Arletta Chambers loves fresh cherries, but they don't agree with her.
"The inside of my mouth was itching," Chambers said. "The lips on the outside, the lips were itching! It was just amazing."
Arletta's experience was caused by Oral Allergy Syndrome, also called Pollen-Food Syndrome.
Dr. Jane El-Dahr told Action News, "If you are allergic to tree pollens, that sometimes you can have difficulty with some foods, as well. And when you eat them you get a lot of itching inside your mouth."
The reaction is triggered when people eat raw fruits or vegetables that have plant proteins similar to the things to which they're allergic.
"I think (that) they think they're maybe a little crazy, and they're just imagining the fact that their mouth itches," El-Dahr said. "But it's up to 50% of people who have pollen allergies. So it may be a high as five to 10 per cent of the population. We really don't know."
If you're allergic to birch, then raw apples, cherries, peaches, and carrots might bother you.
If ragweed gives you grief, then bananas, melons, zucchini, and cucumbers might affect you.
Luckily, there's a simple solution.
"If you cook the fruit, that generally gets rid of the particular proteins that are the problem," El-Dahr said.
Also, f you get tests to find out what you're allergic to, allergy shots might help.
"(It's) desensitization to the pollen itself," El-Dahr said, "so if you're ragweed allergic, if you do allergy desensitization to ragweed, then you have a much better likelihood of being able to eat the melons again without your mouth itching."
Experts say the syndrome is often triggered when someone moves to a new area, and is exposed to new pollen.
