Do you think you eat enough fruit and veg?If you’re like most of us – then you probably don’t.
Almost a decade has passed since governments around the world starting telling us to eat ‘five-a-day’. Upping your intake of vegetables has been shown to reduce your chance of heart attack, stroke and cancer. But have these high profile initiatives made even the slightest bit of difference to our eating habits?
Analysts from the University of Bolgna have been trawling through data from the UK since the British ‘Five-A-Day‘ programme started in 2003. They have just published their findings and they make some interesting revelations…
Fed up being told of the dangers of being fat? We all know it by now – if you’re overweight, you could be seriously harming your health. Well here’s some refreshing news – a new study from the Nutrition Journal has revealed that it’s not just obese people that are putting themselves at risk of Diabetes… but also the underweight… A picture of health? Hardly - being underweight may increase the risk of Diabetes Read more
We all have our personal weaknesses. A quick survey in the office told me that chocolate or cigarette addictions are common frailties. My wife’s Achilles heel is buying handbags. My weak spot? Eating ice cream.
Light, creamy and sweet… Ice cream is perhaps the ultimate in feel-good foods. Having a bad day? An ice cream is the answer! (although your waist-line might not thank you too much)
Twice I have tried to make ice cream at home, but both times were a complete disaster: My best attempt resembled a rock-solid lump of green milky ice! So despite having abandoned an alternative career as an ice cream entrepreneur, I still wonder how those ice cream makers (such as Ben & Jerry’s and Haagen Daz) get their ice cream to taste SO good? Welcome to the secrets and the science behind the worlds most under appreciated frozen dessert…
(and if you don’t like the science bits you can laugh at a video of people trying to eat ice cream on a rollercoaster)Read more
Haggis vs. BigMac: Which is really better to eat?Haggis is like Marmite: People love it or hate it. Banned in the USA and slammed by health critics, just how bad can this Scottish delicacy really be?
Haggis is no longer the reserve of the ardent kilt-wearing Scot because more and more of us Burn’s Night revellers are opting for this authentic fare. Not helped by its anaemic appearance, the haggis has an image problem. Ardent proponents of this ‘boil in a bag’ of sheep innards claim that it is authentic, traditional, and no worse than most processed meat products many of us eat.
So, on the eve of my first Haggis experience (I know I’m late for Burn’s night), I cast a critical eye on the evidence for and against this Scottish national dish.
Chocolate lovers beware: Reading today's blog could be beneficial to your health!Chocolate is the nation’s favourite indulgence. Every year we collectively chomp our way through four Olympic stadiums worth of the stuff.
Today’s blog is all about enjoying chocolate and leaving the New Year’s resolutions for another day. Research shows that the healthy chemicals from chocolate will soon be making their way into the next generation of cold and flu medicines. But be warned… this choco-extract is the same chemical that makes chocolate poisonous to cats and dogs.
I’ve prepared an irresistible chocolate recipe so you can test out chocolate’s healing powers at home. And just so the pet dog doesn’t feel left out, there is something in here for Fido too!Read more
Sub-zero temperatures can be hazardous. If frostbite, hypothermia and road accidents weren’t bad enough; now our milk bottles are exploding!
In a previous post, Ruth wanted to know the answer to her milk bottle saga:
Sweet-tasting cream erupting from a bottle of milk!
“My milk was frozen this morning so that the cream erupted out of the bottle in a column. I see why that happened but why did this bit of cream taste really sweet?”
After promising to investigate and learning about the science behind a simple bottle of milk, it seems Ruth has discovered an ingenious way to get naturally sweet cream…Read more
Christmas day is looming. That hallowed day of food, wine, gifts, food and then some more food is nearly here!
Mmm, tasty!In the UK, ten million turkeys will be cooked, 25 million Christmas puddings eaten, and six million gallons of wine drunk! The chances are that you will be eating roast turkey at some point this next week (unless you’re vegetarian).
But how many of us know the best way to cook a roast? Have you’ve ever wondered what actually goes on in the food you cook? If you like cooking or eating, then today’s post is for you!
Warning: Reading today’s blog may make you decidedly hungry…Read more
Do you get an itchy nose or itchy palms after eating? Lots of us do; especially after takeaway food, cheese, hams or drinking red wine. Some of us get runny noses and some of us are even allergic to certain foods.
My wife challenged me to find out why she gets an itchy nose after eating…
Read on to find out the truth about food allergies, additives and the real cause for the dreaded ‘post-meal itchy nose’…
An Unsolved Medical Problem!
My wife rarely reads my blog; She says there are too many long words in it, and not enough pictures of flowers! But if I solve her ‘medical’ question she promised she would read this blog. As I’m a hopeless sucker for a challenge, I obliged.
Here’s how the problem came to light: We were relaxing one evening after a meal out. Sipping from a glass of red wine, she started to rub her nose “Why do I get an itchy nose when I eat certain foods?!” Because I am a doctor; it is expected that I must know the answer to anything vaguely related to the human body! I politely informed her that I had no idea and that “Post-Meal Nose Itching Syndrome was not something we covered in medical school!”
UPDATE – New poll!! November 2014
There clearly are a lot of you that experience the itchy-nose-after-food phenomenon. There are also a lot of different foods that cause it! Please fill out this poll so that we can find out what the most popular trigger foods are. (Try to identify the actual ingredient – you may have to experiment!) Please only answer if you get an itchy nose – if you experience a runny nose, or any other symptom – choose ‘no’ (there is another poll at the end of the article for you to do!) If your food isn’t there, choose ‘other’ then leave a comment at the very end of the post.
What is an itch anyway?
I hoped that ‘Google‘ would answer my question. Sadly, while it seems lots of people have strange itches and scratches (I’ll spare you the details) no-one seems to explain how eating causes an itchy nose.
So I decided to look into causes of itching, and started to remember what I was like as a medical student…
At medical school, I was the odd and slightly eccentric one. For no particular reason at one point I became fascinated by itches: what causes them, and why we get them! The medical name for itch is ‘pruritis’ and to my utter delight I found several medical textbooks devoted to the subject! Proudly carrying my ‘additional reading’ I got quite a laugh when my friends saw me walking around with “Your Guide to Pruritis”. They obviously presumed I was doing some homework for personal reasons!
There are special nerves in our skin (called C-Fibres) that only sense itch!
An itch is something of a halfway house between normal sensation and pain: If something irritates your skin a lot, then you feel pain; But if something irritates your skin only a little, you get an itch.
Allergies are a common cause of itching (pruritis). So is it possible that us ‘nose scratchers’ are allergic to something in our food?
What is a Food Allergy?
A food allergy is caused because your body’s immune system mistakenly thinks something we have eaten is attacking you. People talk about them all the time, but most people who think they have one actually don’t!
Common foods associated with allergies
If you eat a food that you are allergic to, your immune system becomes activated: The chemical histamine is released into the blood by your white blood cells. This sets off a sequence of events that can be mild or severe. The worst type of allergic reactions can be fatal and is called ‘anaphylaxis’. This rare reaction causes the immune system to go completely into overdrive. Histamine floods around the body: lips and eyes swell, vomiting occurs, skin rashes break out, wheezing and it becomes difficult to breathe.
Most Food Allergies are Mild but difficult to diagnose
Histamine causes itch
Thankfully allergies are normally very mild: the histamine gives you a skin rash, indigestion or a bit of itching.
My wife and my ‘nose scratching syndrome’ is probably not an allergy for several reasons:
My wife’s ‘nose-scratching syndrome’ only happens occasionally, she doesn’t get it every time she eats pizza or drinks red wine; if it were a food allergy it would happen every time.
Food allergies usually only happen with one type of food (e.g. nuts, eggs or shellfish), where in our case lots of different foods set it off.
Allergies tend to cause more than just an itchy nose; you would expect swollen lips, coughing or itchy eyes as well.
You may can find out more about food allergies here (and have a chat with your GP if you think you have a real one)
Allergy Symptoms
So if it’s not an allergy, could it be all those nasty food additives?
Chinese Restaurant Syndrome: The Truth
Some people get chest pains, headaches, flushing and burning around the mouth after Chinese food
Since the 1940s, a flavour enhancer called MSG (Mono-Sodium Glutamate) has been used in cooking in Western countries. Originally used in Chinese cooking, it is now in crisps, snacks, sauces and many fast foods. In the 1960s flurries of Chinese restaurant-goers started to experience lots of strange symptoms after chowing down. The finger of blame was pointed squarely at this new ‘artificial’ additive, MSG.
However, after decades of in-depth research it has been proven beyond reasonable doubt that MSG is safe to eat. MSG is found in seaweed naturally and does not cause ‘Chinese Restaurant Syndrome’.
What is ‘Chinese Restaurant Syndrome’? Probably a combination of indigestion, allergies and food intolerances in Westerners diners not used to Eastern spices and ingredients!
Even though MSG is safe, some people prefer not to have it anyway
Gustatory Rhinitis: runny nose problems
One solution to a runny nose!
Are you a curry-lover? If so, then you’ll know that the essential partner to your biryani and poppadoms is a large handful of tissues! It is quite normal for us all to get a runny nose when eating hot and spicy foods. However, some of us have this problem particularly badly and get a runny nose after eating practically anything!
‘Runny Nose’ even has a posh-sounding medical name: ‘Gustatory Rhinitis’!
Why?
Every time we eat, blood gets sent to our face and nose. This is to help our salivary glands work and to carry away the heat from our hot food. An unfortunate side-effect of this process is more blood flows into your nose and makes your nose run!
Facial Flushing? Blood flow is ‘unconsciously’ sent to the nose and face when eating
But gustatory rhinitis doesn’t normally cause nose itching, but understanding that blood gets sent to the nose after eating may help us to solvel this medical mystery…
The true cause of after-meal nose itch: ‘Eating Histamine’!
What do all these itchy-nose foods have in common?
Soy sauce (and Chinese Food)
Red Wine
Mature Cheese (and pizzas)
Cured Hams
Beer
Tomato puree
Fish and shell-fish
Any ideas what these foods have in common?
I had no clue until I discovered that all these tasty things naturally contain large amounts of histamine. Remember that problematic chemical that is released during allergies? The very same chemical that is released by the immune system during an allergic reaction is in lots of our foods!
Eating Histamine sounds dangerous! Should I be concerned?
Unless you’re planning on ingesting an industrial amount of histamine, eating the histamine found in food doesn’t cause a problem in most people: It all gets broken down and digested during eating. Occasionally some unfortunate people’s bodies aren’t able to destroy histamine and so every time they eat any foods high in histamine they get severe ‘allergy-like’ symptoms. They are missing an enzyme in their guts and they are ‘histamine intolerant‘; such people can have severe problems (sneezing, wheezing, rashes and diarrhoea).
Histamine: the pesky chemical that causes nose itching!
My wife and I don’t have ‘histamine intolerance’; we only get mild nose itching when we eat lots of these foods. Quite a few people I have spoken to also say they get an itchy nose when they do the same. My conclusion is that if any of us eat enough histamine-rich food then some will end up in our bloodstream and give you an itch! And with blood flowing to your nose and face anyway because you are eating; these small amounts of histamine will tend to end up irritating the tip of your nose!
Phew, another problem solved! Well almost…
What about itchy palms?
I have failed to find conclusive evidence to show that histamine is the cause of itchy palms but reactions to histamine can be very individual: some feel itches, some headaches, other people may get sneezes.
The most recent research suggests that 1% of us have histamine intolerance: and most people don’t know it! If you experience bothersome headaches, bad facial flushing, rashes or itches when eating these foods then you may have histamine intolerance.
If this is you then it may be worth trying a low-histamine diet: it’s the closest thing you’ll get to a cure.
My Nobel Prize Awaits?
This is (to my knowledge) the first explanation of the common ‘post-meal nose itching’ phenomenon. There has been research that agrees with my explanation, but I will need to scientifically prove it in order to apply for a Nobel Prize!
All I need to do in is arrange an “experiment” where ‘subjects’ eat a selection of histamine-rich foods (such as pizzas, chinese food, hams and cheeses) and drinking red wine and beer, and then tell me how much their nose itches.
Any volunteers?
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Download your free copy here!
INTERESTED IN THIS SORT OF STUFF? I’ve been part of a team that has just launched a new (free) bi-monthly magazine which aims to deliver more of the same. It all started on 1st June 2011 – Check it out here!
Thanks for reading – comments and feedback are warmly welcomed!
DISCLAIMER: All of the writing in ‘Doctor Stu’s Science Blog’ are intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. Please do not base your healthcare decisions on the information contained in this blog: Always see your GP first!
It’s one of the nation’s most enjoyed pleasures: enjoying a cup of tea whilst dunking a biscuit. Apparently 9 out of 10 of us do it while at work. So which is the best biscuit to enjoy during your tea break? Believe it or not, there’s some serious science behind it. I decided to investigate and conduct my own very special experiments…
What did you used to spend your pocket money on? I clearly remember the excitement of going to the corner shop and getting as many handfulls of strawberry shoelaces and cola ice-pops that my 50p could buy. Kids these days are far less likely to buy sweet treats: confectionary sales have stangated as a new ‘vogue’ has hit the schools . Push-pops are most definately ‘out’ and the new cool is ‘energy drinks‘.
Despite the the recession, sales of caffeine-fuelled fizzy-pop are at an all time high; Read more
Almost a decade has passed since governments around the world starting telling us to eat ‘five-a-day’. Upping your intake of vegetables has been shown to reduce your chance of heart attack, stroke and cancer. But have these high profile initiatives made even the slightest bit of difference to our eating habits?
