Diet for urticaria

Diet for urticaria is an integral part of treatment, since this disease belongs to a heterogeneous group of dermatoses, which in most cases develop as allergic reactions to various provoking factors.

These factors include: taking medications, infections, exposure to chemicals in production and household chemicals, sun rays and hypothermia, insect bites and pollen. But a diet for hives is needed mainly when the appearance of itchy blisters on reddened skin is caused by eating foods that the human body cannot tolerate.

It should be emphasized that the peculiarity of the diet for this disease is that it is a hypoallergenic diet for urticaria.

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Treatment of urticaria with diet

A doctor should prescribe a dietary treatment for urticaria. You may ask, which one – a dermatologist or an allergist? And this is a good question, because in terms of localization, this disease is related to dermatology, and if we take into account its etiology – to allergic diseases. Therefore, it is necessary to accurately determine the cause of the pathology that has arisen. And here, too, not everything is so simple: doctors themselves admit that there are no unified treatment and diagnostic approaches to urticaria yet, and only in 50% of cases is the true cause of acute urticaria determined. In other cases, the origin of this disease remains unclear, and doctors make a diagnosis of "idiopathic urticaria".

In addition, urticaria may not only be an isolated reaction of the body, but also a symptom of an infection, the presence of an autoimmune systemic disease (systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, Sjogren's syndrome, etc.) or a pathology of the digestive system and gastrointestinal tract. So, what diet for urticaria is needed in each specific case depends on the cause.

In clinical practice, it is generally accepted that the most common cause of acute urticaria is food products (especially those containing various additives and preservatives). And although the manifestation of a skin reaction as an indicator of the body's hypersensitivity to a particular product is not immune in nature (that is, IgE-mediated), it looks like an obvious allergy. Based on this, specialists call it "pseudoallergy". But following a hypoallergenic diet for urticaria, according to most of them, is one of the main conditions for recovery.

Diet for acute urticaria

When prescribing a diet for acute urticaria, it is recommended to include the following foods in the diet:

• cereals, except semolina;
• fermented milk products (without any additives);
• mild cheese;
• lean meat (beef, rabbit, turkey);
• all types of cabbage (except red cabbage), zucchini, pumpkin, fresh green peas and green beans, dill and parsley;
• apples (green or yellow skinned), pears, yellow cherries, white currants and gooseberries;
• butter, refined vegetable oil;
• grain bread or crispbread.

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Diet for chronic urticaria

According to many allergists, chronic urticaria often accompanies pathological conditions of the gastrointestinal tract, gall bladder and liver. And urticaria manifests itself in parallel with the exacerbation of the underlying disease. Therefore, in such cases, therapeutic diet No. 5 is prescribed with limited consumption of fats, table salt and liquids. In fact, it is observed by patients as a diet for chronic urticaria

Diet No. 5 allows the following: lean beef and chicken (boiled or baked); lean fish (boiled or steamed); low-fat cottage cheese and low-fat sour cream; butter (50 g per day); porridge and vegetarian soups with vegetables, cereals or pasta; legumes and vegetables; non-acidic fruits and berries.

This diet does not allow you to eat: fatty meat and fish; meat, fish and mushroom broths; fresh bread and pastries; green onions, spinach, radishes, horseradish and sorrel; smoked and canned foods; hot spices (pepper, mustard, horseradish). Also prohibited are ice cream, confectionery with cream, black coffee, cocoa, chocolate and, of course, alcoholic beverages.

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Diet after hives

A hypoallergenic diet for urticaria should be followed for at least a month or, as allergists note, until the signs of urticaria completely disappear. And only after that, you can gradually (and in minimal quantities) return to the diet the products that were taboo. But this is only on condition that the product did not lead to a relapse of the disease.

Doctors recommend keeping a food diary. In it, the patient needs to record what he ate and when, and most importantly, whether hives appeared. In this way, it is possible to accurately determine the allergen product and most accurately determine which products should be excluded from the diet after hives.

The diet after hives also concerns the technology of cooking: the preferred method of cooking food is boiling or steaming.

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Diet menu for urticaria

Despite the impressive list of foods that need to be avoided when following a diet for urticaria, the menu includes a sufficient range of dishes.

For example, a breakfast menu might consist of:

• oatmeal with apples and green tea with biscuits;
• a piece of boiled turkey with a salad of fresh cabbage and apple juice;
• buckwheat or wheat porridge and a glass of kefir;
• two baked apples with cottage cheese and a cup of green tea.

The lunch menu for a diet for urticaria may look like this:

• pea soup, boiled potatoes with sour cream sauce or vegetable oil and herbs, green tea;
• potato puree soup, steamed meatballs with stewed vegetables and mineral water;
• meatball soup, stewed zucchini and dried fruit compote.

And for dinner you can prepare potato casserole with dill, pasta with apple or cheese sauce, zucchini stuffed with vegetables and rice, cottage cheese casserole and many other dietary dishes.

Diet recipes for urticaria

• Recipe for Creamy Potato Soup

You will need: 3 large potatoes (peeled), 2 leeks, 2 tablespoons olive oil, water and salt.

Olive oil is poured into a saucepan, chopped leeks are added (only the white part) and stewed, stirring constantly. When the onions become transparent, diced potatoes are added to the saucepan and stewed for 5 minutes. After that, 500-600 ml of boiling water is poured into the saucepan, salted and cooked for about 15 minutes. When the potatoes become soft, the soup is blended until smooth. When serving, you can put a little butter in a plate and sprinkle parsley on top.

• Recipe for Macaroni with Apple or Cheese Sauce

You probably know how to cook pasta. So we offer recipes for two completely dietary sauces for boiled pasta (or any other pasta).

• Cheese sauce

Heat a tablespoon of butter (or melted butter) and 2 tablespoons of cream in a thick-bottomed saucepan. Add 2 tablespoons of grated mild cheese and stir until smooth, add salt to taste. Pour sauce over the pasta and sprinkle with parsley, dill or a small amount of grated cheese.

• Apple sauce

Peel and core a couple of apples, cut them and pour water over them so that it covers the apples. Cook until the apples are soft. Then mash them, add a tablespoon of sugar and a little cinnamon and cook for a few more minutes, stirring constantly.

This aromatic and very tasty sauce is perfect not only for pasta, but also for porridge, which nutritionists recommend everyone to eat, but especially those who need a diet for hives.

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What should you not eat if you have hives?

If there are symptoms of urticaria caused by a certain food product, its consumption should be completely stopped. Nutritionists also strongly recommend following a hypoallergenic diet for urticaria - that is, excluding from your diet foods that have an increased ability to cause allergic reactions, including urticaria. These include:

• meat, fish and mushroom broths;
• chicken, liver and offal;
• everything fried, spicy and smoked;
• marinades and pickles (including sauerkraut);
• spices, mustard, mayonnaise and other ready-made sauces, as well as ketchup;
• sausages (boiled and smoked), hot dogs, frankfurters, etc.;
• semi-finished products (dumplings, minced meat, etc.);
• fish, caviar and any seafood;
• eggs, sharp cheeses;
• margarines and spreads;
• tomatoes, bell peppers, radishes, spinach, sorrel, celery, horseradish;
• mushrooms;
• natural honey and all types of nuts;
• all citrus fruits, apricots, peaches, grapes, strawberries, raspberries, black currants, melon, watermelon, pineapple, pomegranate, kiwi and persimmon;
• carbonated drinks with fruit essences and alcohol;
• coffee, cocoa, chocolate;
• sweets, marshmallows, ready-made cakes, pastries and muffins.

Products such as chicken, lamb, butter, semolina, white bread (made from high-grade flour), cottage cheese, yogurts (with additives), carrots, beets, onions, garlic and bananas should be consumed in small quantities. And whole milk, as well as sour cream, can only be used in cooking.

In case of cold or heat urticaria, dietary restrictions concern the use of table salt. It is for this purpose that it is not recommended to eat salty, spicy and smoked foods. But fermented milk products can and should be eaten, as they contain calcium, which helps strengthen the walls of blood vessels.

What can you eat if you have hives?

The list of products on which the diet for allergic urticaria is based includes what can be eaten with urticaria. Such products include lean beef, chicken, rabbit (boiled); vegetarian soups; stewed or poached vegetables; various porridges (except semolina); pasta; refined vegetable oil (sunflower or olive). Fermented milk products should be low-fat, bread should be whole grain or with bran, and fresh vegetables (that is, without preliminary cooking) include cucumbers, lettuce, dill and parsley. In addition, you can eat cabbage (white cabbage, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts), zucchini, green beans and potatoes, and potatoes should not be fried, but boiled, stewed or mashed.

You can eat apples with allergic urticaria, but only with yellow or green skin and only baked. You can drink green tea and dried fruit compote - with plain or biscuit cookies.

The absence or limitation of the above-mentioned products in daily nutrition and the use of only recommended products is the diet for urticaria in adults. The diet for urticaria in children is absolutely no different from it.