Salicylate Allergy? Avoid Blackcurrants

We went over to a friend's for dinner over the weekend - and we tried a new drink, called Ribena. It is blackcurrant juice - and it's delicious! 

I had one large glass mixed with water.

Now, with anything new, I always read the ingredients and the label. I made sure there was no grapefruit juice, no aniseed of any kind, no caffeine, nothing that jumped out as potentially problematic. 

The next two days I spent itching. Lots and lots of itching. Followed by hives. 

So we went through every single thing we did, every type of environmental exposure, every food ingested, every situational factors - only two stood out, and one in particular. 

So I decided to look up the ingredients of that drink again. Nothing alarming came up. 

I then searched 'blackcurrant allergy' and there it was, the title that caught my attention: "Foods High in Salicylates". 

So I checked out that list. 

I had no idea so many foods had naturally occurring salicylates (the basis for a lot of medications - ex: Aspirin, skin care for acne, topical treatments, etc...). 

I am very allergic to salicylates. 

Salicylates, salicylic acid, acetyl-salicylic acid, 5-acetyl-salicylic-acid - they all cause problems. 

ProActive Skin Care: for most people, is amazing for acne. That's because salicylates are amazing for acne. For me, it cause hives, which essentially just looks like acne on my face anyways. 

Aspirin: severe hives

Pentasa & Salofalk (5-acetyl-salicylic-acid): medications used to help with Inflammatory Bowel Disease - caused Pancreatitis... every time. 

I am very allergic to salicylates. 

No more blackcurrant juice for me! 

The more you know.