[metmom]

I asked my allergist if there was any truth to the claim that honey helped with allergies and he said yes.

I was more than a little surprised, coming from a medical professional.

He said it’s not as good as allergy shots, but for some people, it can help.

It helped mr. mm. He had such bad reactions to the shots that he had to quit them. Once we started eating local honey, his allergies improved DRAMATICALLY.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"I asked my allergist if there was any truth to the claim that honey helped with allergies and he said yes."

Yes. It is a similar principle to allergy shots, which are injections of small, calibrated quantities of the allergens the patient is sensitive to, and which gradually desensitize the patient. But since honey is administered orally, its desensitizing effect is kind of a crapshoot. There's a reason that allergy shots are shots and not pills. But, can't hurt. Shouldn't be fed to infants, though, and keep in mind it'll rot your teeth as well as any Mounds bar.

By the same token, I knew a guy who lived in a neighborhood rife with poison oak who swore that if he ate (as in put in his mouth, chewed, swallowed) a few leaves of poison oak early each Spring, he would be rendered immune from contact with the stuff for the rest of the year. Not sure I'd recommend that, but the principle would seem to be similar.