What are the foods to prevent allergies?

At present, there is no specific food that can 100% prevent allergies. Only some foods with clear nutritional components may reduce the probability of allergic attacks by regulating immune status, reducing inflammatory reactions, and the effects vary greatly among individuals. Some people with allergies may even cause discomfort after eating them.

Many people may have kept a variety of "anti-allergy food lists", including kiwi fruit, honey, deep-sea fish, and probiotic fermented milk. In fact, if you look at the immunonutrition research in recent years, you will find that most of these statements are derived from the nutritional properties of food. When applied to specific people, the effect is not bad. A while ago, I met a girl who suffers from allergic conjunctivitis every spring. I heard someone said that drinking a cup of local honey every day can tolerate pollen. After drinking it for less than half a month, the allergy was not cured. Instead, the trace pollen in the honey induced urticaria. After going to the hospital, I found out that she was mildly allergic to bee products, and she was in trouble by taking supplements.

In fact, the logic of foods classified as "possibly hypoallergenic" is quite simple: berries rich in flavonoids, such as blueberries and cherries, can help reduce the activity of the body's release of histamine. Histamine is the "culprit" that makes you sneeze and have itchy skin due to allergies.”； The Omega-3 unsaturated fatty acids in deep-sea fish have anti-inflammatory effects and can help stabilize immune status. ； There are also some probiotic strains in unadded fermented foods that can also regulate intestinal immunity and reduce the chance of allergic triggers. But these functions can only be regarded as "auxiliary buffs". Just like smoothing the fur of a kitten that is prone to hair loss can reduce the probability of it scratching people, but it is impossible to make it completely immune to scratching people. Allergies are essentially a problem caused by immune disorders. It is simply unrealistic to completely prevent it by eating certain foods.

And there are still many controversial points that the academic community has not yet concluded. Take probiotics for allergy prevention. There are clinical experiments showing that specific strains can reduce the probability of eczema in infants and young children. However, there are also double-blind controlled experiments that found that more than half of the subjects had no change in the frequency of allergies after taking probiotics. A small number of people with allergies even developed immune stress reactions after ingesting specific strains. Not to mention that everyone’s allergens are different. If you are allergic to seafood, no matter how much you say that deep-sea fish is anti-inflammatory, you should not touch it, otherwise it will only induce a more serious allergic reaction.

When I usually help users with allergies adjust their diet, I never list a bunch of "must-eat anti-allergenic foods." The first step is always to ask the person to find out their allergens and eliminate foods that are clearly known to induce allergies. Then, within the range of safe ingredients, appropriately increase the proportion of high-antioxidant and anti-inflammatory foods. A parent of a 6-year-old child came over and said that the child broke out in hives when the seasons changed. After checking the allergens, he found that he was allergic to mango and peanuts, so he removed these two types of food from the diet and added salmon that the child was not allergic to twice a week. After eating a small bowl of blueberries for more than three months, parents said that the number of allergies their children had this spring was reduced by 80%. Of course, there was no significant change after adjusting for more than half a year. After all, everyone's immune status is very different, and there is no one-size-fits-all "miracle food."

To put it bluntly, instead of focusing on the so-called anti-allergenic foods, it is better to find out your allergens first, avoid them as much as possible, and then eat a balanced diet to maintain your overall immune status. This is more reliable than anything else. If you really want to reduce the probability of allergies through dietary adjustments, it is best to seek evaluation from a professional nutritionist or allergist first. Don’t just look for folk remedies on your own. Otherwise, if you fail to prevent allergies and cause eating problems, the gain will outweigh the losses.