I'm hoping to get some help from you nutritionist geniuses out there on this one.
I love bananas. I should say, I loved bananas, until some point in my mid-20's when they stopped loving me. I don't recall exactly when, but at some point I had a banana smoothie and my chest tightened up and my lips swelled up like a puffer fish. I applied the "Does that hurt? Yes? Then don't do it." Theory of medicine, and have avoided bananas for the past few years. That is, until last night.
In admitted need of a grocery run, I surveyed the kitchen for a late night snack and decided that the time had come to re-test my tolerance to what some refer to as "the perfect fruit." As one would guess, 10:30 PM is not the best time for nutritional self-experimentation. The results were the same as before, and so I am awake and drafting this at 2:30 AM, tight chested and big lipped.
Based on my exhaustive (or should I say exhausted?) internet research, it appears as though people who have allergies to ragweed are sometimes unable to eat the fine yellow fruit. Bananas and ragweed share a similar enzyme that the body views as evil. Unable to differentiate between the two, and since most of us don't go around eating ragweed, upon consuming bananas, the body goes into an allergic reaction.
Again, this is just what I've found so far on the internet, which is obviously the best place for medical diagnosis.
So, anyone out there have any experience in the banana allergy realm? Advice is always welcome...
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