Sea Food Allergy Question

I am allergic to most fish and shell fish. Do you think it would be safe for me to eat sea weed? Like with sushi without fish for example? I haven't really tried because I am extremely paranoid about my food allergies (the past two times I have accidentaly eaten sea food I've ended up with adrenalin, and it hasnt been very plesant).

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Hi Haagendaz... I dont know the official answer but all I can say is that I am alergic to all fish and when I eat it suffer sudden anaphylaxis and that includes sea weed.

Hope that helps!

Snowy

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Hi Haagendaz,

It depends what you are actually allergic to. If you are allergic to iodine (present in shellfish, seaweed, some cleaning products and X ray contrast dye) then you will react to seaweed in the same way as you do to shellfish. It is more common to be allergic to a protein in the muscle of the shellfish, though, in which case you would not necessarily react to seaweed.

However, it is not quite that simple, because there is a lot of potential for cross-contamination in restaurants, markets and fish-mongers. Seaweed is usually collected and sold in an environment where there is a lot of fish and shellfish, so it may well be contaminated by shellfish proteins and may trigger your anaphylactic reaction.

Incidentally, it is interesting that you say that you are allergic to fish and shellfish. They are distinct and different organisms with different muscle proteins. Of course, it is possible to be allergic to both, but I wonder if perhaps you are actually allergic to just shellfish (far more common than fish allergy). Any reactions that you have had to fish itself may have occured due to cross-contamination with shellfish at the time of catching, storing, selling or cooking. If this is the case, this would suggest that you are very sensitive to contamination with the tiniest traces of shellfish protein, which would be a compelling reason to avoid seaweed.

More information here: anaphylaxis.org.uk/informat...

No-one but you can decide whether it's worth taking the risk of trying seaweed, but for what it's worth, if it were me, I'd avoid it with a barge pole. Sorry not to be more positive... you'll just have to stick to the chicken yakitori.

By the way, if you ever have an X ray or CT scan where they want to inject you with contrast dye, it's worth mentioning that you have a shellfish allergy. It's not likely to be iodine that is the problem, but they may want to be more cautious about giving you the dye just in case.

Hope this helps

Em H

(who is craving sushi now... thank goodness Yo Sushi! has just come to Nottingham!)

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Em I had no idea of the link between shellfish and x-ray dye that explains a lot.

Edited to add: don't forget that crispy seaweed in chinese restaurants is actually cabbage, this came up over the weekend with one of the lads GF's she thought it was real seaweed.

Bex

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Hi Hagendaaz - for waht its worth I agree with Emily H. I am allergic to fish for definite but not sure about shellfish (probably am). I would definitely completely avoid seaweed because of the cross contamination. Its just not worth it. Take care.

Sandi