MAJOR allergy symptoms

[MichelleLitt]

I’m on Day 6 of my first Whole 30. Things have been going great, so far, however I have developed major seasonal allergy symptoms starting on Day 3. My eyes feel like they’re burning out of my head, my nose is constantly running, my skin itches. I’ve reluctantly taken Benadryl almost every day just to cope with the itching, but even still it only helps for maybe 2 hours before symptoms return. Is this normal? The only food I am eating more of now that I’m doing Whole 30 is avocado. I’m having it almost every day where as it was intermittent in the past. Is this normal withdrawal symptoms or do I have something else going on? Obviously I’m aware that allergens happen with changing seasons but this is worse than I ever experience. It’s as if I’m surrounded in a wind tunnel of dust and dander.

[T2Andrew]

It's possible that you're having a reaction or new allergy to something new to your diet or something that you haven't eaten as much of before.  If you've had an allergy test in the past, research if those allergens are linked to any of the foods you're eating now.  That's what happened to me.

Right from the start, I was eating avocado and soon developed crazy-bad itching all over my body!  I've never had avocado before, so I thought it was an allergy.  At day 5, I stopped eating it for a week and the itching persisted.  I do have high allergy to long & short ragweed.  Then I found articles linking melons and other foods to ragweed allergies, so I stopped eating it.  Within two days the itching stopped, now my skin will heal!

I'm back to avocado but melons are out, bummer, as I really liked them and never had problems with them before.  They never even showed up on my past allergies report.

[ShannonM816]

Have you changed detergents or fabric softeners or lotion or anything lately? That could also cause issues.

If you do think it's avocado, definitely stop eating them and talk to your doctor, especially if the symptoms get noticeably better when you quit eating them. Food allergies are definitely something to take seriously.