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QUESTION: Why does America have a disproportionately high percentage of people with food allergies?

This is an interesting question. I have family that lives around the world, and they are amazed how American kids have allergies to foods that are part of a staple diet in their countries - peanuts being the primary source of both their diet and the allergies.

I don't have a good answer, other than the foods Americans eat is probably more processed than other countries. But that is just me hazarding a guess - would love to hear what the other board members think.
 
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I've had discussions with parents of grade school kids that share with me that they can't pack their kids PB&J for lunch for fear they may share their sandwich with other children (who have allergies). Why is this getting worse here in America?

I think they do a better job of testing for and catching them early. Years ago these children just died young. We knew my niece had a nut allergy very early.
 
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Probably because America has some of the worst food quality in the world????
 
This is an interesting question. I have family that lives around the world, and they are amazed how American kids have allergies to foods that are part of a staple diet in their countries - peanuts being the primary source of both their diet and the allergies.

I don't have a good answer, other than the foods Americans eat is probably more processed than other countries. But that is just me hazarding a guess - would love to hear what the other board members think.

agree 100% RO... It is 100% because of the crap food this country eats...

I used to get migraines once a month... since i cut out processed food, nitrites, chocolate, caffeine, and sulfites...i don't get them anymore. You are what you eat...
 
This is an interesting question. I have family that lives around the world, and they are amazed how American kids have allergies to foods that are part of a staple diet in their countries - peanuts being the primary source of both their diet and the allergies.

I don't have a good answer, other than the foods Americans eat is probably more processed than other countries. But that is just me hazarding a guess - would love to hear what the other board members think.

I don't recall my grade school friends having allergies nor do I recall anyone in my grade school having a peanut allergy. Now, Im not saying there werent any. Just that I dont recall.

Now, I hear about it from friends that have kids regularly.
 
agree 100% RO... It is 100% because of the crap food this country eats...

I used to get migraines once a month... since i cut out processed food, nitrites, chocolate, caffeine, and sulfites...i don't get them anymore. You are what you eat...

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Diets have changed so kids don't eat a lot of these foods. There are more chemicals both in food and the environment than formerly. More and more kids stay indoors playing with electronic devices rather than go out and be exposed to germs like my generation did. This, combined with heavy use of antibacterial cleaners nowadays, means youngsters don't develop immunities to some forms of microbes. I recently talked with an immunologist who believes that's part of the problem. I'm sure there are other reasons, but something has changed over the years. Peanut butter sandwiches were a staple in school lunches when I was a little kid in the '50s, and nut allergies weren't even on the radar. I'm sure some kids were allergic, but it's not as if we had kids seizing up in school when someone brought in a PB & J sandwich — and people didn't worry about whether the candy bar they gave their child was made in a nut-free facility or not.
 
Not a conspiracy theorist, but I’m sure Archer Daniels Midland might have something to do with it
 
I don't recall food allergies, asthma or autism in my youth. We also didn't have very many cases of diabetes and there weren't any obese kids. We ate eggs (mostly free range back then), butter (margarine wasn't widely used), lard, beef that was locally raised and grass fed, and whole milk. Fast foods were a treat, not a meal source. I hardly remember of getting pizza that often. Water was the main drink, and very few sweet drinks.

Now we have "healthy" foods. GMO is supposedly okay. But, if it makes it Roundup ready, what does it do to me? Those pesticides aren't too good on the bugs, so I doubt if they're very good for me. We now can take a peep and in 4 weeks it is butchered and sold as chicken fingers. How did they make that growth spurt? They use a lot of growth hormones, and people eat that. They now put water in plastic bottles and charge you more for that than for gasoline. All that plastic residue has to come into health play. 43% the antibiotics in this country are used in the cattle business. Hogs use 37/%. Those antibiotics are in the food supply, and they raise hell with the gut biota.

We also only had a few childhood immunizations. We all got our smallpox scars, and that was about it. Polio vaccines came out when I was in grade school. We all got the measles, mumps and chicken pox. We also got colds and the flu. Autism is non-existent in Amish communities. Same goes for much of the other childhood health problems. We didn't live all that differently than the Amish, other than using modern conveniences.

I'm not convinced that the industrialization of our food and medical industries have served us so well. Provides plenty of profits, but sure doesn't do much for the recipient.
 
I don't recall food allergies, asthma or autism in my youth. We also didn't have very many cases of diabetes and there weren't any obese kids. We ate eggs (mostly free range back then), butter (margarine wasn't widely used), lard, beef that was locally raised and grass fed, and whole milk. Fast foods were a treat, not a meal source. I hardly remember of getting pizza that often. Water was the main drink, and very few sweet drinks.

Now we have "healthy" foods. GMO is supposedly okay. But, if it makes it Roundup ready, what does it do to me? Those pesticides aren't too good on the bugs, so I doubt if they're very good for me. We now can take a peep and in 4 weeks it is butchered and sold as chicken fingers. How did they make that growth spurt? They use a lot of growth hormones, and people eat that. They now put water in plastic bottles and charge you more for that than for gasoline. All that plastic residue has to come into health play. 43% the antibiotics in this country are used in the cattle business. Hogs use 37/%. Those antibiotics are in the food supply, and they raise hell with the gut biota.

We also only had a few childhood immunizations. We all got our smallpox scars, and that was about it. Polio vaccines came out when I was in grade school. We all got the measles, mumps and chicken pox. We also got colds and the flu. Autism is non-existent in Amish communities. Same goes for much of the other childhood health problems. We didn't live all that differently than the Amish, other than using modern conveniences.

I'm not convinced that the industrialization of our food and medical industries have served us so well. Provides plenty of profits, but sure doesn't do much for the recipient.

You make an interesting point about no cases of Autism in Amish (Although I don’t know it that can be corroborated).
 
Not commenting on everything here. Clearly, there is an increase. PB was a staple in the 80s as well.
That said, for many of you with the "when I was a kid" statements, just remember that in the 50s, those kids died.
For a long time, diabetics just died. Then there was bovine insulin, which worked, but wasn't great. My grandmother died in the mid-60s at 51yo due to diabetes after years on bovine insulin and having both legs amputated. The use of synthetic human insulin is only 40yo. The point? Mortality was higher then.
Think about it this way. Medicine has improved so much that people with once fatal conditions now survive and have children. To some extent, modern medicine allows genes to be passed on that once upon a time would not have been. Asthmatics used to die. Today they thrive. Fertility issues are now passed on through IVF. I don't think it explains it all, but certainly medicine ultimately leads to a weaker gene pool and increasing numbers of some of these conditions.
 
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I don't recall food allergies, asthma or autism in my youth. We also didn't have very many cases of diabetes and there weren't any obese kids. We ate eggs (mostly free range back then), butter (margarine wasn't widely used), lard, beef that was locally raised and grass fed, and whole milk. Fast foods were a treat, not a meal source. I hardly remember of getting pizza that often. Water was the main drink, and very few sweet drinks.

Now we have "healthy" foods. GMO is supposedly okay. But, if it makes it Roundup ready, what does it do to me? Those pesticides aren't too good on the bugs, so I doubt if they're very good for me. We now can take a peep and in 4 weeks it is butchered and sold as chicken fingers. How did they make that growth spurt? They use a lot of growth hormones, and people eat that. They now put water in plastic bottles and charge you more for that than for gasoline. All that plastic residue has to come into health play. 43% the antibiotics in this country are used in the cattle business. Hogs use 37/%. Those antibiotics are in the food supply, and they raise hell with the gut biota.

We also only had a few childhood immunizations. We all got our smallpox scars, and that was about it. Polio vaccines came out when I was in grade school. We all got the measles, mumps and chicken pox. We also got colds and the flu. Autism is non-existent in Amish communities. Same goes for much of the other childhood health problems. We didn't live all that differently than the Amish, other than using modern conveniences.

I'm not convinced that the industrialization of our food and medical industries have served us so well. Provides plenty of profits, but sure doesn't do much for the recipient.

Speaking of the Amish...whats their beef with Thomas Edison?

 
My uneducated opinions is that we'll find out some day these issues are due to what society DOESN'T give young kids anymore, instead of what they DO give them.
 
My two kids have food allergies and neither my side nor my wife's side of family have food allergies. I think its crap they put in food and all these shots the kids get.
 
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