Will a slight allergy to "superfood" powders get better?

March 11, 2016 10:27 AM

I've been adding this superfood powder to smoothies lately for breakfast and would like to continue to, but I seem to have a little bit of an allergy to something in it, perhaps grass pollen? My question is, is this inherently dangerous if it's only been a bit of a passing irritant, or will it actually improve with consistent repeated exposure (like with allergy shots)?

I don't want to get into some extended debate about something like "local honey". I guess I'm just looking for any info pointing to how safe this is.

The symptoms I experience right after drinking it are a tiny bit of asthma but not enough to even think of using an inhaler. Sometimes if I take a few days off, a bit of a headache and some dizziness. It passes within the hour and usually fast. It took me awhile to put two-and-two together which is how I have it nailed down to cause-and-effect for now. I feel like it gets better with consistent use and maybe will help me in other areas of allergies (citation needed) but I really don't know!

posted by Raichle to Health & Fitness (23 answers total)

I would stop taking this. I'd bet this either stays the same or gets worse with time.

Don't eat things that make you sick. Eat a variety of healthy foods that don't make you sick. This powder is definitely not medicine, but something that makes you ill. If you want relief from allergies, see an allergy doctor and consider shots.
posted by Kalmya at 10:43 AM on March 11, 2016 [17 favorites]

I would immediately change to another powder without the suspect ingredients. Having a repeated, acute inflammation response as a result of the powder is not a great long-term approach. And, it's not like a DIY allergy shot treatment. With asthma complicating, I'd be very careful. People can become more allergic with exposure and asthma is nothing to mess around with. It's my assumption that you're using this powder to gain a health benefit and that's not what's happening here.
posted by quince at 10:44 AM on March 11, 2016 [4 favorites]

Anecdotally, my mom has developed many food allergies over the course of decades. Without fail, they started off as mild (like yours) and upon repeated exposure turned really scary. She now carries an epipen. Because "really scary" = can't breathe.
posted by instamatic at 10:49 AM on March 11, 2016 [3 favorites]

My personal experience with a mild strawberry allergy: mine got worse. I was putting sliced strawberries in water for flavor. It initially wasn't enough to really trigger my usual mild itchiness that I got when eating them, but eventually progressed to some minor respiratory symptoms + hives (and more itchiness). So I stopped.

I now very rarely sneak one (not advisable, I know, but I love strawberries),and seem to be back to just the baseline itchiness.

Respiratory issues can get scary very fast. I'd throw the rest out and try something else.
posted by ghost phoneme at 10:51 AM on March 11, 2016

Just nthing that allergies like this tend to get worse with repeated exposure, not better, and with respiratory things it could suddenly become anaphylaxis. Stop taking immediately.
posted by brainmouse at 11:00 AM on March 11, 2016 [6 favorites]

Certain food allergies do get worse, this is true of fruits and some edible flowers. My cousin used to be able to to eat blueberries as a kid, but progressively his mild reactions turned into a dangerously swollen throat/eyes. Any allergy that is causing symptoms in the throat is generally not something to mess around with.

I'd suggest booking into an allergist, or being very cautious. Sometimes mild allergies go away, but if it's already affecting your throat, be careful.
posted by InkDrinker at 11:03 AM on March 11, 2016

That's a big ingredient list with a lot of potential suspects on it. I'd stop taking it immediately.

It is a modern myth that Allergies get better with exposure. They don't necessarily get better or worse, but repeat exposure risks having a particularly bad reaction one day. Also actively having an allergic reaction makes your body dysfunction in a number of ways that are unhelpful to maintaining general health and fitness.
posted by French Fry at 11:03 AM on March 11, 2016

Best answer: I absolutely love that particular superfood drink and I used it daily for about two years with zero problems and markedly improved energy (eliminated my need for coffee even). However if I was having an allergic reaction to it I would not take it, I would try something else. The health food stores usually have small packets (more expensive by volume of course, but less of an initial investment) so you can try a few and narrow down what works for you vs. what doesn't.
posted by celtalitha at 11:06 AM on March 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

Stop using it. Do you really want to be the person who died because of a smoothie? It's not worth it. It won't get better with repeated use.
posted by myselfasme at 11:06 AM on March 11, 2016

When something that you are not directly breathing into your lungs is causing chest tightness or difficulty breathing, that is not "a slight allergy." It's more in the direction of anaphylaxis.
posted by zennie at 12:03 PM on March 11, 2016 [6 favorites]

I also have a low-level allergic reaction to powders like this, likely due to various pollens. You may want to read up on Oral Allergy Syndrome, especially if you have a similar reaction to fresh fruits or nuts.
posted by almostmanda at 12:57 PM on March 11, 2016 [3 favorites]

Looking at it, I guess I'm kind of confused as to why you wouldn't just pop a multivitamin (or not) and a probiotic, and add some extra berries and greens and flax to your smoothies? It's not like it's got miracle ingredient Z-247 in it; it's vitamins and dried food for $50. If you really really want a powder you could scoop, it could be kind of fun to get a dehydrator (simple ones are fairly cheap) and blender and make your own, and that way you could tinker with the ingredients and have a powder that was not causing health bothers.

I'm a bit concerned by how the product advertises itself as alkalizing, which is BS, and energizing, which is presumably because it's got caffeine. Plus it's got a "fiber blend," but only 8% of the RDA and...I think this stuff is writing a lot of cheques it can't cash.
posted by kmennie at 1:03 PM on March 11, 2016 [4 favorites]

Please stop, it isn't worth it. Knowingly adding to any allergy burden you already have is a bad idea.
posted by monopas at 1:03 PM on March 11, 2016

All the work being done around curing people of allergies through exposure uses microscopic amounts of the allergen. If you really want to be a write-up in a science journal you could feed yourself a half teaspoon of this smoothie each day for six months, then ramp up to a teaspoon a day for six months, etc....but that would be (a) a lot of work (b) most likely pointless, at worst actively provoking your allergic response without proper medical care and warning. Either get yourself an allergy specialist to supervise or just stop eating it.
posted by the agents of KAOS at 3:07 PM on March 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

For context, I was on allergy shots for years. They were given by an RN in a doctors office for the first year or two just in case there was a problem. After that, I did very small doses at home (2.5mL I think) and always had an epipen when I did the injection.

I don't think what you are doing sounds similar to immunotherapy at all.
posted by 26.2 at 3:42 PM on March 11, 2016

I'm allergic to vanilla. It started off as drinking a Coke would make me feel queasy as a kid to me now needing to carry an Epi-Pen because my throat closes up. Toss it and move on.
posted by Ruki at 3:59 PM on March 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

Here to say the same as Ruki. Different allergy, same thing. Don't do it.
posted by freezer cake at 4:28 PM on March 11, 2016

Yeah, there's sort of two different questions to answer here. It is indeed possible to gradually acclimate to some allergens by titrating up very, very gradually from very, very tiny amounts: this is how immunotherapy works. However, when you do this it needs to be under the supervision of a doctor who watches you carefully for a period of time after you take each dose, because it is also not uncommon to have scary reactions, including potentially anaphylaxis, during the course of immunotherapy. Exercising after taking an allergen can also increase the severity of the reaction in some people. (Finally, it's not really like your allergy is "cured" this way, you just develop a tolerance to it that has to be maintained long-term with a maintenance dose.)

Anyway, DIY immunotherapy is a bad idea. Especially here, where the cost-benefit here is all wrong: the benefits of sticking with this powder are pretty minimal, as kmennie points out, and it's not likely that you'd be accidentally exposed to traces of it like with other food allergens. Meanwhile, the potential cost is that one day your airways start closing up and your blood pressure drops and you have to take a very expensive and scary unscheduled trip to the ER.
posted by en forme de poire at 6:31 PM on March 11, 2016

Wow, no. Throw it out and never buy it again. My allergist (I'm another carrier of an epipen) said the thing about anaphylactic allergies is that you can eat the thing 500 times and maybe just get a little itching... and the 501st, your throat swells shut and you die.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 2:01 AM on March 12, 2016

Also, note how your symptoms map onto epipen instructions.
posted by feckless fecal fear mongering at 2:08 AM on March 12, 2016

Dietary supplements are not regulated by the FDA, and research shows that most supplements don't even contain most of the active ingredients advertised on the label. Even worse, many supplements actually contain crazy weird ingredients. if you're having a health issue related to taking a dietary supplement you should stop taking it immediately.

More on how common it is for people to end up with serious, even life threatening, health complications due to the ingredients in their supplements:

http://mobile.nytimes.com/blogs/well/2015/10/14/dietary-supplements-lead-to-20000-e-r-visits-yearly-study-finds
posted by forkisbetter at 7:08 AM on March 12, 2016

Response by poster: Thank you, everybody. I guess the reason that I was asking was that I had been drinking this for months and noticing a great energy boost in life before I realized that it was also the reason I felt a bit "off" for a little while after drinking it. It's sad for me because I travel for a living and can rarely eat a healthy diet and this made me feel a lot better. I'll look for something else.

FWIW, I have been allergy tested and did immunotherapy for over a year. I know for sure that I'm allergic to grass pollen so that's why I jumped that conclusion - also, same symptoms from wheatgrass shots. That's why I wasn't jumping to anaphylaxis "food allergy" conclusions as quickly as others might.

It feels more like the symptoms I have when somebody walks by me wearing perfumes that can set me off, but, the last one I drank made my mouth a little numb too and that seems to be an increase in the symptoms.

I'll stop drinking it, sadly, as I really enjoyed it, the resulting energy boost, and even the grassy flavor. It's a shame.
posted by Raichle at 10:36 AM on March 12, 2016

> noticing a great energy boost

It's got green tea in it -- you could probably get the same boost from a regular cuppa.
posted by kmennie at 5:51 AM on March 13, 2016