So my girlfriend is allergic to strawberries. Since then, I've avoided having any strawberry flavors around just to be careful. Once I get into missing tho I wanna be able to utilize all flavors available to me. So my question is, has any had any first hand experience with food allergies and using the flavors of the food and had any issues? Apart from dropping different flavors on her skin and seeing if she breaks out, I wanted to get some input from the community!
Strawberry allergies, like almost every food allergy, are caused by proteins. There are no proteins in any flavorings commonly used by the DIY community or in any of the flavors sold for vaping.
People are allergic to more than just foods though. I worked in a clinical setting, with and M.D. for over 8 years dealing with allergies. Anyone can be allergic to anything. Food allergies do not even qualify for the top 5 most common allergies. Just because we are using flavorings that are GRAS, we do not know how a person may react to them. I've seen this broad stroke "there are no proteins in any flavorings commonly used..." before and it's a bit alarming. A bit. Nothing personal. No disrespect. It is well known there are food dyes in some e liquids. <- Just as an example. I know of several cases where something as simple as Red #40 or Yellow #5 to cause severely violent behavior in young children. It's rare but there is no mistaking violent behavior vs. ADD, stomach aches, etc. The cure was simply to remove the culprit from the diet. Nothing mysterious. Anyone can be allergic to anything. You would be amazed. Google it:
Pork Broccoli Red #40 Tartrazine (Yellow #5) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tartrazine http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15668999
Even if someone doesn't have a full blown allergy, they can have a "sensitivity" to certain things. Second hand smoke for instance. It can be more disruptive to people with airborne allergies and cause more discomfort than other individuals. Some non-smokers can hang out in a bar all night with smokers and have no problem. Others may have very adverse physical reactions to hanging out in a bar with smokers. Everyone is different. Very different. I am no scientist or biochemist. If there is something you feel I am not understanding about this, I'd be very interested. Thanks.
While people might claim "sensitivities" about anything they want in a "clinical setting", this post was about the anthocyanin forming protein Far a1, which causes the common allergy to strawberries, not about someone feeling "bad" about the presence of food coloring.
I used food coloring as an example because I know it is used in some e liquids. Let's leave that off the table for now. Your making the medical claim, because "there are no proteins in any flavorings", anyone with a diagnosed allergy to the food strawberry can inhale, be around 2nd hand vape, get it on their skin, without incident. Without knowing the persons medical background, family history of allergies, your able to provide clinical studies that anyone around the world with an allergy to strawberries can safely vape any strawberry e liquid they can find, from any vendor, anywhere in the world and not have a reaction?
Lets talk a sec about OAS (Oral Allergy Syndrome) - I've got it and as a result I'm allergic to most tree fruits to varying degrees. Apples and carrots make my teeth "itchy" but kiwi, banana and a handful of grains though will hospitalize/kill me... really Bananas and Kiwi?
Vaped a 120ml of some local guy's fruity mix (v/ heavy on banana) and it was great. for the first time in 20 years I got to taste the forbidden fruit.
I can vape these as flavors, but that most likely because it's not the chemical makeup in the scent that triggers me but an enzyme in the flesh of the fruit itself..
That said I don't have any perfume allergies/triggers and I'm not familiar with what goes into each strawberry flavor .. so take this as opinion only.
Strawberry is the number one reaction in vape flavors iirc.
Google it, you'll get tons of answers.
Also maybe I'm not typing in the right search words but I never found anything concrete.
"Strawberry vape allergy" - easy enough
https://www.google.com/search?q=strawberry+vape+allergy&oq=strawberry+vape+allergy&aqs=chrome..69i57.8311j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
If she is not vaping herself and your not trying to make a mix for her using strawberry, I would worry about vaping around her too much. If she is riddled with other allergies besides just strawberry then you may want to be careful. An example, people who are lactose intolerant usually only only have a reaction to say, a cup of milk. This is where scratch testing isn't ideal. Scratching 1 drop of milk onto the skin may not prove anything at all. Drinking a glass of milk OTOH may cause an upset stomach. So if she is only allergic to strawberries and little to nothing else, you'll probably be okay just vaping it around her. Sometimes it takes a lot to incite an allergic reaction. you'll have to know the severity of her allergy. I know cat lovers who are allergic to cats and keep them as pets. They just eat antihistamines all the time and deal with it. Just get to know how severe her allergy is and make a decision.
That's a good point. Its only the strawberries I know of. I may try vaping a strawberry liquid around her and see how it goes. I would like to make her a strawberry juice to try cus she wants to but before I dove on and started random tests on her I wanted some input. Thanks man!
The strawberry is just artificial flavoring , she'll be fine but don't use any organic flavor or natural extract flavors . Hope this helps you
That skin test won't tell you for sure tho. there's a few flavors that I've spilt on my hands and they broke out but when I vape them I feel fine .
I just don't want her to swell or go into anaphylaxis or anything.
If you place abit on the back of the hand she should be fine. Basically if she is allergic it will go red and really itchy on the spot you dabed it on. There might be a little irritation due to the chemicals so don't jump to conclusions straight away. When I had an allergy scratch test done I think I waited 24 hours.
Usually, if a person has an allergy to a certain food, they also find that food unpalatable (they think it tastes gross). Your gf still yearns for the taste of strawberry even though she is really allergic to them?
She hasn't had one since she was very little so she doesn't even know or remember what they taste like.
I'd err on the side of caution and not add any strawberry to mixes. Do you vape with strawberry concentrates? Does she react adversely to those clouds?
I've not tried any juice with strawberry in it around her. Also not a huge strawberry fan. I've liked it in a few juices but its not something I strive to find. But with getting into mixing, knowing certain flavors can act as other things than just the intended flavor, o wanted to ask about this. Thanks for the input