Using Foods to Fight Fall Allergies - KPRC Click2Houston

Dr. Anand Shah talks to the KPRC Click2Houston team about how you can fight back against your fall allergies with different kinds of food.

Video Transcript:

Speaker 1: This is the itchy eyes and that scratchy throat. Yeah, fall allergies are leaving us pretty miserable. But, there are ways to relieve symptoms without heading to your medicine cabinet.Speaker 2: Go to the kitchen instead, change your diet here. Health department reporter Hailey Hernandez talking about some foods that might be able to help out.Hailey H.: Right, food for thought.Speaker 2: There you go.Hailey H.: Produce could help serve the purpose of relieving some allergy symptoms. And, one doctor says that this year we need help everywhere we can get it. Mold, pollen, and ragweed, here to stay indefinitely.Dr. Shah: It's gonna be pretty severe this year here in Texas because of a lot of the things that have happened with all the rainfall and water. Definitely eat your vegetables.Hailey H.: That's right. For all the fall sniffling, sneezing, and itchiness, doctor Shaw from the American Sinus Institute says to eat vegetables. With antiinflammatory elements in vitamin C, he recommends veggies like broccoli and celery.Dr. Shah: The thought process is vitamin C, which is found in many plant-based foods, broccoli for example, may have an antihistamine effect, which is beneficial. And then, vitamin A, found in carrots for example, can just directly enhance the immune system.Hailey H.: In addition to carrots, onions and garlic can help in a similar way.Dr. Shah: Onions and garlic are also thought to enhance the immune system. Not quite through that mechanism, but they're also beneficial.Hailey H.: They have another immune fighting property, Corcidin, which Dr. Shaw says also helps with inflammation. And, vitamin A foods are thought to improve allergies since some studies show people with low vitamin A are more likely to have asthma and allergies. This season, you can eat pumpkin to get lots of vitamin A. Yeah, you see how nature gives the foods during the seasons that we need them most? Don't forget that if you boil any of those vegetables, then you still have some of the vitamins and nutrients in the water. You can use that to make soup. As a matter of fact, I'm putting an anti allergy soup on click2houston.com right now under the health section. I also put a video on my Facebook of me making it.Speaker 2: Oh, so you're doing recipe now Hailey? How about it?Hailey H.: I'm a terrible cook.Speaker 1: I thought you said you were bringing in soup.Hailey H.: I don't know if you...Speaker 1: I don't need a recipe.Hailey H.: Every time I bring you guys health foods, you all tell me how terrible it is.Speaker 1: That is true.Speaker 2: Fair point.Speaker 1: It's definitely terrible.Hailey H.: And, this one, I forgot an ingredient, so I'm not gonna torture you with that.Speaker 2: Alright, so followup question. Foods we should avoid?Hailey H.: Right. So, there are some foods that you should avoid. A lot of foods that are associated with ragweed, so if you have an allergy to ragweed, bananas, melons, cucumbers, zucchini, chamomile, and hibiscus tea.Speaker 2: Whoa.Hailey H.: It's so interesting-Speaker 1: Really?Hailey H.: ... because every time I drink hibiscus tea, it feels like my sinuses are just closing in on me. I hate it.Speaker 1: Interesting.Hailey H.: And, I have an allergy to ragweed. So now, I'm putting the two together. Pretty interesting.Speaker 2: That's why I stopped eating bananas, I think. Subconsciously, maybe. Because of the ragweed and the banana thing.Hailey H.: That's it?Speaker 1: That's so interesting.Hailey H.: Really?Speaker 2: No, seriously. Because, I don't know why, I just stopped because I think in the winter it was too much.Speaker 1: Who knew?Hailey H.: Yeah.Speaker 2: That makes sense now.Hailey H.: It just kinda leaves you funny feeling? That's what hibiscus tea does to me. I don't like it.Speaker 1: Alright.Speaker 2: Yeah.Speaker 1: Thank you.Hailey H.: Thanks guys.Speaker 1: Good information. Wow.Speaker 2: Really.Speaker 1: All right, who can forget this little mama?Speaker 2: This is so good.