Many people think that since they didn’t have allergies as a kid, they are safe, but this is the list of food allergies that you can develop after 30.

Many of us think having an allergy is just about sneezing and turning red, but not a lot of us know that food allergies can kill a person.

Usually, people with food allergies start developing them when they’re kids, but just because you didn’t have them as a kid doesn’t mean you can’t get them now or later.

That’s why you need to know this list of food allergies, their signs and symptoms, and how to save your life if you ever suddenly develop one.

List Of Food Allergies You Can Develop After 30

Fish
Tree Nuts
Peanuts
Shellfish
Soy
Seeds
Latex Fruit Syndrom
Meat
Milk

Allergies That Can Cause Death Vs Allergies That Can't

So, some “food allergies” make you have bad reactions, but these are not ‘allergies,’ they’re intolerances.

The difference between an allergy and an intolerance is that one causes symptoms that can quickly become deadly; the other bothers you (especially your stomach) but does not involve a life-or-death situation.

Here’s how each works.

Food Allergy

Your Immune System: your immune system sees the food you’re allergic to as a severe threat to your body, and it starts to fight it off

Symptoms: the reactions happen fast, and they affect different parts of your body with things like hives, itching, swelling, difficulty breathing, and if it gets severe, anaphylaxis (which means serious complications that happen in your body like dropping blood pressure and a rapid heart rate that could take a person’s life if they aren’t taken to the hospital as fast as possible)

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Food Intolerance

Nothing Happens To Your Immune System: your immune system does not react to this one, but your body doesn't have the right tools to deal with that specific food.

Symptoms: When you're intolerant to a particular food, it usually takes more time than a food allergy before you start feeling it, and symptoms could include bloating, gas, diarrhea, stomach cramping

How do you know which you have?

There are two different tests you could take to check.

For food allergies, you go to a nurse, allergist, or anyone qualified to perform this test.
They would put a tiny drop of the food or thing you might be allergic to on your skin, usually on your forearm.
Then, they would use a tiny needle to prick you a bit so the food or thing gets into your skin.
You might get a small raised bump at that spot if you're allergic.

Places you get this done:

Allergist’s office
Your Primary care physician’s office
Specialized testing centers
Hospital laboratories
Community health clinics

To test if you have a food intolerance, you can either monitor everything you eat to see if you can find out which food gives you the pain, bloating, and gas you’re feeling, or you can take a breath test, and this is how you do that:

Talk with your health care provider, typically a gastroenterologist or allergist, about the food you suspect you have an intolerance for
One of the healthcare team might ask you to fast for a couple of hours before the breath test.
The health care provider will take a sample of how your breath generally is before they have you eat the food you suspect
Then you eat some of this food.
Then, the health care provider will take more samples of your breath at different times to see how much gas your body makes after eating the suspected food.
After they’re done taking samples, they analyze all of them and tell you what they find.
If you had more gas after eating the food, there is a very high chance you are intolerant to it.

Poll

Why Later In Life?

Why would I get an allergy now when I never got it as a kid?

Here are all the reasons why:

Genes: You may have family genes that give you a higher chance of developing allergies even if you didn't have them as a kid

Different Places: When you change where you live often, or you change your eating style (your diet), you expose your body to the various things in the air of these new places and to the different foods you're suddenly eating; after a while, you're chances of developing a food allergy (or any allergy for that matter) gets much higher because your immune system has to figure out how to deal with all these new things and it just might not react well to all of them

Getting Older: Just like you can't do a backflip today the way you did ten years ago, your body doesn't have the strength to deal with new things as it could in the past.
As you get older and go through different things (hormonal changes, pregnancy, menopause), your body might start to react differently to foods you've been eating your whole life, and that could mean getting a life-threatening allergy.

Your Job: If you have a job like baking, for example, where you're constantly exposed to flour and wheat dust, you could eventually develop an allergy to wheat or flour
(other jobs can be - healthcare worker, where you're exposed to latex and certain medications and cleaning agents all the time/ farmer, to pollen, mold, and pesticides/ hairdresser, to hair dyes and the chemicals in hair products/ lab worker; to the substances you work with/ woodworker, constantly dealing with wood dust/ and any other job where you're around the same things day-in and day-out. Too much of anything is good for nothing.

A Change In The Bacteria In Your Stomach: If the bacteria in your gut (a.k.a. gut microbiome) are not balanced, you could end up developing a food allergy because these bacteria help you and they have a direct relationship with your immune system

Stress & Lifestyle: Having long-term stress or having severe changes in the way you live and eat makes you more likely to develop allergies

You could develop a food allergy from just one of these reasons or a combination of them, but keep in mind that every time you drastically change the way you eat or the way you live (for example, moving to a completely different climate than you're used to), your chances of developing a food allergy or any allergy gets higher because your body now has to react to things it never dealt with before. You can't be sure how it'll respond.

What You Can Do To Prevent It

Even though it’s not possible to completely protect yourself from developing a food allergy, here are some things you can do to lower your chances of getting one:

Ensure you eat various foods (meat, dairy, fruits, vegetables, and grains).
Keep your stomach in good health.
Don’t overuse antibiotics before you kill off a lot of the bacteria living in your stomach.
Avoid contact with things that cause allergies, like pollen, dust, and pet fur, if they make you sneeze or feel sick.
Lower your stress levels.
Avoid smoking so you don’t damage your lungs because damaged lungs can make you an easy target for allergies.
Understand more about how allergies work, specifically so you can know more for yourself, but especially if you have a friend or family member who has allergies; many accidents happen because the people around someone having an allergy attack don’t know what to do or how serious the situation was

What To Do If You Suddenly Develop It

If you’ve never had a food allergy and suddenly got one, the symptoms could start mild or severe and life-threatening immediately; it all depends on the person.

If your first symptoms are mild, it doesn’t mean that all the other times you eat the same food; the symptoms will be mild.

If you eat something (whether you’ve eaten it a million times before or it’s your first time) and start to feel itching (even if little) or get hives, immediately stop and pay attention to your body to see if you get any other symptoms.

types of food allergies — ***this is what an epinephrine looks like***

If it turns to redness, swelling, or stomach discomfort, seek medical assistance immediately.

If, after this first incident, you get tested and know what allergy you have, and you get an attack, take the following steps:

Use an EPINEPHRINE (a medicine that stops symptoms of allergic reactions)
Call for help
Stay calm
If you know the trigger, avoid it
Let the people around you know about your allergy and what you specifically need so they can help

What to do if someone around you is having an attack

Use their EPINEPHRINE on them ( it’s a shot that can save their life)
Call for help
Stay calm (encourage the person to sit or lie down because panic can make it worse)
Watch their breathing (you may need to do CPR if you know how)
Don’t leave them alone (if they lose consciousness, turn them on their side to help them with breathing)

How To Protect Your Children From Developing It

If you have children who don’t have any known food allergies and you want to do your best to try and lower their chances of developing one, here are some tips:

eat a mix of different types of foods during pregnancy and infancy

breastfeed because it provides many benefits to the child to protect them

introduce solid foods carefully

limit unnecessary antibiotic use during pregnancy and infancy

don’t overexpose them to things that can cause allergies, like tobacco smoke and pet dander

consult with your child’s pediatrician

and be on the lookout for signs of allergic reactions

FAQ

It depends on the person, the seriousness of their reaction, and the food they are allergic to.
It could be anywhere between a few hours to days or weeks.
Mustard
Fruits and Vegetables
Food Additives
Red meat

Infographic

Conclusion

Allergies can suddenly develop for someone traveling to different environments or being around the same chemicals at work daily. Whether it’s you or someone else, not knowing what to do during an allergic reaction increases the chance of it quickly becoming fatal.

Take the Next Step: Check out what ways you can protect yourself from bacteria called Superbugs, which can cause a person to need to cut off a limb when infected.

We Want To Hear From You: When was the 1st time you had an allergic reaction?

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