How Adding Spices To Your Food Can Help With Allergies

If you're one of the 60 million people in the United States who suffer from allergic rhinitis, or hay fever (via the CDC), then you may dread the arrival of spring. For you, May flowers mean itchy eyes, a runny nose, and sneezing, all thanks to your body releasing histamines as a reaction to an allergen like pollen (via Healthline). Many people resort to over-the-counter or even prescription medication to keep their allergy symptoms in check. Others turn to foods such as citrus fruits and green, leafy veggies to boost their immune system (via Insider). Turns out, there's additional help to be found in your spice rack, in the form of cinnamon, turmeric, and ginger.

Besides smelling heavenly, and a key to many of your favorite breakfast dishes, cinnamon also has a number of health benefits, including having antiviral, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory properties (via HuffPost). A recent medical study also found cinnamon extract to offer anti-inflammatory properties when it came to allergic inflammation. So add a few extra dashes of cinnamon to your next dish to keep those sneezes at bay.

Turmeric and ginger can also help with allergies

According to Healthline, "turmeric may be the most effective nutritional supplement in existence." Its main active ingredient, explains Healthline, is curcumin, which is a strong antioxidant with powerful anti-inflammatory properties. More importantly for allergy sufferers, curcumin blocks the release of histamines (via Dr. Tania Dempsey), which is what causes all those allergy symptoms to begin with. Luckily there are many great ways to cook with turmeric, including adding it to grains, greens, smoothies, teas, and even eggs. Delish recommends adding black pepper to the turmeric to help the body absorb the nutrients.

Ginger is also known to have many health benefits, especially when it comes to relieving nausea and other digestive issues. But ginger can also help alleviate allergy symptoms. Ginger contains gingerol, which is an anti-inflammatory that helps relieve swollen nasal membranes (via SF Gate). So the next time you feel your allergy symptoms coming on, go ahead and make some tea with ginger and honey, or better yet, make a golden milk with ginger, turmeric, and cinnamon, and enjoy the many health benefits of all three (via Medical News Today).