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

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]No one knows why the incidence of allergic disease is on the rise. There are several hypotheses. Reputable studies have been conducted to show it is not simply diagnosis that has risen, the actual incidence has increased in the populations studied. One of the most compelling hypotheses is that without many germs to fight, the immune system begins to overreact. This is called the hygiene hypothesis. There is evidence that children who grew up on farms are more protected than those who grow up in the cities and suburbs. However, this is just a hypothesis at this point. The current thinking is to expose your child to as many foods as early as possible. My child has multiple food allergies and when she was small the prevailing advice was to avoid foods religiously, I wish we had known better then. However, I know science changes and our knowledge continues to evolve. Oral immunotherapy studies have gone well and may be a possibility for a cure.[/quote]

But food exposure doesn’t make sense. Before globalization our diets were way way narrower. Sure Asians have milk intolerance but it’s not like huge swaths of a society were allergic to foreign foods. Most Europeans I know loathe peanut butter and just eat hazelnuts. I never had a hazelnut until my 20s. [/quote]

My understanding is that the predisposition to allergies/asthma/eczema is partly genetic and partly a product of the immune system not having as much to do (we have way lower parasite loads than many people in less developed countries, for instance), but that earlier exposure to specific allergens is associated with lower incidence of that allergy. I don’t know the stats off the top of my head, but the rise in developed world food allergies and other autoimmune issues has been pretty sharp and pretty recent. It would be interesting to look at it next to the rise in obesity; even lab animals are fatter than they used to be, which raises the idea of some sort of environmental contaminant. (There’s a whole blog called Slime Mold Time Mold about this if you’re curious.)[/quote]

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