Saturday, December 19, 2009

Food Allergies

Today, I have had a number of conversations regarding food allergies that people have. It seems like there are a lot more people that are allergic to things that I remember in the past. The television is talking about kids with food allergies to peanuts. Another family expressed an allergy to Christmas trees. Is it the challenges in environment that cause more allergies? Did people with allergy problems just have a hard time and were considered sickly in the old days. I dont know. I am considered.

2 comments:

Ivan Wolfe said...

Actually, I've read a few scientific studies that argue the increase in allergies is due to our clean environment. Our immune systems expect to fend off invaders and parasites right and left (which they mostly did until very, very recently) - and so with nothing to do, our immune system goes looking for something to do.

It's discussed here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allergy#Cause

and here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hygiene_hypothesis

Ryan Adair said...

Or...maybe it is due to the quality of our food. Check out Jonathan Safran Foer's "Eating Animals."

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