Green Smoothie: Negative Reaction - Hives

[pomervilled]

Hi,

I haven't posted in quite awhile. I regulary drink green smoothies or as I call them, blended salads. This week my blend has been: tomato, lime, green onion, cucumber, baby spinach, kale, and parsley (all organic).

Twice this week I have broke out in horrible hives within 30 minutes after drinking a large glass. The first time, I wasn't sure what happened. Today I had my drink around 3 p.m. and by 3:30 p.m. my scalp got hot and started tingling/itching. Next my face and ears flushed. Soon thereafter, my arms, trunk, and legs are covered with red itchy blotches.

Is it possible to develop vegetable allergies? I've read about cross-allergy reactions. This is the first year I've ever had any type of pollen allergies (moved to Houston 3 years ago). The pine and cypress trees were very heavy pollinators this year.

Help! Has this ever happened to anyone else? I have an appointment with an Allergist on September 14.

Thanks in advance,
Dawn

[Lori French]

Wondering about a detox reaction??? Have you been drinking them for a while? This combo??

Have you recently changed your workout of maybe eating more carp that *needs* detoxed??

Are you drinking *your* usual amount of water?

Just some things to ponder....

[surely_5]

An allergy is possible, yes.

Another possibility to explore is that you may be having a pseudo allergy reaction, meaning the signs and symptoms look like an allergy reaction but you're technically not having an immune response to the food. Diets such as the Feingold Diet and the Failsafe Diet were created to deal with this. There are many different food components and/or food additives that can trigger a reaction. For example, some people can't handle the histamine that naturally occurs in tomatoes (I'm one of them . . . I get itchy and my muscles will be stiff the day after I have more than a couple bites of tomato). There are different theories as to why this is a problem for some people – nutrient deficiency resulting in an inability to fully metabolize the foods, impaired gut health, and genetic tendencies are some thories. Here are some websites to begin doing research.

www.feingold.org
www.fedupwithfoodadditives.info
www.heal-thyself.ning.com

[pomervilled]

I don't think it is a detox reaction. I have been drinking this type of blended salad for a few months. My exercise habits are relatively the same and I drink at least 64 oz of water most days.

I'm also buying my organic produce at the same grocery store, haven't changed detergents or anything else that I can think of. Very frustrating! I will take a look at the links posted above. Thanks!

Still would like to know if anyone else has had a reaction like this...

[Callicrowe]

I haven't had a reaction like this to anything I've eaten, but I have had hives. Did lots of research on them and found that most of the time the cause is never found. Mine was a different situation, and I did get rid of them, but still don't know what caused them. Every now and then one or two will show up on my hands or arms, but they go away in a few hours. In my research I read a lot of stories of what people went through and it's apparently a tough thing to pin down. Hope you figure it out... hives are no fun.