The hay fever diet 

As much as we love spring time (the warm walks, the open shoes and general happiness of it), it also means the onset of one of our worst enemies: Hay fever!

No thank you

Hay fever is the allergic reaction that gets triggered by pollen, grass and mould. GP’s, here we come!  Bring on the sneezing, itchy and watery eyes and just the general unpleasantness! Not forgetting that our faces look as though we’re in a one man war with our bodies!

So, what can we do? Over-the-counter drugs help of course. But in an age where so many of us would prefer alternative routes that don’t include dosing ourselves with chemicals, what other options do we have? With hundreds of thousands of us suffering, perhaps it’s time to ditch the drugs and look at something that we can all manage: what we put in our mouths.

Yes please

Our diets, it turns out, can play a huge role in the management of this dreaded seasonal illness. While it doesn’t necessarily help everybody, it should help the majority of us. Cutting down on food that increases mucus production is key. Go easy on the dairy, cheese and caffeine! Vitamin C is great too as it has a natural antihistamine, meaning an increase of this in our diets is good. Also, incorporate a raw food diet which consists of fruit and vegetables (no oranges or tomatoes though!), lots of raw and unsalted nuts (almonds especially!) and then the main one: magnesium! This can be found in bananas, soybeans, almonds, and brown rice!

Try your best to stay away from the starches, but if you need to, opt for brown. Spekko Saman Brown Rice is rich in Vitamin B and highly nutritious as they are unpolished grains which retain the inner bran layer. This is great in salads and stir fries as they add a nice chewy factor!