I've been eating canned salmon, salmon steaks, and salmon filets my whole life. It's one of my favorite fishes and I eat fish quite often.
About three weeks ago, I bought three cans of salmon and soon thereafter I made salmon patty burgers out one can. In the middle of the night I woke up very sick to my stomach with nausea, cramps and dirreah.. I was too sick to work the next day but by evening was feeling much better. I thought I just got a gastrointestinal virus of the 24 hour variety.
On Tuesday I used the second can to make a cracker spread for a co-worker's retirement party. (With flavored cream cheese, Old Bay and Lemon Pepper.) That was the biggest part of my lunch Tuesday. I gave the leftovers (about half of the bowl) to another co-worker who seemed to enjoy it. By the time I got home I was sick with the exact same symptoms.
The next morning I was feeling well enough to work, and I thought maybe the batch of salmon was bad and both were contaminated with some kind of food poison. But the co-worker who took the leftover ate about half of what was remaining (about 1/4 of the total I made) and was fine, no sickness at all.
Other fish haven't bothered me ever, and I've had several different kinds of fish several different times and I've been fine. Is it possible that I developed an allergy to salmon, and JUST salmon? I've thrown away the third can.
Answers
Anonymous
I doubt it. Those aren't allergy symptoms--you didn't get an IMMUNE response. Those are food poisoning symptoms. I can't explain the co-worker. Maybe he/she has a cast iron stomach.
Eddi
Yes. It is not unusual.
You can develop a finned fish allergy as an adult. You can also get allergies to specific kinds of fish.
It is different from a shellfish allergy (which I developed two years ago -- I can't be near shellfish now)
Read about it here.
https://www.foodallergy.org/common-allergens/fish-allergy
Janet
Usually food allergies produce constricted airways with trouble breathing and/or breaking out in a rash.
Gastrointestinal distress is usually due to some form of contamination. However, since your co-worker had no problem with the spread, it is NOT the salmon.
It is you.
Yes, people CAN develop a food intolerance at any time.
It was a good idea to get rid of that can of salmon .. but you could have given it to someone instead.
In her mid-30's my daughter could not longer handle shrimp. It was the second time that she realized it was the shrimp.
In my mid-50's, I could no longer handle apple skin (such a drag to have to pare the skin off an apple rather than crunch into it).
Our body changes over time.
.
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