Hypersensitive people experience adverse symptoms like tingling sensation on tongue, hives, runny nose, watery eyes and swelling of lips. These above signs indicate citrus acid allergy.
As citric acid is included in many processed foods and daily used products, it’s very difficult to diagnose allergic symptoms. Symptoms may range from acute, moderate and severe signs.
A citric acid is an acid generally found in certain fruits and food items. These include mandarins, grapefruits, oranges, Ugli fruits, Satsuma, lemons and other fruits. These acidic food items are having high vitamins C, which is good for health. However, there are people who are allergic to the citric acid, for them this allergy can be congenital or acquired.
Citrus Acid Allergy
Naturally citric acid is found in fruits, however people who experience allergic reaction after ingesting fruits doesn’t get it by citrus, but due to proteins available in the raw fruit.
Synthetic citric acid is also produced for preserving food substances. Common food products that include this industry manufactured citrus are soda, beer, baked foods, wine, caramel, ice-cream and sorbet. Pre-packed vegetables also include this ingredient to keep it fresh.
Person who is allergic to citrus can be sensitive to oranges, lemons and other citrus fruits. Substances in this fruits are treated as a threat by your immune system and as a result a chemical reaction is triggered by IgE antibody molecules.
Stay away from the vegetables, fruits, legumes, onion, garlic, corn etc to avoid most major sources of citric acid. Other common allergic foods you want to stay away are nuts, eggs and dairy food. If you do start having reactions, but you want to test more foods, then go back to the abolition diet.
The important differences between a food intolerance and a food allergy is that, an allergic response which will occurs in exactly the same way however small quantity of the allergen a person eats. Food intolerance on the other hand cause problems only in the proportion to the amount of the problem substance you`ve eaten.
General Symptoms
- Oral allergy syndrome
- Mouth ulcers
- Headache
- Swelling of lips and mouth
- Burning sensation of tongue
- Tightening of throat
- Digestive issues
- Asthma and other allergic signs can be seen.
Oral Symptoms
- Swollen Mouth
- Itchy lips
- Blisters, canker sores, or sores in mouth.
- Hives in mouth
- Swollen taste buds.
Cardiac Symptoms
- Low blood pressure
- Palpitations
- Tachycardia
Person must get immediate medical attention if he/she experienced adverse reaction after ingesting citrus induced food items.
Citric Acid Intolerance
Allergic reaction triggers even if you ingest small quantity of allergic food, and is linked to immune system.
Whereas, in case of intolerance, symptoms may be similar to some extent but the main cause of trigger will be excess intake of citrus included food products.
Well, it’s not easy for a normal person to determine the different between allergy and intolerance based on symptoms. You must consult allergist for diagnosis.
A person who suffers from citrus allergy, those persons reacts to compound and proteins that are specific to citrus. A person who is suffering from citric acid Intolerance responds only to the citric acid, an organic acid found in household products, fruits and even in some of the vegetables.
Citric acid is used as a preservative in most of the consumer goods which is also including soft drinks and beer. Though it is hard to detect that citric acid intolerance can be diagnosed very easily by a specialist. And even you can able to diagnose it by checking for any symptoms that occur immediately when you ingest the chemicals.
Cross Reactivity
As synthetic citric acid manufacturing involves molds and corn person who is allergic to these substances may experience allergic reaction.
So, if you see any adverse reaction after ingesting food items that include citric acid, this doesn’t mean you’re hypersensitive to citric acid. May be you’re allergic to corn or mold particles residing in the synthetic citric acid.
Some optional medicinal practitioners believe that sympathy to citric acid and other food additives is caused by exposure environmental toxin. A build-up of heavy metals in the body is believed to lead to the sensitivity to small quantities of additives that do not bother the most of the peoples who are suffering from the citric acid allergy intolerance.
Diagnosis and Treatment
First thing is to detect the allergen, which can be done by skin prick test or by diagnosis by an allergist.
A person who suffers from citric allergy, he should first talk to his doctor which is very important step in managing any food allergy problem. Doctors tend to prefer the most technically accurate terms. There are blood tests accessible for true IgE- mediated allergies like peanut protein, egg protein and dairy protein. Since the reactions to the citric acid are not IgE- mediated, there is currently no blood test for citric acid allergy.
Some of the doctors may do an oral challenge, they will be giving you a small dose of citric acid and see how you react to the citric acid. Other doctors may ask you to keep a food dairy; as there is no definitive test for citric acid. Food dairy is a key to Diagnose. Once you have diagnosis, your doctor will be able to prescribe you any necessary medications such as epinephrine. This medication can stave off a critical reaction until you can seek emergency medical care.
The treatment provided for citric acid allergy will depend on the symptoms accessible by the patient. For instance, if the patient has skin rashes, then the oral medications or topical medications may be provided by the doctors. If the citric acid allergy causes a stomach pain, then the appropriate medications are also provided by the doctors to the patients who are suffering from the citric acid allergy intolerance.
Unfortunately, you can’t treat citric acid allergy without avoiding it.
You must stay away from all foods that include even small quantity of citric acid.
