What foods should not be eaten with photoallergy?

People with photosensitivity most need to avoid foods containing photosensitive ingredients. Common foods include shepherd's purse, amaranth, gray cabbage and other wild vegetables, lemons, mangoes, pineapples and other tropical fruits, celery, spinach, rape and other household vegetables, and some snails, shrimps and crabs and other seafood may also aggravate photosensitivity reactions.

Most of these foods contain photosensitive substances such as furanocoumarins. After eating, these ingredients will be metabolized and distributed to the surface of the skin. If exposed to direct ultraviolet rays at this time, they can easily react with light and induce or aggravate the symptoms of photosensitive dermatitis such as redness, itching, and blisters on the skin.

I met a girl in her early 20s at the dermatology clinic. She went to the suburbs with her friends on the weekend and dug out half a bag of fresh shepherd's purse. She went home and made dumplings for lunch. After eating, she felt that she wore sunscreen and her face was dull. She only wore a peaked cap and went to the park for a two-hour picnic. That night The backs of my upper hands and exposed cheeks were swollen and shiny, and there were dense blisters. It was so itchy that I couldn't sleep all night. When I came to the doctor, it hurt even when the mask straps pinched my skin. It was a typical acute photoallergy induced by photosensitive food + sun exposure.

Many people have great misunderstandings about photosensitive food taboos. They even dare not touch celery and spinach. In fact, it is completely unnecessary. Photosensitivity reactions vary greatly among individuals. Not everyone will have an attack after eating such foods, nor will something happen after just one bite. If you are experiencing a photoallergic attack, you must strictly avoid such foods and wait for the symptoms to subside in a stable period. Eat a small amount of home-cooked foods with weak photosensitivity such as celery and spinach. As long as you wear hard sunscreen after eating, use an umbrella and wear a mask and try not to expose your skin to direct sunlight, you will basically be fine.

There are also many people who blame food for photoallergy. In fact, sometimes some antibiotics, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and even traditional Chinese medicines such as Angelica dahurica and psoralen, which you take, are also photosensitive. If you happen to be taking medication, even if you don’t touch photosensitive foods, you may have problems if you are exposed to the sun. You need to combine your medication status with the investigation, and don’t just focus on food taboos.

If you are really not sure which foods you are sensitive to, you can keep a food and travel diary. What you ate before each attack and how long you were exposed to the sun can help you find the triggers. There is no need to blindly avoid large-scale foods, which may lead to a lack of daily nutrients.