Spring Getting You Down?

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20% of Australians suffer for hay fever- are you one of them?

 

Hay fever is normally an allergic response to pollens, dust, mould, mites or animal hair. Symptoms often include sneezing, runny noses, watery eyes, itchiness, congestion and fatigue. Aside from minimising your exposure to any allergic triggers, what else can you do?

 

Foods You Can Eat to Help Reduce Symptoms

Minimise dairy, starches, sugar, bananas and gluten. All these foods cause the body to produce mucus. Mucus is one of the places that allergens like to live in the body.

 

Eat more vitamin C and flavanoid rich foods.  Vitamin C and flavanoids are naturally occurring anti-histamines that help to strengthen the body tissues and reduce inflammation. Try eating apples, berries, broccoli, buckwheat, capers, capsicum, coriander, kale, kiwifruit, mango, onions, papaya and watercress.

 

Quercetin is a food based enzyme that helps decrease the sensitivity of your mucous membranes (which means they will be less irritated by any allergens). Foods with high amounts of quecetin include preservative free red wine and garlic.

 

Betacarotene (a naturally occurring Vitamin A) helps to build the body’s barriers against allergies. It is found in many colourful foods such as apricots, carrots, goji berries, pumpkin, mango, sweet potato and leafy greens.

 

Omega 3 fatty acids can also ease allergy symptoms due to their anti-inflammatory nature and omega 3s are found in abundance in salmon, flax oil and eggs.

 

Add honey to your daily diet – try to get unheated with unique manuka factor for the best results.

 

If you are an allergy sufferer, make sure you chat with Anna about supplements you can be taking instead of pharmaceutical anti-histamines.

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