the product and the body will not react negatively to it.

When a baby develops an allergy to bananas while breastfeeding, it requires the mother to completely abstain from the fruit for a month. Then you are allowed to eat a small piece and check what happens to the child.

There should be at least three such trial techniques. After the mother is convinced that the baby’s symptoms of immunity have disappeared, you can increase the amount of product to half. Nursing women should not eat more than one fruit per day.

Symptoms

Signs of allergies in infants are considered to be abnormalities in the functioning of the digestive system:

• constipation;
• diarrhea;
• bloating;
• colic;
• increased gas formation.

External symptoms include a rash on the body and face, and anxiety due to itching.

Treatment

For those who doubt whether it is possible to eat bananas if you have an allergy, the answer from experts is this. If you are not allergic to yellow fruits, then you can. To reduce the risk of a reaction, the mother needs to properly handle the fruit.

For example, heat treatment changes the properties of the product, so it is preferable to use dried slices. To remove preservatives from the skin, wash your hands after removing it.

You need to try all the ways that will help prevent the onset of a reaction. If the methods do not work and your child develops allergy symptoms, stop eating bananas immediately.

Try the recommended solutions:

1. Adding decoctions of string, chamomile, sea salt to the bath when bathing to relieve skin irritation.
2. Using techniques to cleanse the intestines of toxic substances. For example, with activated carbon - for a child under one year old - 1 tablet per day.
3. If the condition does not improve, it is necessary to proceed to drug therapy as prescribed by the doctor.

When treating with activated carbon, other drugs should not be taken, because the absorption of the sorbent will be impaired.

Types of tests for allergies

If the patient suspects that he has an allergy to bananas, he should first of all exclude this product from the diet. This diagnostic method is called an elimination test. It is most often used to identify food allergies. In addition, almost any modern allergy clinic provides the opportunity to do immediate skin tests (intradermal injection of the allergen).

First of all, the patient must follow a hypoallergenic diet, which involves excluding from the menu not only bananas themselves, but also completely all foods that can provoke a negative reaction of the immune system. If the symptoms of the pathology persist, you should consult an allergist.

To suppress the allergic reaction, you should take drugs that block histamine receptors. Antihistamines can not only relieve signs of the disease, but also prevent their development in advance. The most well-known and effective medications in this category include the following:

• "Suprastin";
• "Diazolin";
• "Claritin";
• "Loratadine";
• "Zodak";
• "Tavegil";
• "Astemizole";
• "Fenkalor";
• "Cetrin".

It should be borne in mind that some drugs have a more powerful preventive effect and have little effect on already manifested allergy symptoms.

Diagnostics

Modern medicine knows many ways to test your body for allergens. This includes a molecular blood test, which studies the reaction to various types of proteins. These are also prick tests that show whether there is a reaction on the skin. There are also all kinds of tests and samples. You should start by visiting a general practitioner and an allergist-immunologist, who will prescribe an adequate examination. After this, with the results in hand, you can get a doctor’s prescription for the treatment of a particular ailment. The doctor will explain how to adjust the diet, what to add, and what to temporarily abstain from.

So, having considered this topic in detail, we give clear recommendations:

1. You can eat fruit, but little by little, taking a break.
2. We do not completely remove the product from the diet.
3. We carry antihistamines in our purse.
4. We also add ointment to the tablets for greater effectiveness.
5. On vacation, we carefully look at what is growing around the hotel. We avoid banana palm trees.
6. We look not only at what we eat, but also at what we drink, avoiding banana cocktails and toppings.
7. Just in case, we avoid latex products until we do a full examination or skin prick test for allergens.

Your health is in your hands. Don’t delay going to the doctor and don’t let illness overshadow your life.

Children's allergies

Allergies to bananas are more common in children than in adults, since the children's body reacts more sharply to external irritants.

The symptoms of the disease are the same as in adults, the only difference is the speed of the reaction and its danger. In children, swelling of the lips and larynx is more common, so if the child is allergic, it is better to consume this fruit in small quantities and not constantly.

Allergy to bananas in infants occurs in two cases. The first, when the expectant mother abused this overseas fruit during pregnancy, and the second, if a woman, during the feeding period, inadvertently allowed herself to eat several bananas during the day and the allergen, through the mother’s milk, entered the baby’s body.

In any case, an allergy can only be identified when it shows symptoms. If during the examination it turns out that banana is the allergen, then:

• Under no circumstances should a nursing mother eat bananas, persimmons, avocados, or kiwis;
• Artificial mixtures should not contain banana and its derivatives;
• The child is prescribed a hypoallergenic diet for at least 14 days.

Prevention

Sometimes one banana may not cause a reaction, but their uncontrolled use will lead to severe forms of allergic manifestations.

Everything needs to be done in moderation; if there is a minimal amount of serotine in the body, then there may not be a food allergy.

For the purpose of prevention, it is necessary to switch to a hypoallergenic diet, a course of recovery – 2-3 weeks.

During this period, you need to exclude highly allergenic foods from your diet, such as:

• citrus;
• fish;
• milk;
• canned food, followed by moderately allergenic products - cereals, fatty meats, sour berries.

At this stage, the food allergy goes away.

If it appears again after some time, then you need to undergo a full course of examination and take serious steps to eliminate it.

See how to get rid of an allergy to apples. Read on for the reasons for sperm allergies in women.

To learn about using eggshells for allergies in children, go here.

Treatment

Diagnosis is carried out in a medical facility. The doctor either makes a test by applying allergens to a small puncture in the wrist area, or conducts a blood test to detect the presence of immunoglobulins in it. Having identified an allergy to bananas, the specialist will prescribe an antihistamine and diet.

Diet restrictions for banana allergies are quite strict:

• you cannot eat tropical fruits themselves, any banana purees, cakes, pastries, curds, yoghurts with appropriate fillings;
• other sources of dietary serotonin are excluded - chocolate in all forms, cocoa, confectionery, figs, dried figs, fruit purees and juices;
• limited cheeses and macadamia nuts;
• products that burden the immune and digestive systems are excluded - canned food, smoked meats, deli meats;
• limited to caffeinated coffee, cola, sports drinks with guarana

How long to follow the diet? With a true allergy, the patient usually eats whole grains, green vegetables, lean meat, vegetable oils, green apples and gooseberries all his life. Is this bad? As you can see, such a person definitely shouldn’t be afraid of being overweight.

The so-called false allergy is a condition when a person remembers the symptoms of food poisoning that arose for another reason that has nothing to do with fruit. Most often, vomiting and diarrhea occur if we eat expired dairy products, canned food or yogurt. In “second place” are cakes with butter or butter cream. But it also happens that a person gets alcohol poisoning at a banquet, but for some reason remembers the banana snack.

A false allergy is a kind of “habit” of the body, but even if a real reaction does not occur, it is recommended to avoid bananas.

Treatment of false allergies is diet therapy. Usually food poisoning plagues a person with a chaotic eating style. Such people neglect the rules of nutrition, do not wash fruits and vegetables, or eat exclusively in public catering and at banquets. Nutritionists recommend cooking 80% of the food yourself, and using going out as an opportunity to socialize, rather than ruining all the snack plates within a 1 km radius.

Often false allergies are associated with disorders of the immune and digestive systems. If any are identified during diagnosis, the underlying diseases should be treated according to the profile, then the allergy will go away.

Elimination of the symptoms of the disease begins with stopping the use of the product. If necessary, drug therapy is added. It is necessary to relieve unpleasant symptoms - runny nose, itching, irritation, swelling.

1. Suprastin and Tavegil are used to relieve symptoms.
2. Enterosorbents in the form of activated carbon and polysorb help remove toxins from the body.
3. Ointments and creams like Sinoflan are used to eliminate skin manifestations.

Drug treatment consists of eliminating the effect of the allergen. That is, if you suspect such an allergy, you should not eat bananas, at least until the diagnosis is confirmed or refuted.

For gastrointestinal disorders, you can take sorbents (activated carbon, polysorb). It should be noted that sorbents remove both harmful (allergen) and beneficial substances (medicines) from the body, therefore all medications must be taken 1.5 hours before and after consuming sorbents, otherwise they will simply be eliminated from the body without having any positive effect .

Respiratory and skin symptoms can be relieved by taking non-sedating antihistamines. These include loratadine, tavegil. For severe skin itching and urticaria, ointments based on hormones provide relief. However, they cannot be applied to large areas of skin for a long time.

Folk recipes

Dill helps soothe itching and relieve inflammation. You need to take the greens of this plant and squeeze the juice out of it (2-3 teaspoons), add the same amount of boiled cool water. Soak a cotton swab in the resulting medicine and apply to the itchy area for 25-35 minutes.

For the same purposes, use a decoction of chamomile and string. One tablespoon of herbs is poured into a glass of boiling water, left for a quarter of an hour and applied as a lotion to the rash.

An allergy to bananas, the symptoms of which are a consequence of a true allergic reaction or a pseudo-allergy, should not be left without treatment. However, sensitivity to these fruits can only be effectively eliminated by combining therapeutic and preventive measures. So, first of all, you should:

1. Stop eating bananas. If the symptoms gradually go away, you don’t need to do anything - you just need to eliminate this fruit from your diet in the future. Immediately rinse your mouth with clean water to remove any remaining pulp from the mucous membrane. The patient may be sensitive to other allergens, and not only food ones - it is important to remember this when creating a diet.
2. Use medications as needed. They are needed if the symptoms are very pronounced and cause significant discomfort to the patient. To cope with allergies, you can use medications from the antihistamine group - Loratadine, Claritin, Cetirizine, etc. Sometimes more powerful drugs are required - glucocorticosteroids (Mometasone, Beclomethasone). It is worth remembering that not all antiallergic drugs can be taken by children and pregnant women, so you need to carefully read the instructions and consult a doctor.
3. Seek medical help. Even if the symptoms were managed to stop on their own, the possibility of a repeat allergy episode cannot be ruled out - and it may be more severe. To protect yourself, you need to consult a doctor, conduct the necessary tests and choose the appropriate treatment - including those drugs that can be used for quick relief if bananas were accidentally consumed.

If the manifestations of allergies increase sharply, a person is suffocating, clouding of consciousness occurs, a rash appears all over the body, it can be assumed that anaphylaxis is developing. In this case, you should immediately call an ambulance, reporting the expected diagnosis, listen to the dispatcher’s recommendations, and, if possible, immediately administer to the patient a drug called Adrenaline (Epinephrine) in the form of a 0.1% solution and in an amount of 0.3-0.5 ml. The injection is made intramuscularly into the area of ​​the anterolateral surface of the thigh (where the vastus lateralis muscle is located).

It is better to prevent a disease than to treat it - a well-known statement perfectly suits the discussion of the reaction to bananas. Allergy is a pathology that cannot in any way be considered harmless, even if it manifests itself only as nasal congestion. Unfortunately, the severity of an allergic reaction cannot always be predicted, so it is preferable to follow an elimination diet (that is, exclude bananas from the diet) and avoid cosmetics containing this fruit.

Fenistil will help relieve allergy symptoms

• Elimination of allergen entry into the body.
• Inclusion in the diet of a large amount of liquid, which promotes the rapid elimination of the provoking substance and its compounds in the urine.
• Relieving allergy symptoms with the help of medications - antihistamine tablets and drops (Suprastin, Cetrin, Loratadine, Zyrtec, Fenistil, Clemastin);
• products for topical use in the form of gels, ointments, creams (“Fenistil-gel”, “Akriderm”, “La Cree”, “Advantan”);
• solutions for injections for severe pathology (“Dexomethasone”, “Prednisolone”);
• medications for allergic rhinitis (“Allergodil”, “Vibrocil”);
• drugs for dry cough (“Bronchicum”, “Lazolvan”).

Gentle treatment with folk remedies for banana allergies has proven itself to be effective:

• Mix crushed burdock root, violet herb and walnut leaves in equal proportions. Pour two tablespoons of the mixture into a glass of hot water, leave covered for 20-30 minutes, cool and strain. Drink 2 tbsp three times a day. infusion, regardless of food intake. The course of treatment is 14 days.
• Mix 2 tbsp. chamomile, St. John's wort and rose hips, pour 0.5 liters of boiling water, leave for an hour and strain. Drink 50 g of the drink three times a day before meals.
• For a dry cough and sore throat, brew mint, lemon balm, hop cones, valerian root and herb into tea.
• Drink a decoction of celery root 0.5 cups three times a day. The duration of treatment is not limited.
• Soak gauze with fresh juice or dill decoction, apply a compress to areas of the body covered with a rash.
• To relieve skin allergies, regularly take baths with the addition of pine needles, chamomile, and sea salt.

The course of treatment must be prescribed by a specialist

Detailed clinical picture

Itchy mouth

• discomfort is observed in the palate;
• there may be a burning sensation in the lips;
• dryness;
• sore throat feeling.

If symptoms persist for a long time, they can become chronic, causing breathing problems.

Digestive problems

If after every banana you eat, the following appear in your stomach:

• discomfort;
• flatulence;
• colic;
• bowel dysfunction;
• nausea and vomiting means you need to stop consuming the product and seek medical help to determine the causes of such disorders.

Skin problems

It turns out that an allergy to bananas can lead to the development of diseases such as hives and eczema, which form an itchy rash.

The rash can be localized in one place, on the face or hands, or spread throughout the body.

Edema

An advanced state of burning in the mouth and itching often progresses to swelling of the lips, tongue, eyes and throat.

Such symptoms can lead to problems swallowing food, causing shortness of breath and rapid heartbeat.

Anaphylaxis

A rare and particularly dangerous reaction to bananas.

Shock causes a narrowing of the airways, the person feels a lump in the throat and cannot inhale and exhale freely.

There is a sharp drop in blood pressure, which leads to loss of consciousness.

The mechanism of pathology development

There are two mechanisms for the development of banana allergy.
It has been established that when consuming the product, a pathological reaction can develop through two mechanisms:

• Pseudoallergy to tryptophan. Bananas contain a large amount of amino acid, which is the basis for the synthesis of serotonin - the “happiness hormone”, which is involved in the work of the hypothalamus, normalizes vascular tone, regulates the synthesis of certain hormones and reduces pain sensitivity. The tryptophan derivative is the most important mediator of the central nervous system and has an effect on the body similar to histamine, which is responsible for the development of allergies. Therefore, when serotonin accumulates, some groups of patients experience signs of food intolerance that are indistinguishable from a typical allergic reaction. The process is caused by the same mediators, but is not accompanied by the release of antibodies and lymphocytes produced during the response of the immune system to contact with a provoking substance.
• True allergy. Most often, the allergen is drugs that are used to treat fruit to increase shelf life and transportation, or components of banana pulp, with the exception of tryptophan. When these substances enter the body, they are recognized by the brain as foreign aggressor elements and are immediately attacked by cells of the immune system. During the response, products are synthesized that are responsible for the development of skin, respiratory and other allergic manifestations.

It has been proven that in the vast majority of cases, a negative reaction after eating exotic fruits develops according to the first mechanism and belongs to the group of false food allergies.
True banana allergies are very rare.