Melon and watermelon are practically not missing from any fridge during these dates, but not everyone can enjoy them equally. There are people who, when consuming these fruits, especially melon, may experience slight irritation and itching on the lips, mouth, and throat.
“It is usually due to an allergic reaction to proteins that are also present in some pollens and in other fruits such as peach,” explained food technologist Miguel Ángel Lurueña on his Twitter account.
Watermelon and melon are from the Cucurbitaceae family, herbaceous and climbing plants whose fruits also include vegetables such as cucumber, pumpkin and zucchini.
From Quirónsalud, they explain that it is common for patients allergic to pollens to experience an itchy mouth when they eat melon or, on some occasions, watermelon. “This is because they have become sensitized to profilin,” the center clarifies on its website.
It may seem like an unusual reaction, but, according to the Polytechnic University of Madrid, “allergy to melon is the second most important allergy to plant foods in the Spanish adult population.”
Profilin is usually destroyed by increased temperature and gastric digestion, so systemic reactions are rare, they add. In most cases the symptoms are located in the oropharynx.
The symptoms of this allergy are usually localized itching in the mouth, lips and throat. “Sometimes the itching is quite intense, so the intake of these fruits is usually rejected,” they say from Quirónsalud.
It can also produce edema on the lips, tongue, hives or digestive discomfort: the more ripe the fruit, the more symptoms it produces. It is for this reason that allergic people can tolerate these foods if they are greener, defends the hospital.
To diagnose these allergies, the affected person is first asked if they tolerate foods from the same family, such as cucumber or zucchini, or if they are allergic to pollens. This is followed by a skin test, an analytical test and/or an oral challenge test.
“If the condition presented by the patient is significant with intense itching, digestive discomfort, lip edema or an uncomfortable sensation in the pharynx, these foods should be removed from the diet,” they conclude from Quirónsalud.