So, a watermelon allergy can start anytime?  I am almost 40 and it just started.  Severe gastroenteritis this summer (last night) within 8 hours of consuming it.  What is it about watermelon?  I couldn't believe it and had never heard of this. 

Welcome to the club!   I had never heard of it, either.  From my early teens on, within a few hours of eating watermelon, I would have severe (really severe) pain, gas and diarrhea.  Like a dummy, I didn't specifically blame it on the watermelon.  I wondered about it, but assumed that no one could be  allergic to this innocent and refreshing fruit.  

When my youngest daughter refused to eat watermelon (See  Be sure allergy isn't the reason your child won't eat certain foods)  I laid it to contrariness.  At that point I had cut back on my consumption of watermelon also, although I still wouldn't believe it was an allergy.   When an allergist diagnosed melon as one of the items my daughter was seriously allergic to, I was astonished.  I went out and bought one, ate a number of pieces, and.... ouch!!!  My daughter was less than sympathetic since I had always given her a hard time about not eating watermelon.

Surprisingly, after not eating any for some fifteen years, I am no longer allergic to it at all!  Go figure!  I eat all I want in season when they are cheap, and lay off completely out of season.   I don't eat it at all if I am having other allergic problems.  So far it works.

Thanks for writing.

Hello, I have just found your web site and I love it.  I have a question.  I have just been told at 31 I am allergic to iodine.  I am having a lot of trouble finding all the foods that have iodine in them so that I can avoid them.  You listed some that shocked me.  Do you know more?  I was told that just because it says sodium it does not mean it has iodine in it.  Is this true?  This is not an easy task with a family of four to feed and keep me healthy.  If you have any thing that can make this new way of eating better, please let me know.

At about 17 years of age, my daughter Cathy developed a number of allergies which had apparently been lying dormant for years.  One of the worst was to iodine.  Fortunately none were life-threatening, although if she were to be injected with iodine for medical scan, it might be extremely serious.

Cathy learned the hard way how allergic she was.  She had such a quick labor with granddaughter Jackie that she almost didn't make it to the delivery room.  The Dr. arrived just in time to realize that the baby was in fetal distress due to the cord being tangled around her neck, and hurried things up even more.  They hadn't had time to prep Cathy, and they had to put in stitches, so they quickly doused her with betadyne.  This resulted in three additional days of very  uncomfortable hospitalization. 

Cathy was told that everyone has to have at least a trace amount of iodine, to support thyroid function, and as a result of avoiding as much iodine as possible, she has to have a thyroid function blood test yearly.  If she developed a problem, she says there's another medication that would support healthy thyroid function.

Not all sodium (salt) has iodine.  "Sea salt" does of course, and salt comes basically in two varieties; iodized and not iodized.   Years ago many people who lived in areas far from the ocean, and where there was little iodine in the soil, would develop goiters, huge overgrowth of the thyroid gland, under their neck.  Iodized salt was mandated in order to prevent this disorder.

In addition all seafood - shellfish, shrimp, lobster, and ocean fish - contain iodine.   So does kelp and other seaweed.  These are the major sources.  

Other lesser sources depend on whether they have been added, or grown in iodine-rich soil.

You may not be allergic enough to avoid all the following foods, most of which have bare trace amounts, but here's a list:

• Iodized salt and sea salt. 

• Very salty foods MAY contain iodized salt

• Restaurants, take-out and microwave meals may contain iodized salt.

• Small amounts are found in all dairy products (milk, sour cream, cheese, cream, yogurt, butter, ice cream) as well as most margarine.  

• Trace amounts are found in egg yolk

• Shellfish, ocean fish, shrimp and lobster, etc.

• Seaweed or kelp, plus foods containing carrageen, agar-agar, algin, or alginate - all made from seaweed

• Many cured meats such as bacon, sausage, ham, corned beef

• Turkey or chicken with flavor, broth or additive injected

• Many canned vegetables

• Onions, radishes and watercress, broccoli, spinach, turnip greens, asparagus, garlic, certain types of beans, mushrooms, squash and - pizza (?!??) 

• Dried fruit and some nuts

• Many bakery products

• Chocolate and molasses

• Tofu, soy milk, soy sauce and other soy products

• Many vitamins and supplements

• FD&C red dye #3.  This is contained in many foods, beverages and pills that are red or brown.

You'll have to find what your tolerance level is.  If you avoid the primary sources, your allergy may ease off (but not disappear!).

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