I have a friend who gets the same reaction.

Try eating the tomatoes green. He can eat green tomatoes but not ripe ones. I don't know why.

Each of us has different and unique immune systems that react to allergens in the environment in often different ways/

There are several compounds in tomatoes that are known to be strong allergens for folks who have immune systems that react to them/

It's a fairly long and complicated topic to discuss online so I'm linking to a Google search for those of you who want to know more about your specific tomato allergies.

And don't forget that some folks are very allergic, via contact sensitivity, to the tomato foliage.

Finally, if your tomato allergy has become a real problem for you you should contact an MD who specializes in allergies.

Carolyn

Here is a link that might be useful: Tomato Allergy

The swelling concerns me. Do you get hives as well? Does your throat feel like it's closing up? Does eating tomatoes cause wheezing?

If you get any other of these symptoms you need to avoid tomatoes altogether. This could be life-threatening if you're exhibiting other symptoms. In that case, see an immunologist and get a prescription for an epi-pen.

Thanks everyone...I thought maybe I was the only one. I don't get throat swelling or anything. Just inner mouth swelling and tongue. I have read how acidity has been bred out of tomatoes, and I grow mostly heirlooms. I am growing a few hybirds so I am going to see if I am less allergic to them. Tough research ya know!

try a white tomato.

When I eat raw tomatoes, I get blisters in my mouth and the skin inside my mouth peels off (as if it had been burned). At first I could eat very ripe home-grown tomatoes, but now I can't eat any raw tomato. I have no problem with canned tomato sauce, paste or ketchup.

I have seen an allergist and have periodically checked the medical literture about this, and came across some interesting tidbits:

1. Many people who get a reaction in their mouth to tomatoes (called Oral Allergy Syndrome, or OAS) are also allergic to certain grass pollens. Some are also allergic to pollen from birch or Japanese cedar.

2. Many people who are allergic to fresh tomatoes can eat canned tomato products. This is because the specific protein they are allergic to (called profilin) is broken down by processing.

3. The parts of the tomato people are most allergic to are the skin, seeds, and juice, not the pulp. (I used to be able to eat fresh tomato if I peeled and seeded it.)

4. Many people who are allergic to tomato will not get a positive reaction to a skin-prick test to tomato. There is a blood test for tomato allergy, called IgE antibody test.

I suggest seeing an allergist.

I DO sympathize with you; I miss enjoying lovely home-grown tomatoes. On the other hand, tomatoes are easier to avoid than some some allergies, such as wheat, so I guess we should count ourselves lucky.

I don't have a contact allergy, but for many years I would get mouth ulcers and canker sores and more recently my knuckles itch and sometimes my jaw skin does too. It doesn't affect my breathing, fortunately, but it can cause fatigue. Would trying green tomatoes help? I haven't considered fresh vs cooked tomatoes yet.

God luck srtrickler2. I wouldn't test anything except in tiny amounts as allergies are a medical condition subject to "hyper-sensitization", so they can change depending on what exposures you have and become far worse and more intense to different parts than you have at present, or in an unlucky case, even life-threatening if you test the wrong thing.

There are a bunch of similar proteins in nightshades including tomatoes, husk tomatoes (tomatillos), eggplants, potatoes that cause the allergies and cooking seems to degrade some of the allergens, but not all (making a peeled cooked tomato an interesting test). Exposure of commercial commodity tomatoes to ethylene ripening rooms was also mentioned as making certain individuals' allergies worse in the literature you can find online but that is patient dependent and didn't neutralize the allergy. If by green tomatoes you mean immature ones, that is one thing, and if you mean green ripe ones that's possibly another category of response.

The red in tomatoes is mostly caused by lycopene, which is also found in watermelon. So if you are not allergic to watermelon, it is a good bet it is not the redness itself in tomato causing the reaction, and I don't see anyone claiming lycopene is an allergen. When tomatoes turn red, they go through a process to re-purpose chlorophyll and some proteins that break the chlorophyll down for this process may possibly be contributing to your allergy, not the lycopene itself, and if it just happens to be a protein, an enzyme, that breaks down the green that you are most affected by, logically these green when ripe tomatoes would cause less of a reaction, as would immature tomatoes.

Nobody can tell you what you have without turning you into a research subject since so many of these natural chemicals in the tomato are chemically similar, removing one allergen could just create more of another. In other words, you may react to a class of compounds. So there is that small but real risk, if you inadvertently expose yourself to a highly concentrated form of the allergen you react most to by testing the wrong thing, this could result in the hyper-sensitization and suddenly you might not be able to eat potatoes and eggplants either, or develop the contact allergy, since allergies can get better or worse over time due to changes in immune system reaction and sensitization. So tread carefully and with an allergist.

Best of luck,

PC

Srtrickler,please go back up and look at my post made on May 31, 2008 and read the link I gave there about tomato allergies.

When a thread has gone several years with no responses, and then your post, I know it's asking a lot for folks to read from the beginning, but it does help, since most of the time those questions have already been answered. True in this case and many others as well, as to not reading what has been discussed before.

ONE of the main reasons I refuse to come back here when I get a notice are those threads where someone will ask which varieties did well for you this past summer, all is well until the same person comes along and asks the same thing,but very explicitly says, I mean this past year,not two years ago.Sigh.

Every year is different in terms of what folks are growing and I think most realize that.

Carolyn,who really liked the orginal Garden Web,when Spike ran it and there were several different owners since Houzz got it,,but GW got very nasty, and one person opened another message site, a tremendous # of folks went there ASAP, and that other site started in Jan of 2006 and is still flourishing. And no, I can't name that site since if I do no doubt I'll be banned from here, and sometimes when I get a notice about something I've supposedly said,I do want to go back here and clarify.

Carolyn

srtrickler- Umm... This is really something you should be talking to a doctor about. Random strangers on the internet who know nothing about you are probably not the best source of info.

Rodney