Finding that your seasonal allergies just aren’t being alleviated by your choice of allergy meds? If you’re experiencing sneezing, sniffing, and itching, adding these foods to your diet may be just what you need.
1. Fish
Fish like salmon, tuna, and mackerel all contain omega-3 fatty acids which can help reduce inflammation and improve your allergy resistance.
The anti-inflammatory properties of fatty acids have been shown to decrease the narrowing of airways which plays a role in some cases of seasonal allergies.1
2. Bee Pollen
Bee pollen is a combination of nectar, enzymes, wax, honey, flower pollen, and bee secretions. Bee pollen has a range of health benefits because research shows that it’s antimicrobial, antimutagenic, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory.2 Because of this host of properties, it can be used to reduce your allergies.
To increase your chances of it working, it’s best to buy local pollen in the area you experience the most allergies. It’s easily found at your neighborhood farmer’s market, and it will look like the little granulated pellets shown below.
Start out with just a little bit at a time and add it to your smoothies, oatmeal, or yogurt.
3. Onions
Onions have a natural plant chemical known as quercetin. Research shows that it has a wide range of biological activities including being anti-carcinogenic, anti-inflammatory and antiviral.
Some of these biological activities can help reduce histamine reactions.
4. Pineapples
Pineapples contain a mixture of enzymes known as bromelain. It’s been proven that bromelain has both anti-inflammatory and antiallergic properties.3
It can play a serious role in the reduction of nasal swelling and thinning mucus.
5. Kefir, Sauerkraut, Kimchi
The ingredient in these three that help reduce allergies– probiotics! In recent years, research has shown that using probiotics to treat allergies has been a successful approach!4
Probiotics are live bacteria and yeasts that are good for you and your digestive system. These helpful bacteria keep your gut healthy and your allergies at bay. They’re found in kefir, sauerkraut, kimchi, and other fermented foods!
So the next time you feel like your allergies are out of control or your doctor is trying to prescribe you yet another type of medicine, be sure to try out these five foods first.
1. Relationship between Serum Omega-3 Fatty Acid and Asthma Endpoints
2. Biological activities of commercial bee pollens: antimicrobial, antimutagenic, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory.
3. Bromelain Inhibits Allergic Sensitization and Murine Asthma via Modulation of Dendritic Cells
4. Treatment of Allergic Rhinitis with Probiotics: An Alternative Approach
When my clients would come sniffling to the gym, saying it was allergies, I would give them 2,000-3000 mg of vitamin C and set my watch timer to 20-30 minutes. When the alarm went off, it would remind me to check them. Nearly all would have become asymptomatic. I can vaguely remember one or two whose symptoms were still present, but a second dose would fix them up. Vitamin C is a free radical scavenger and immune enhancer. It once stopped a bad cold that jumped on me at 8 A.M. in 90 minutes. By 9:30, it was gone.
It cured my poison oak, along with B complex.
Vitamin C: Cheap, effective, easy to use, and miraculous.