Well here's the background on myself. I am allergic to almost everything you can think. Some more than others. Seafood and every nut except almonds and peanuts are the worst. i am mildly allergic to eggs, chicken, and some others. I have to look after myself at restaurants because I've seen how bad things can get.

I get this bad itchy feeling which you can't really describe unless you get it yourself. then as the day goes on, it travels down into your stomach area and you have a bad stomach ache.

so, now onto the story.

I have always been allergic to seafood, but the first time I tried sashimi (raw tuna and salmon) I could eat it with no problems. I could actually go to sushi places and eat with my parents. they thought i was cookoo. but then as time went on, i don't know what it is, but my body started rejecting it until the point I was fully allergic to it. I love wasabi so as always I would put some on my sushi.

so now, when I taste fresh wasabi, I get a sick feeling in my throat just like an allergic reaction, except much less, but it is still annoying. is this because my subconcious self links the taste of wasabi to the seafood and thus starts to defend against it? there is nothing in wasabi i can't eat.

another thing happened today too.

last fall during the moon cake season, i had this wonderful pineapple cake. except it had pine nuts in it. of course i didn't find that out until i got some major food poisoning.

i love pineapple cake, i never had a problem with it until that day.

now i tried it again today, and i could feel the allergic reaction coming on in my throat. it wasn't killer, but i had to try make my mind think that i could eat this stuff to finish this 1x1inch cube. there was nothing wrong with it that i couldn't eat.

so i'm guessing my body is just trying to defend me against what i'm allergic too by linking what the food it was eaten with/tastes like.

do you guys think i can try to fend off this subconcious thing? try to think that I CAN eat this wasabi. just an interesting thought before i go to sleep.

 

There could be a mental contingent to your problems, as it sounds like you have classically-conditioned yourself. You might just be subconsciously freaking out because of what happened the last time you ate pineapple cake. On the other hand, you may have undergone what is referred to as stimulus generalization. This is where a person (or animal, etc.) groups similar stimuli so they all elicit the same reaction as provoked by the initial stimulus. A good example here would be you feel sick everytime you eat something with pineapple in it.

It has happened before, even to me. My alarm clock makes a certain "click" noise before it goes off, and I jump every time I hear a similar click during the day. Weird, I know.

If you have actually accidentally trained yourself to get sick on pineapple cake, you just have to train yourself back the other way. That's the nice thing about conditioning! You WILL finish the cake....you WILL finish the cake....

 

Hi George!

i'm sorry to hear about your allergies! it must be really tough. i definitely think your brain is associating certain foods (i.e. wasabi) with what you're allergic to (i.e. fish), esp when you eat them together and get the allergic reaction.

that's a lot of things to be allergice to. so what do you normally eat? a lot of my friends developed allergic reactions to fruit recently, like apples and cherries. but we think it's because of the pesticides.

i asked a friend who is a doctor and he said that allergies can go away over time just as they can develop. but you'll never know if your allergies go away because most people avoid those foods instead of trying them and running into the risk of getting sick every time.

did you ask your doctor what he/she thinks?

 

i normally eat what i can eat but say if i go to a chinese restaurant (you know how chinese parents are), i'll always eat the shark fin soup stuff. but usually, my parents are nice and don't take me. it isn't like i'm going to die after i eat it anyways.

let us go down the list.

seafood
any kind of nuts except peanuts and almonds
eggs and anything with eggs (i eat it anyways, scrambled with hot sauce=mmmm, so good it is worth the pain )
slightly allergic to chicken
banana
mushrooms

allergic to a bunch of other stuff, but i forget since i try not to eat it

i've never been to a doctor about my allergies because
i usually don't have a major problem with my allergies. i can just eat the cheap stuff and i'll be safe.