It's official, I'm allergic to strawberries :(

Oh how much I loved you... all plump and juicy and sweet... I suspected it, but now it's been confirmed - Fairwell sweet tasty fruit that you are!

Sigh.

I'm really bummed.

I've been suspecting this for a long time, but you see, I have a truckload of allergies (grass, trees including birch trees that grow all over the country, other various pollens, ragweed, various fruits... etc).

I had mainly been eating strawberries in the Spring to early Fall every year, and of course, since I take allergy meds because I have so many allergies that flare up in that same time-frame, I hadn't suspected that the strawberries were making me worst since the meds were toning down the reactions.

But this Fall, I decided to run a test. I totally removed strawberries from my diet up until this week (so a good 3 months), and since it's winter and we've had some deep deep frosty cold weather, I haven't needed to take any allergy meds in a while now (good thing), so this week, I decided to re-introduce strawberries to see what my reaction would be.

Sigh.

I ate some a few nights ago on top of my cereals and milk, and it didn't take too long for my ear canal to start itching (that's because your throat and inner ears start to swell in response to an allergen)... and then my nose started to run, sneezing, allergic rhinitis set in, the whole nine yards.

I gave it a couple of days without touching it again, and last night, I loaded a lot of strawberries on my evening bowl of cereal.

Sure enough, I had another reaction, quite bad actually. I didn't go into anaphalactic shock, this allergy isn't as bad as the one I have to bananas (got my epi pen), but I really had a nasty allergic episode and I took some Benadryl liquid and things calmed down after awhile.

I suspected I was allergic to strawberries for a long time, and I am very much allergic to birch trees, and I have hay fever (both the Spring and Fall kind) and countless other allergies. I get the same reaction that I did to the strawberries from cantaloups, honeydew melons, pears, citrus fruits. It's not a bad to bananas, but bad enough that I really need to stay away from it.

Today I've got a really nasty sinus headache (thanks to the allergic reaction that upsets my head/sinuses to no end). But at least, now I know, and I will keep away from it as of now. It makes me very sad, but I have no choice.

Here's some info about allergies to strawberries.

On another note - I weighed-in this morning for WW and I went up by 0.2 lbs (basically a stand-still). I was expecting a gain because I did eat pizza and chocolate cake on a few occasions this past week (very small portions of cake) for my husband's birthday. I also did not drink all my water every day, and so I'm happy I didn't come out of this with more of a gain.

So, although I feel absolutely miserable and my head wants to explode. I've cooked myself a casserole (kind of a vegan chili, really delicious) and I've been sticking to drinking my water today.

I'm still eating vegetarian, I'm holding strong on my GoVeg pledge that I made on January 1st for the entire month :)

At least I'm not allergic to apples and blueberries (yet!).