“Scallops allergy confirmed,” Hilary Duff captioned the selfie she posted to her Instagram Story on Sunday (Jan. 8). In the photo, Hilary, 35, looked like she had been crying for days with how puffy her face looked. Duff’s lips had ballooned to the size of small sausages, while her nose seemed swollen. “I really thought my lip might explode,” she added in the caption while writing that she was “really hoping” she wasn’t allergic to “ALL shellfish” after making this painful discovery.
Hilary will have to get tested for her allergies when she returns home. Shellfish allergy is an “atypical response by the body’s immune system to proteins in certain marine animals,” according to the Mayo Clinic. “Your immune system mistakenly identifies a certain protein in shellfish as harmful. Your immune system is how your body protects itself, so it produces immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies to protect against this allergen.” The allergy causes hives, nasal stuffiness, swelling of the body, trouble breathing, abdominal/stomach pain, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, and lightheadedness. Those with severe allergies could go into anaphylactic shock.
This discovery comes on the heels of Hilary speaking about how she dealt with an eating disorder when she was seventeen. “Because of my career path, I can’t help but be like, ‘I am on camera, and actresses are skinny.’ It was horrifying,” she said when speaking with Women’s Health Australia. After struggling with body dysmorphia, she has since come to embrace herself.
“[I’m] appreciating my health, doing activities that make me feel strong instead of just bettering the outside of my body,” she said. “Spending time with people that make me feel good and share similar views on health and body positivity and getting enough sleep and balance in my diet.”
“I don’t feel like she’ll mind me saying this: yes, her fitness and health are hugely important to Hilary,” her trainer, Dominic Leeder, told the magazine. “What’s more important to her is her family and work. When she comes home from work, she wants to spend time with her family because she spends very little time with them when she’s hard at work, so every moment counts.”
“I’m proud of my body. I’m proud that it’s produced three children for me,” Hilary said in the May/June 2022 issue of Women’s Health. Hilary, who shares 10-year-old son Luca with ex Mike Comrie and has two daughters with husband Matthew Koma, posed nude for the cover of the U.S. magazine. “I’ve gotten to a place of being peaceful with the changes my body has gone through. I also want people to know a makeup artist was there putting glow all over my body, and someone put me in the most flattering position”