s/o Where did all the food allergies come from?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Children don't get a dirty younger any more. My mom and dad kept things super clean for me and I have the most allergies. Also, kids would just die younger (choke to death) or have low level allergies their whole lives and no one would care. I'm allergic to both wheat and dairy, they cause digestive issues and eczema for me, that I've had since the age of 3. Stoped eating them at 40 and the issues stopped. No one had ever thought to check.

But are digestive issues and eczema really allergies or are they intolerance? I would consider those to be an intolerance not a true allergic response. Not referring to PP, but intolerances are often incorrectly called allergies. But true allergies are on the rise as well, no doubt.

Both dairy and wheat came back on my allergy blood IGE test at the allergist office as allergies, along with shellfish, which makes my face swell. So, yes, I have been officially diagnosed with allergies by an MD 40 years after I started showing symptoms,.which were ignored.

It's kinda nice not to have eczema over my hands and feet, coated in steroid cream, and not have explosive IBS for the first time in years.

A lot of these things were ignored and shrugged off in the past as "not really allergies." Now you can test for some.

NP. We love allergy partners of springfield.

Oh I’ve had hand eczema (crazy itchy tiny weeping blisters, then dry flaky skin) since my teens. Who was your doctor, if I could narrow down a food that would be life changing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most of the gluten allergies here are actual sensitivities to the niacin thats used in wheat flour production. European flour has none or a lot less. So many people sensitive/allergic to gluten here can eat european made flour and pasta (not the kind for export but the kind sold there). I have half a dizen friends who can eat bred etc in france and italy but not here.
My mom was lactose intolerant and suffered low level bloating and gut issues all her life as a kid. Finally at 20 something she just stopped drinking milk and dropped most milk products except cheese and she was much much better. Got tested in her 40s and it was obvious

I also know someone who can eat wheat in Europe, but not the US. Crazy!

[Anonymous]

I once asked the smartest person I know, a scientist, this question. He thinks it's all the estrogen, between b control, plastics, soy, etc. Too much estrogen makes your immune system overreactive. All those things came on the scene on a major scale just as allergies began surging.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one’s mentioned increased c-section rates. Something about vaginal birth is good for the baby’s gut, or so they say.

My anecdata is:
DS1 - non-medicated vaginal birth; nut allergy
DS2 - C-section; no allergies

I realize I'm only 1 person, but it's very common for 1st borns to be allergic, and less common for 2nd.

I do think it relates to the gut though.

In my own family, my younger sister was the c-section, and she’s got so many environmental allergies she can hardly leave the house without breaking out in eczema or hives, or having her blood pressure drop dangerously fast. She was also the kid more likely to play in the dirt. I was the bookworm.

I only had a bit of childhood eczema, which I’d outgrown by puberty.

[Anonymous]

They came from Los Angeles and it’s trendy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most of the gluten allergies here are actual sensitivities to the niacin thats used in wheat flour production. European flour has none or a lot less. So many people sensitive/allergic to gluten here can eat european made flour and pasta (not the kind for export but the kind sold there). I have half a dizen friends who can eat bred etc in france and italy but not here.
My mom was lactose intolerant and suffered low level bloating and gut issues all her life as a kid. Finally at 20 something she just stopped drinking milk and dropped most milk products except cheese and she was much much better. Got tested in her 40s and it was obvious

I also know someone who can eat wheat in Europe, but not the US. Crazy!

I once ordered a bag of French flour on Amazon when I was going through a baguette-baking craze. 3/4 of the reviews mentioned some variation of this: “I could never eat bread at home without terrible discomfort, but I decided a had to try a baguette in Paris no matter what the consequences, and I was totally amazed when it didn’t affect me at all! Now I only eat bread I bake myself with this flour.”

[Anonymous]

I think about this a lot bc I have a kid with allergies. I think it's got something to do with the chemicals and plastics pervasive in our life right now.

There also weren't as many variations of products (e.g., 15 types of Oreos) and production wasn't as varied, so if you did have an allergy it was easier to avoid the food because issues like cross-contamination weren't as pervasive and talked about.

And, kids with allergies a long time ago likely died early in life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one’s mentioned increased c-section rates. Something about vaginal birth is good for the baby’s gut, or so they say.

But there's no correlation with allergies and c-sections.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It seems like there are so many children with nut, dairy, soy, etc. allergies these days, way more than ever in history. What causes this? What did children with egg or dairy allergies do 100 years ago?

They were sickly and many died. Just like babies in developing countries today.

NP here. My 4YO has food allergies. In previous generations, he likely would have died long before showing symptoms of/being diagnosed with food allergies. Allergies/eczema/asthma are related and he was hospitalized several times for asthma when he was a baby.

I’m the person you replied to. My aunt was sickly as a kid. Skinny. Stomachaches. Always vomiting. Constipated. She missed months of ES and junior high. By 9th grade, she was two years behind she graduated with my mom who was 2 years younger. When my youngest was born, she was the same way, but we had access to great medical care so my DD was diagnosed with food allergies. We were able to make changes that helped her health. I think she would have ended up like my aunt otherwise.

[Anonymous]

I think probably a combo of widespread exposure to chemicals of some sort, overly/artificially clean environment and just noticing it more. I would guess that wealthy, safe societies with a small number of kids notice first-world problems in their kids to a higher degree than earlier, less safe generations. My grandma's generation was too busy balancing 4-5 kids and worrying about measles and mumps to notice one kid getting a mild rash after eating eggs, probably

-person who has a food allergy, but thinks the societal freakout over food allergies is overblown

[Anonymous]

I'm actively trying to avoid all vegetable oils (omega 6) because my nut & seed allergy DD's pediatrician told me it is one of the culprits.

[Anonymous]

My younger DC has severe allergies to gluten and tree nuts, including peanuts. There's family history of food allergies, though none as severe as his. But also, I did read about early exposure to peanuts being beneficial, so did introduce peanuts to him at the earliest recommended age. He did fine with it. Then, because my H developed reactions to peanuts in his 40s, we stopped buying any foods with peanuts for our household. Without regular exposure to peanuts, DC2 has now developed a peanut allergy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one’s mentioned increased c-section rates. Something about vaginal birth is good for the baby’s gut, or so they say.

But there's no correlation with allergies and c-sections.

I lived in China. Food allergies are basically unheard of there even in the large cosmopolitan cities. I have a food allergy and had a great deal of trouble getting restaurant staff and locals generally to understand. China also has a sky-high C-section rate. Take from that what you will. Suggests there is not a connection.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up on a farm and ate mostly meat and vegetables that we grew and some groceries that we bought from the store. We ate some processed foods and went out to eat several times a year.

At age 25 I moved to the city, at age 31 I developed a peanut allergy after eating them my whole life before that. And food allergies have been popping up for me rapidly since then, to weird things too - not just what are currently typical food allergies. It's frightening, but nothing seems to be helping it. (And the allergic responses are serious enough that I have to avoid these ingredients, not just tolerate sniffles or a stomach ache.)

Both of my parents grew up on farms where they raised & grew their own food. Neither of them have any allergies. Their respective siblings, who grew up the same way, do not have allergies either. And they both come from big families - 1 of 12 and 1 of 9 kids.

My siblings, my cousins, and I who have all been raised as "city" kids in the suburbs all have tons of allergies between us. I'm allergic to raw eggs, which is an allergy I've had since birth, but recently I've become allergic to other things like pumpkin, eggplant, cantaloupe, and tomatoes.

[Anonymous]

There's been quite a lot of research on the relationship between parasites like hookworms or parasite-derived products and allergies and other autoimmune diseases. It may explain the lower incidence of allergies and the like in poorer countries. Of course, there can be negative effects of these parasites. People buy hookworms and deliberately infect themselves. I once considered it.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5401880/

https://www.vice.com/en/article/mgby9y/parasites-by-post-the-online-black-market-for-therapeutic-worms