Is there something wrong with me? Does anybody else suffer from this problem? Let me back up. Throughout my entire life, I have eaten and enjoyed eggplant. I recall one day at my old apartment, I proposed cooking an eggplant dish with then-roommate Erin. She said she was allergic to eggplant — “It makes my mouth itchy.” Well that’s unfortunate, I thought. Then today I made this baked eggplant, sauteed spinach, fresh mozzarella and sundried tomato crostini, and found myself smacking my mouth afterwards, annoyed by this fuzzy, tingly itchy feel on my tongue.
burned by bruschetta
The eggplant itchy mouthfeel syndrome! Did Erin pass it on to me by co-habitation? Does one acquire it with age or with increased eggplant consumption? Whatever it is, what a total bummer.
I did a little research and found that an eggplant oral allergy was identified by the American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology. Also, an article purporting that oral allergy syndrome, as it were, may be worsened by the presence of ragweed, which occurs after August 15 — uhh, now. Incidentally, this is also the best time of the year for eggplant! In many stripes and sizes. I know you’re all eating them as I write. Grilled and drizzled with olive oil, battered and fried, roasted and chilled or baba ghanoushed. You cannot resist those pearly teardrops of purpleness. So tell me, all you otherwise eggplant-happy eaters, are you experiencing what I’m experiencing? (Imagine me in pink headband and fringed sleeves: “Are you experienced? Have you ever been experienced (with the itchy oral eggplant syndrome)? Well, I have.”)
Truth be told, the itchy feel wasn’t so unpleasant that I couldn’t go on with my evening and forget about it completely after some drinks. I’d say it lasted a couple of hours. Also, I was drinking white wine along with this dish, and wonder if the alcohol could have possibly agitated whatever chemicals were going on in my mouth or dried out my tongue too much.
itching to attack
Aside: If you’re wondering why these photos look eight times more sophisticated than my usual ones, it’s because I stole my boyfriend’s digital camera to snap them while he was out (and since I left my camera at someone’s house). Ben recently got a new lens, too, and is very excited about having the same camera and lens as “the Smitten Kitchen Lady,” aka Deb. I know — Hooray, finally an upgrade! Well, I don’t know how long that will last. I barely know how to hold the thing, so consider this post a rare visual treat.
162 Responses
Evie
No one has mentioned this one yet – but when sometimes eat eggplant I get a feeling of impeding doom and a heaviness on my shoulders- so then I stop eating. But there are other times when I eat eggplant I’m totally fine. Someone told me once that there are female eggplants and male eggplants and I’m reacting to one. I don’t remember which one – so I go on ordering and eating eggplant. But now when I encounter the ‘bad’ eggplant, I switch plates with my husband.
kathy
I used to get the itchy mouth all through childhood whenever I ate eggplant. My sister experienced it as well. Not with any other fruit or veggie though. As an adultThe last time i tried eggplant, after not havingit for a long time, I got the itchy mouth and huge hives inside my mouth on my cheeks and tongue.
I am afraid to eat it now… next time my throat could close up.
yoko
whaaat! female and male eggplants?! eggplant is a favorite food of mine but sometimes i do get hives, usually when the eggplant is sort of old and there are more seeds in it. i should probably stop eating it but i hear when one is allergic to a food one can end up craving it for the “high”. insane!
Trisha
WOW! I just started to eat eggplant and I didn’t really pay close attention but after eating it a couple times the inside of my mouth was really itchy. I still didn’t put much thought into because I have never had a reaction to anything EVER…However I was just eating eggplant and it happend again, so I googled it and here I am! I’m glad to know that I’m not the only one! It kinda sucks because I just started to eat it and of course-I love it…I’m sure I’ll eat it here and there. However I’m really not sure if thats safe???? Guess I’ll talk to my doctor.
Tonia
I thought I didn’t have any allergies, except maybe to rockmelon (cantalope) when i get this weird indigestion/gastro reaction like my intestine can’t digest it…. but just tonight I have had my second reaction to eggplant in a couple of days and completely different to anything anyone has mentioned on here. My mouth imediately starts to water, my heart races and I feel like I am going to throw up. Drinking some water seemed to help tonight and making myself stay calm also. It passes in a matter of minutes. Tonight I ate baba ganoush bought from a shop and last time it was eggplant I roasted well myself. I have also realised that the sore mouth I get sometimes might be related to allergies so I will have to record when I get that in the future.
Carl
I’ve had a rather substantial reaction to eggplant ever since I can remember: I’ve eaten it all my life and I’ve always had a reaction to some degree or other. My mom used to fry breaded eggplant for our family when I was a kid: I LOVED it, but my mouth would invariably feel sore afterwards. I had some great baba ganoush (eggplant tahini) the other night, which left painful welts on my tongue and inside my mouth, but damn, it was delicious! So I just have to partake of eggplant in moderation, because it WILL hurt if I eat a lot of it at once.
Depending on the way the eggplant’s prepared, the reaction can be more than just localized orally: I once had some eggplant parmesan and it actually irritated me on its way down my esophagus, so much so that I almost felt like I was going to regurgitate, but I managed to keep it down.
So, when it comes to eggplant consumption, I must quote Nietzsche: “What does not kill me makes me stronger.” (Let’s hope.)
dave
just ate A cherry. im dying. thats why im on here. apparently we should start a club. most fruits, some vegetables, give me the itchy mouth/ears. if i eat a lot, it makes my throat close up and i have reduced hearing, as well as the itchy turns into burning. i was told it was ragweed allergys and was given medication. its getting to the point RIGHT NOW, that im considering going to the ER, and i had 1 cherry. i really hate this.
brandon
that happens to me to only cause u have an allergic reaction to which means u r allergic to egg plant
JeAn
I just got done eating a Kiwi and a bad case of the itchy and my throat felt tight. So I picked up the computer to see, what if any symptoms were on the net. So this helped a little. I was around 12 when I just couldn’t eat eggplant anymore. My mouth felt like it was on fire. When I was about 20 I couldn’t eat pineapple and now I’m almost 30 and one Kiwi almost closed my throat completely. But what didn’t help is some of the things that bather some of you doesn’t even effect me.
Kay
My mom was allergic to eggplant and now at 59 yo, I have just become allergic to it. I was enjoying some Japanese eggplant yesterday that I had baked with olive oil and Parmesan, when I started coughing and could not stop. This morning I had terrible sinus problems. Guess I will not be eating anymore eggplant but I love it. Didn’t know allergies were passed down.
Not Eating Out in New York » Chilled Eggplant Soup
[…] The eggplant is a peculiar bird in the nighshade vegetable family; unlike tomatoes, another member, it needs to be cooked. I wouldn’t recommend skimping on this procedure either, lest you should detect the bothersome “itchy mouth syndrome.” […]
T
I love the Smitten Kitchen lady’s pictures, they’re awesome! I have yet to try any of her recipes.
On the topic, I was Googling and found your post, as well as this one: http://thereses-rose-garden.blogspot.com/2006/09/how-to-prepare-eggplants.html
It talks about how there’s a chemical called solanine in eggplant and other nightshades (tomatoes, potatoes, etc.) but it’s much more prevalent in eggplant, especially eggplant that isn’t fully ripe.. Apparently you should salt it and rinse off the salt and then cook it really really well until it’s mushy. The more you cook it, the less solanine remains. I notice I get itchy mouth or upset stomach after eating eggplant when I make it myself (sometimes) but if I have it at a restaurant that doesn’t happen. I’m pretty sure it’s a matter of eating them undercooked.
She also suggests removing the peel but I think nature intended us to eat the peel… More fibre, and it’s so darn yummy (that’s the best part!).
debbie
I know this was an old posting but reading everyones examples of eggplant allergic reactions have been very helpful. My husband resently had a severe reaction to something he ate at a catered event. He had a piece of grilled eggplant and imediatly his tongue began to swell he suddenly got itchy all over. I asked the doorman to run to the pharmacy a block a way to get some Benadryl gel tablets. My husband could barely swallow them. He became light headed and the doorman called an ambulance. At the hospital the doctors said the benadryl tablets may have saved his life and was amazed that I new what he needed. They gave him more ant-histimines kept him over night then released him, but then he started having severe diarreha and nasuea, which I guess is probably the delayed response to the attack. After 3 days in bed, weak, dehydrated and tired, he is still taking benadryl, prednisone, zantax, and now we have added some good digestve bacteria to his list of meds.This is not to taken lightly, we will look very closely to everthing in the night shade family along with everything else we both eat. He has never been known to be allergic to anything, but I have had asthma, eczema, and several allergies to inhalents and pollens that I have pretty much over come through allergy shots and controlling with ani-histimins.
burnt mouth
i LOVE eggplant, but recently i think i’ve figured out i’m allergic to it (so i’m guessing, which is how i came across this article). Every time i eat it now, it burns my mouth, literally, my skin in the top of my mouth peels off ALWAYS. Its not that i’m eating it hot, I could be eating it right out of the fridge and it will do that. I’m not allergic to anything, but i guess theres a first for everything.
Joanna
As a child I had no symptoms of eggplant alergies. I did not eat it often, but I really enjoyed the eggplant that my grandmother served. I noticed when I was in my mid 30’s that about four hours after eating eggplant my stomach would become terribly bloated and I would eventually throw up several times. I have never had any itching or mouth burning, but the stomach discomfort is more than I can take and I will not eat eggplant again.
Itchy tongue leads me to improvise in the kitchen // The Farmers' Market Project
[…] out I’m not alone on the itchy eggplant thing. Google (not my mom) pointed me to this blog, NotEatingOutinNY.com, where the blogger talks about experiencing the same […]
karen
lord have mercy. i had fried eggplant for dinner tonight and now my tongue is sore on the sides. it’s been going on for years but i never put two and two together until now. on top of that, i have psoriasis which is irritated by nightshades. should have listened to my doc. it’s such a shame. i love eggplant.
heather
Just now I had my first eggplant, and I’ve got an itchy mouth – I plan on avoiding eggplant from now on. That’s because when I was a kid, I always got an itchy mouth from kiwi and it got a bit worse, so I did my best to avoid them, but then when I was a teenager I figured it must have been a kid thing, so I ate a whole kiwi at a friend’s house. Long story short, I couldn’t stop vomiting, had trouble breathing, and was taken to hospital by ambulance. I’m not saying this would happen to everyone, but I think allergies generally worsen with random exposure. I prefer squash to eggplants anyhow!
Nancy
Since my athletic days during high school I have been rushed to the hospital with various and mysterious food allergies. My allergist worried that I wouldn’t make it through life, actually, since it was so hard to pinpoint the foods which I was having problems with! Usually it was a combination of acidic foods combined with exercise, such as lemonade & parsley. The worst time was during a college trip to Mombassa, a coastal town in Kenya. I had been body surfing and swallowing salt water, then ate mango. My professor had insisted he keep my epi-pens with him in his emergency kit, only to find that he left the kit at our last hotel hundreds of miles away. I had to wait several hours for a doctor to travel to this remote area and treat me in my hotel room. My allergist was almost right! I cannot even peel a mango for my daughter without it starting on my hands and ending up in the ER. It is so bad (at age 53 now) that I have been instructed to call the paramedics rather than to try to get myself to treatment after using my epi-pen. 5 years ago I ate a dip containing parsley at an Argentenan restaurant while sipping wine and waiting for my dinner. There I was having to disrupt everyone’s dinner to get me to ER, and of course my friends preferred to save my life than to wait until they finished eating! I have found these events always occur when I’m out, never at home! Certain foods bother me with just a sore tongue & lips…pineapple is one. Eggplant is my latest, and for the first time ever, I have reacted with only swollen and red eyes/skin. It didn’t hit my throat. My friend had cooked a dish containing many ingredients including parsley, eggplant and wine. I don’t always have problems with these, but have decided to completely eliminate from my diet. My allergist is at a medical meeting and called me today to prescribe the methylprednisone dose pack. I would like to find a comprehensive test to determine whether there is a common denominator, such as sulfites. My story concurs that these allergies just keep getting worse in life. Please be careful!
Lena
Oh man! I realize this is a 3.5-year-old article, but I just googled “eggplant allergy” because I suffer from the *same exact thing,* and this article came up! I only started feeling said symptoms as a young adult (having eaten it a lot growing up). So happy to know I’m not the only one.. but so sad for us eggplant lovers. 🙁 Roasted, fried, Baba ghannoush-ified… I have submitted to just dealing with the itchy sensation for the rest of my days, because eggplant is just too damn tasty. Cheers!
toasty
wow i thought i was the only unfortunate one. wow. my lips always feel tingly like they swelled up to the size of the eggplant, but when i check it hasnt. its just that tingly itchy feeling. i was gonna stop eating it altogether but i cant resist as you all have said. its an excellent substitute to meat on a diet and it sooo good and filling. i hv found so many ways to make it. well as long as its not gonna kill me, i guess i can live with the itchy tingly plump lip feel.
anna
I have sensitivities to a variety of foods, including raw celery – but when it is cooked, I don’t react. I’m going to try salting the eggplant, rinsing it and drying it with paper towels before roasting it for the recipe I plan to use. Here’s hoping!
anna
Well, not sure if this will help anyone, but I sliced the eggplant lengthwise – and was getting hives on my hands just handling it. I kept washing my hands, but I really hoped to get this to work. I then salted each side of each slice, then let it sit for about an hour (longer than I read about anywhere, but I was anxious to eat it without a reaction!) There was a lot of liguid, which I hoped was a good sign. I then rinsed it well, patted them dry and roasted them, then I peeled them – and tasted the peel. It was delicious, but my lip began to tickle, so I quickly rinsed my mouth, and baked them longer. I then peeled the remainder of the eggplant, and used the flesh in the recipe. I had a hard time resisting the peel (make that ‘I did not resist the peel’), which I definitely reacted to – am not sure if the tickle was just from that, but the main course contained the peeled, roasted and then baked eggplant. I plan to try one more time (later), without eating any peel to see if I react, my experiment was loused up by even attempting the peel, but my hope is that the nutrients from it were baked into the eggplant (the reason why I never peel potatoes before baking them first as well). If I remember, I’ll try to post the results of the next round, which won’t be for a few weeks at least. Lesson learned – don’t even think about eating that absolutely delicious peel. I must say, though, the eggplant dish was a hit!
Meghan
OMG… I have it too!… I just started noticing it too…
But these responses have been helpful.
Tanya T
I get it too. Eggplant, kiwi, most skin-on apples (especially Fuji,) ripe bananas, and most nuts and seeds. I have the same reaction with very mature and raw cheeses.
I cannot eat walnuts, peanuts, pecans or brazil nuts at all– the reaction is too bad with those ones.
But I keep eating, despite the reactions. If I’m having a very special meal I’ll have one 25mg benadryl before just in case. I have an epi-pen too but have never used it. I find fizzy drinks and gargling ASAP help alleviate the reaction after nuts.
I’m a foodie, what else can I do!
Sherry
I have an eggplant allergy that I have had all my life. I’m in my early 40’s now, and have always loved fried eggplant. It started out that the roof of my mouth would itch. Now, I can’t eat it at all because it swells up and I get a huge blister that covered the entire roof of my mouth and filled the entire area between my teeth with a water blister. It finally burst and that was extremely gross. I’m lucky it didn’t swell up my throat. If you have a reaction, please stop eating the food you are allergic too, because you never know when it might be more serious and stop you from breathing. I no longer eat eggplant after that incident.
Phil
Two ways to avoid eggplant “allergy”
Actually I don’t know if it’s really an allergy, but I get the same itchy feeling in my mouth after eating eggplant. If you are cooking at home, one thing that usually helps is to soak the cut eggplant in salt water, then rinse, drain and dry before cooking.
In my case, at least, I NEVER get that itchiness from Asian eggplant, which is elongated and sometimes lighter in color than regular European/American eggplant(photo here: http://yaplog.jp/hanenomura/image/183/276). Look for it in Asian groceries.
Maggie
I had the reaction you’re describing last time I ate a persimmon and I thought I might have developed an allergy so never at them again. For several years I’ve had a slight stinging sensation in my bronchiol area (similar to early stage asthma attack) whenever I ate eggplant and I pretty much ignored it, but last time I ate eggplant I had that sensation but much worse and could hardly breathe for a little while. Sadly I will not try it again as much as I love eggplant!
Alana
wow! and I thought I was the only person who feels this odd itchy tingly mouthfeel! I never thought it was an allergy, I actually just figured that was how it tasted until I saw this! HAHA! to my surprise. BUT I eat it anyhow and it is not really that serious, I have other severe allergies to foods that break me into hives, enhance my asthma Etc. all the eggplant ever does it feel tingly in the mouth for a short time.
Billie
Wow. I just Googled this because I was getting that feel too with eggplant. I get it with pecans, walnuts, and pinenuts too. I just hate it, because I just discovered that I LOVE eggplant!
K.C.
Thanks Cathy for writing this almost 4 years ago. I found your blog by searching Bing for kiwi fruit and eggplant sensitivity (plus, I am sensitive to avocados). I’m not too fond of those because of the itchy irritating feel they give my mouth, but I don’t get any other symptoms. I have no known allergies to other foods or medicines. I understand that it might be a Latex Food Allergy, so it must be food only as I have no problem using latex gloves while working.
Kim
Wow, have I got lots of company!
Yes, salting and pressing out the extra liquid makes it MUCH easier for me to enjoy eggplant — but I still have to do so in moderation.
And my tongue, like Steve’s, breaks out into little bumps that HURT. Not just the itchiness some of you luckier folks get. Been like that all my life.
What else trips it? Stale walnuts (but not fresh ones), blue cheese, and sometimes bluefish or anchovies. Runs in the family — mom and my sister have it, too. Waiting to see if the young nephews got “lucky”
Thank you for this thread!
Kim
PS:
eating sugar calms it down — a spoonful of jam or something such. No, it’s not just an excuse to get dessert early, it really helps!
tommy
I had asian eggplant for lunch yesterday leftovers today and got the itchy mouthfeel. I had large round eggplant as a pizza topping for dinner last night and did not have the itchy mouthfeel> I’m convinced it has something to do with the maturity and/or the preparation.
sue
i get the itchy throat from plums, pears and apples. the last time i ate an apple, my throat closed up and i got welts all over my body. after reading thru the posts and seeing the common thread throughout them. it seems to me that there is some pesticide or fertilizer or wax being used on these fruits that may be what we are reacting to. to me that seems to be an “allergy to the pesticide”, but we shouldn’t be eating pesticides anyway, since if it is meant to kill an insect,we would certainly have a reaction to it. whether we can truly wash or soak it off the fruit i don’t know. but it seems by the above posts, that some methods of soaking or cooking have helped some. i do not have this problem with anything that has skin, such as banana, orange, mango. it doesn’t happen with every apple i eat, but i have stayed away from them till i can figure this out.
Carrie
Thanks for the article! I was just googling why my tongue tingled after eating eggplant and came across this article. I too have never had a reaction to eggplant and love eating it very much! I don’t have any food allergies at all but I am allergic to certain pollens, including Goldenrod!!! Bingo! I also found a website touching on the pollen subject that the eggplant is harvested when goldenrod is in full blion and one has a slight reaction. I actually thought at lunch when I was chowing on my Eggplant parmagian it was either the wine doing it or the hot cappuccino from earlier and I just now noticed. However I had the delicious left overs for dinner w/o wine or coffee and same reaction the instant my tongue hit the tasty eggplant! I guess I must be aware that after mid august, I may get a golden rod pollen reaction from local cooked eggplants. It’s still totally worth it!!! I also read how the more you intake little by little on something you may be mildly allergic too, the less your reactions over time until they diminish into nothing. We have tested this theory on my boyfriend who has oral allergies to fresh fruits/veggies (the alum under the skin) and with little increases each day his reactions have almost completely gone away. Before, fresh guacamole would make him puffy and itchy for the rest of the day. Now he can get through a whole bowl without any problems.
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Skyler
That same thing happens to me, except it’s when I eat cantaloupe and sometimes kiwi. My tongue/mouth feels itchy and my throat feels… dry? When I ate cantaloupe and kiwis when I was little, this never happened until… 2,3,4 years ago? I had an allergy test about 3 years ago, and those two things didn’t show up that I was allergic to.
Kim
I’m not allergic to eggplant. But I am SEVERELY ALLERGIC to SOLANINE found (in the night shade family) in EGGPLANT. The Higher the amount the Worse my reaction gets. I have NO REACTION to eggplant if no Solanine is present. When “Solanine is Present” I “Touch” it and break out into rash. When I “Taste” it my mouth burns and itches with a metallic taste. Then when I “Ingest” it (A Very Small piece), I get instant nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps, diahrrea, headache, dialated pupils, dizzy and cronic sweating to the point where I’d get hospitalized!!
Srividhya
I like brinjal, but after eating the brinjal, starts the Itching on my face and other parts arms, fingers etc.. and some irritations in the throat. I was so horrified. does brinjal is allergic vegetable?
Abby
I think I’m only allergic to the seeds in eggplant? I make a baked ziti w/eggplant where I roast it and then scoop most of the seeds out— but if I just have an eggplant sandwich roasting them and not removing the seeds my mouth feels bad 🙁 but then again, I can have eggplant cooked other ways and I’m fine? Maybe it’s just a certain kind that does it?!
Oddly enough it happens with bananas that are underripe or overripe but not perfectly ripe? Weird.
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