Food allergies less common than previously thought
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Thursday, July 22, 2010
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The alarm over food allergies has changed day care and schools enormously. "No peanut zones" are commonplace in the lunchroom, while snack ingredient lists are subject to scrutiny by wary parents and teachers.
Yet the number of children with food allergies may not be as large as we think.
According to a federally commissioned study published in the May 10 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, the true incidence of food allergies is only about 8 percent in children. It's even less in adults-less than 5 percent. Yet about 30 percent of people believe they have food allergies.
Researchers from VA Palo Alto Healthcare System and Stanford University pored over more than 12,000 allergy research studies, published between January 1988 and September 2009. Surprisingly, they concluded that only 72 studies were properly conducted to yield accurate conclusions.
Other findings in the study:
- Despite popular belief, breast-fed infants do not suffer fewer allergies.
- Using probiotics along with breast milk, hypoallergenic formula, or both, may help prevent food allergies. But their effects on their own are not clear.
- Withholding eggs during the first year of life is not necessary.
- Food challenges, skin prick testing and blood tests for IgE antibodies all have a role to play in making a diagnosis. But no one test is sensitive or specific enough to be recommended over the other tests.
- While elimination diets are the mainstay of treatment, researchers could only find one randomized controlled trial-one of the most reliable study types-of an elimination diet. Part of the problem is that a randomized, controlled trial for serious life-threatening food allergy reactions is not only unnecessary, but unethical.
- It's not clear whether or not food allergies are increasing.
Why is there so much confusion?
Food allergy and food intolerance often get mixed up. Only allergies involve the immune system. Food intolerance is more common than food allergy and occurs when the digestive tract cannot properly break down food. For example, the inability to digest the milk sugar, lactose, is an intolerance.
In a November 2009 study by the journal, Pediatrics, potential ethnic differences were found. For example, black children were nearly twice as likely as white children to have IgE antibodies to peanuts, twice as likely to have antibodies to milk and four times as likely to have antibodies to shellfish. Latino children had the greatest increase in food allergies, but this may be due to greater awareness.
The most common food allergies are to proteins in cow's milk, eggs, peanuts, wheat, soy, fish, shellfish and tree nuts. Peanuts and tree nuts are the leading cause of severe food allergic reactions. Luckily, many children outgrow allergies to milk and eggs. But severe allergies to foods like peanuts, some fish and shrimp can last all their lives.
Raising a child with food allergies adds even more expense and effort to your role as parents. Later this year, an expert panel of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases will provide guidelines defining food allergies and giving criteria for diagnosis and management.
Hopefully, this will make your life just a little easier.
The information provided in this article is not intended to substitute for the advice of a medical doctor.
Watermelon-Blueberry Ice Pops
Ingredients
- 3¾ cups chopped seedless watermelon
- 2 Tbsp. lime juice
- 1-2 Tbsp. sugar
- 1 cup fresh blueberries
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 8 minutes
Puree watermelon, lime juice and sugar in a food processor or blender until smooth.
Divide blueberries among small paper cups or freezer-pop molds. Top with the watermelon mixture. Insert sticks and freeze until completely firm, about six hours.
Dip the molds briefly in hot water before unmolding.
Makes about 10 3-oz. pops.
Recipe courtesy of eatingwell.com.
Nutrition facts: 30 calories, 0 grams fat and cholesterol, 8 grams carbohydrate, 0 grams protein, 1 gram fiber, 1 milligram sodium.
Christine M. Palumbo, RD, is a nutritionist living in Naperville.
See more of Christine's stories here.
Contact Christine at Chris@ChristinePalumbo.com
Our picks
Christine Palumbo Article MisleadingBy Cari Owen on Thursday, April 19, 2012 The recent August 2010 Article in Chicago Parent by Christine Palumbo is misleading and inappropriate. While I am sure the intent of the article by Ms. Palumbo was to be educational, the subject of food allergies would be best written by an allergist educated on the matter. The opening paragraphs using the language "Alarm over food allergies" "Scrutiny by wary parents and teachers" and further along "allergies being only 8 percent, but 30 percent believe they have them" implies that parents are making up the symptoms and the severity of the allergies, and gives false justification to other parents and educators that these allergies are in some way less severe or are intruding on their day or life by looking at a label for an occasional school treat or by wiping down a table for the peanut allergy sufferers. The reason for "peanut tables" and regulation on packaging for nut allergies are to provide protection against cross contamination, as peanut allergies are severe enough to cause death. While food sensitivities may run someone some discomfort, food allergies can cause someone to lose their child. By using your language, you can hear your distain for parents and schools who overreact by banning peanut foods, and have peanut free tables at school. When you see your child gasping for breath, lips and mouth turning blue, and hives all over their bodies from touching a table from which someone had eaten a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich, then I believe you will change your mind and decide that reading a food label, purchasing a peanut free product to bring to school for a special occasion, or packing a lunch that is peanut free worth your time. Those parents that have these children deal with this every time their child goes somewhere, and eats anything. Your article would have been better served giving recommendations for peanut or food allergen substitutes instead of speaking of a subject an allergy doctor should have written. |
disturbingly blazeBy Ken Burk on Thursday, April 19, 2012 I'm not sure what the intent of this article was, but it comes off as a recitation of facts to draw meaningless lines and support racial stereotyping. "It seems like more and more children in the U.S. are developing food allergies, and there's data to back that up. The number of kids with food allergies went up 18 percent from 1997 to 2007, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. About 3 million children younger than 18 had a food or digestive allergy in 2007, the CDC said." http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/08/03/food.allergies.er.gut/?hpt=C2 |
Journal of Pediatrics Study
By Christine M. Palumbo, RD on Thursday, April 19, 2012
Hello and thank you for the comments. My article was not intended to judge parents or dismiss the seriousness of food allergies. Quite the contrary. I was only reporting on an authoritative study published in a peer-reviewed medical journal. Interestingly, on November 10, another peer-reviewed study was published online in the Journal of Pediatrics stating that many children's diets are being unnessarily restricted due to overreliance on blood tests for food allergies. According to lead author and assistant professor of pediatrics at National Jewish Health, Dr. David Fleisher, “People with known food allergies, especially those with a history of anaphylactic reactions should by all means avoid those foods. However, a growing number of patients referred to our practice are being placed on strict, unproven food-elimination diets that have led to poor weight gain and malnutrition. These overly restrictive diets have been chosen for a variety of reasons, but overreliance on immunoassay tests appears to be the most common cause.” Read the study for yourself and decide: http://bit.ly/g8fsuC