Korean Job Discussion Forums

[uberscheisse]

i used to eat apples pretty much twice a day back home. love'em.

but every time i eat one here, i get this massive itchy reaction in my throat. i've been washing them and rubbing off all the gunk, but it still bothers me.

perhaps the lonely planet set will chastise me for not peeling it, but it's hard to see korea as a third world country with fruit that gives you dysentery when there's broadband internet in a porta-potty here...

anyways - i'm guessing it's pesticides and in future i'll be peeling. anyone else have a similar reaction?

[Milwaukiedave]

I've never had a problem with the apples here. I have had problems with kiwi in the US. My throat would feel like it's closing up and I couldn't swallow water. Both times when that happened I took Benadryl (sp?) and that ended up taking care of it.

[waltjocketty]

it happens to me with bananas, it happens to a friend of mine with milk--it just means you have a mild allergy. don't blame korea.

[Alyallen]

[uberscheisse]

[JeJuJitsu]

I hate fruit. Haven't touched one in 12 years.

[Lynns]

The itchiness from eating certain fruits is called oral allergy syndrome. You can google it and find tons of information. It tends to affect people who are seasonal allergy sufferers.

Kiwi allergy can be pretty bad and sometimes co-exists with poppy seed or sesame seed allergy. Better make sure you're not allergic to sesame, because that one can really get you in Korea, where there's a lot of sesame in the food.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_allergy_syndrome

(edited for tags)

[kat2]

My mother was allergic to citrus fruit only during a few months of the year (something to do with the other pollens in the air that would interact with the citrus stuff). The rest of hte year she was fine.
Could be that some OTHER thing is in the air that is bothering you, and the other thing simply isn't present in your home country. So, maybe its no the actual apple, but the way that it interacts with other Korean pollens.

[kiwikid]

I ate aples a lot until I started Uni and had a reaction similar to what you did. I now can't eat apples and all stone fruit. I get an itchy throat/mouth/lips, heart burn and sometimes my throat closes a bit. The doctor suggested that it may be a protein in the fruit because I can eat them when they are cooked. Becareful with new fruit, I tried jackfruit for the first time at christmas in Singapore and had the worst reaction I have ever had afetr 4 bites, freaked me out. I just drank lots of water and sat in the food court until i was sure I wasn't going to faint and then spent the next few hours with a stomach that felt like it was so swollen it would pop.

[weatherman]

Yes, it happens to me. Loved apples once, a long time ago, now I give them a miss. Even if peeled it still makes my throat very ichy and filled with mucus.

Cooked apples, no problem.