Avoid an Allergy Attack This Holiday Season
While food is the heart of the holiday season, patients that suffer from food allergies may find it challenging to avoid coming in contact with allergens and preventing an allergy attack. Whether you’re hosting this year or traveling to see loved ones, use these tips to have a happy and healthy season.
Diagnose Your Allergies
When it comes to food allergies, our bodies feel “threatened” by a substance within a certain food, and create an antibody against it (called IgE). If a person eats the food again, these IgE antibodies are activated and signal to the immune system to “attack” the substance.
Though allergies tend to form during childhood, they can form at any time and at any age. This is especially true for patients diagnosed with food allergies, who may have previously had no issue with an allergen. If you recently have experienced sensitivity to any foods, you should visit an allergist for testing and treatment.
If you have existing allergies, you should visit your allergist regularly to stay on top of any new symptoms and changes to your medication.
Come Prepared
With a treatment plan in place for your allergies, you can rest assured knowing that your symptoms are being managed. However, it’s always best to bring additional medication with you if you’re going to an event. This means also bringing your EpiPen if you’ve been prescribed one in the event of an emergency.
If you do have an EpiPen, be sure that your host or a loved one knows how to use it in the event of an allergic reaction.
Choose Whole, Unprocessed Foods
For any patients with food allergies, we always recommend switching to a diet focused on whole foods. For the holidays, this can be hard to do with so many sweet treats on the table that are often not made of unprocessed ingredients. However, one of the best ways to reduce your risks of an allergy attack is to eat foods that are not processed or refined (and therefore do not contain added fats, sugar, salt, or chemicals). These options include:
- Grains
- Beans and legumes
- Nuts and seeds
- Fruits and vegetables
- Fresh meat, poultry, and seafood
If you do mix processed foods into your diet, be sure to read the label closely for any allergy triggers.
Consider Hosting for the Holidays
Often, patients that have a food allergy find it easier to host at home rather than attending a family event. At home, you can control the ingredients in all of the dishes you’ve made and can request that guests be mindful of your allergies in any dishes they bring. Be sure to ask your guests to label every ingredient so you know what’s safe to eat.
Communicate Your Allergies
If you aren’t hosting this year, you can use these same methods when going to your loved one’s home. Before you attend a get-together, communicate your allergy with the host. Let them know what foods cause you a reaction, and what the reaction is. Then, you can mention labeling ingredients or possibly making an allergy-free table to prevent cross-contamination of foods.
Track Your Symptoms
While your host may try hard to make the holidays as stress-free as possible, cross-contamination and mislabeling can happen. If you do believe you’re having an allergy attack, monitor your symptoms, take medication as needed, and go to the doctor if your symptoms worsen.
From Cashews to Achoos — Cure Allergy Clinic Has the Allergy Treatment to Help
At Cure Allergy Clinic, our team is not just dedicated to helping you find relief from your symptoms — but managing and treating your condition to lead you into remission. We are proud to be a trusted resource for high-quality integrative care for patients in and around Arlington, Texas, including the communities of Dallas, Irving, Hurst, Euless, Bedford, Coppell, and Fort Worth.
Start seeking the relief you need to breathe easier and manage your allergies today by scheduling your first consultation with our team.