Okay, before I even start — I know. I know that food allergies can be serious, life-threatening even. They are also terribly inconvenient and because no one in my family suffers from food allergy, I have no idea what I’m talking about. And yet, I have an opinion. Go figure.

Pediatric Food Allergies on the Rise

New research shows that food allergies are on the rise for U.S. kids. However, the research isn’t clear on whether there are actually more food allergies, or just more identification of them. Either way, more children are reported as suffering food allergies. According to HealthDay news:

Whatever the cause, it's clear that the number of children with food allergies has gone up 18 percent and the number seeking treatment for food allergy at emergency departments or hospitals has tripled since 1993.

 

"People are more aware of food allergies today, and that could have something to do with it," said study author, Amy Branum, a health statistician for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "But, when we looked at health-care surveys filled out by parents and those from the health-care sector, we saw the increase across the surveys so this may be more than just increased awareness."

Results of the study were published online Nov. 16 and will appear in the December print issue of Pediatrics.

The Food Allergy Industry

If your child has an honest-to-goodness food allergy that poses a danger to his or her well-being, you probably already stopped reading. But if not — if little Johnny gets a tummy ache when he drinks milk, then stay with me a minute.

This whole food allergy thing is great news for specialty food makers who can now charge $8 for a tiny box of cereal because they’ve purged it of all shadows of gluten. In another generation they would have said, no thank you, bran flakes don’t agree with me. End of story. Today we are so wealthy that we can create a cottage industry out of our avoidance of certain foods. We have that much food. And we’re making more — special food.

It’s my understanding that allergies are brought on by repeated exposures to the same substance. I wonder if some of these food allergies are being activated by the processed foods we eat. Those same food makers are then in the position to turn around and come out with a newer better product that doesn’t irritate allergies. It starts to twist my brain around.

Special foods are not the only cash cows in the allergy industry. Don’t forget the allergists.

"Food allergies are real," said Dr. Jennifer Appleyard, chief of allergy and immunology at St. John Hospital and Medical Center in Detroit. "And it appears that the prevalence is rising."

 

This will present various challenges, she noted. One is that there's already a shortage of allergy specialists in many areas, Appleyard said. Another is that schools will have to gear up to take care of additional children with food allergy to ensure their safety during the school day and on field trips, she said.

The researchers of this particular study noted that Hispanic children had the lowest overall prevalence of food allergy. They also showed the greatest increases over time of incidences of food allergy.

Interesting. I’d like to see the findings correlated with mean household income.