Am I allergic to bananas?

Allergic to bananas and melons but not ragweed?

• I believe I am allergic to bananas and melons. When I eat even just a small bite, the roof of my mouth itches to the point where I want to rip out my mouth. When I was a child I used to eat bananas all the time and melons too. This reaction started happening when I was about 12. I have done a little bit of research online but everything says it has something to do with being allergic to ragweed pollen. The only other allergy that I have is to penicillin. Is this even possible??

• Answer:

  Lots of allergies are tied to each other. For instance, it's because I was allergic to latex that I later started to get allergic to bananas (they usually have a cross-reactivity). Or you could just be allergic to bananas and melons with no connection to the penicillin. Usually the allergy develops if it's something you consume a lot (in my example, I should also be allergic to avocado, but since I hardly ever ate it, I've never developed a reaction to it, whereas I bananas a lot as a kid). Allergies are crazy things. Sometimes they are related to other allergies, and sometimes they're not. The penicillin might not at all be related to the bananas and melons. It could just be that you already had some pre-disposition to allergies to those foods because of something else, and because you over-ate them you developed an allergy. You can try consulting a specialist for an allergy test, but the best thing is for you to watch out for yourself to see what you have allergic reactions to, and make a mental note to not eat it/touch it/use it for treatment. For food allergies, I don't think there is usually a cure.