What do you make of this - new allergies?

[canetoad]

Are we poisoning the world?

Fruit and vegies new allergy fear

* Stephen Cauchi
* April 19, 2009
* Page 1 of 2 | Single Page View

A RAPID increase in fruit and vegetable allergies affecting British children has medical specialists baffled.

Common vegetables and fruits, such as celery, apples and pears, are now rivalling peanuts as the most prevalent cause of food-related allergies.

Australian experts say fruit and vegetable allergies are on the rise here, but the problem is not as bad as it is in Britain.

There has been an increase in adverse reactions to bananas and kiwi fruits, but peanuts and tree nuts remain the most common triggers for severe allergic attacks in Australia, according to Maria Said, president of Anaphylaxis Australia.
http://www.theage.com.au/national/fruit-and-vegies-new-allergy-fear-20090418-aauk.html

[BlooInBloo]

1. I think it's weird how so many people have become allergic to food in the last 10-20 years.

[canetoad]

3. Exactly

And ordinary fruits such as pears and bananas. Maybe big agriculture has found the solution to world overpopulation without even trying.

[SoCalDem]

26. Until recently, I never knew anyone who was allergic to foods

some older folks occasionally complained about something "upsetting their stomach", but never heard of anyone allergic to peanuts..

Of course, until the 70's & 80's, foods were relatively unadulterated, and certainly not genetically modified beyond what ole Gregor Mendel & his cronies figured out..

the foods we eat have been "selected" for us over millions of years, so a 30 year timespan for so many changes, is extreme...and we may be paying the price :(

[BobRossi]

2. "Allergy"

Euphemism for "Chemical reaction".

[kimmerspixelated]

21. You got it!

[dixiegrrrrl]

4. Something the stuff is grown in ?

[canetoad]

5. Or sprayed with

or packed in.....

[DesertFlower]

6. that's my thought.

the chemicals.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

7. We deal a lot with food allergies at the clinic where I work

as the receptionist/secretary/pr person/chief cook and bottle washer. What we are finding is a LOT of folks being allergic to foods because of the molds/yeasts on them (and being mold/yeast sensitive themselves). What with shipping all around the world now, I think the growth of molds, etc, is becoming more and more common. And we see a lot of folks showing allergic reactions to them. Couple that with pesticides, etc, I'm surprised more folks aren't affected.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

12. NAFTA....

New Allergies For Toddlers & Adults

[lumpy]

16. That really makes sense. It 's wise to thorougly wash fruits and

veggies in a vinegar or commercial solution made for that purpose. So many soils contain molds also.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

23. yes, it is wise to wash

using Vitamin C or the like. Vinegars in and of themselves contain mold because of the way they are made. We have a whole protocol for our patients with mold/yeast sensitivity, and we recommend they stay away from vinegars.

[canetoad]

17. The mould aspect is interesting

given the long storage in coolrooms of much produce. As everyone knows, refrigeration does not stop blue-grey colonies in your fridge.

[billyoc]

8. Ever notice how nobody's allergic to meat?

Suck it, PETA. :rofl:

[safeinOhio]

11. Red meat, no

Shell fish meat is not my friend.

[tammywammy]

18. What a sad sad life you must lead

A life without shellfish is not the life for me.


:)

[safeinOhio]

28. Hey Tam

didn't hit me until about 48 years old. 12 years of none of my favorites. Swell up like a beach ball and head to hospital. I keep injectable benadryl handy.

[billyoc]

20. Ah, heck, I forgot about that stuff.

It's gross anyway. :hi:

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

13. Actually....

At our clinic, we run food antibody profiles on many patients. You are correct that an extreme allergy to meat is rare--we've seen it once. It was an off the chart allergic reaction to beef----in a person who had been a vegetarian for decades!

[omega minimo]

19. everyone's allergic to e. coli

[AllieB]

22. e. coli has been responsible for lettuce and spinach recalls also.

It's not just meat that can be contaminated with it.

[omega minimo]

24. and?

:shrug:

[ArtVandelay]

37. Everybody HAS E. coli.

You only react when you catch a strain you don't have that your body can't fight off. Your large intestine is loaded with E coli. And the reaction to E coli is not an allergy either.

[pnwmom]

9. Are they eating genetically modified food? n/t

[canetoad]

10. They don't really say in the article

In fact they steer clear of any suggestion that modern agriculture may be responsible, instead making a vague reference to 'pollen' allergies.

I don't think I'm being a panic-monger by thinking this increase in 'allergies' is a pre-cursor to a deadly serious problem.

[onethatcares]

14. wondering what Monsanto really does to genetically alter crops

of course that couldn't have anything to do with it, or the movement of unripe fruit, by unwashed labor, in fields where sanitary facilities are non existant couldn't be a problem.

Too bad we'll never see the proprietory information relating to any of the GMOs.

[canetoad]

15. Atoms, molecules, DNA......

I'm not a luddite but I think there is something intrinsically wrong with tinkering with the basic building blocks.

[babydollhead]

25. I ate three stalks of celery

last thursday, and the tip of my nose and chin got very hot,and then I threw up.

[Duer 157099]

27. If not chemicals, then likely genetically modified

There's no doubt the the process of genetically modifying foods can result in products that are more allergenic.

[ArtVandelay]

36. That's exactly what I thought.

Esp. since so many people are insisting on organic foods, the GMOs are the most likely culprit.

[DainBramaged]

29. Blame the Twinkies

[canetoad]

31. What on earth is that?

Can you deep fry them?

[DainBramaged]

33. They have a shelf life of 20 years

It's all because of the chem-e-cals kinds have allergies. I grew up in he 50's and 60's. There were NO allergies to anything. I didn't get inhalant allergies until I was well into my 20's. I am sure it's the crap we have breathed and eaten for the past 30 years that is screwing up kids now.

[knitter4democracy]

30. My kids were both allergic to apples when they were really young.

My son can't do mangos or cantelopes, either (says they make his tongue sting--which is right before the rash starts). They outgrew the apples thing, but I make sure to only get Michigan apples and get them from local orchards I trust during apple season for all of the canning and drying I do.

[SalviaBlue]

32. GM?

[Mollis]

34. I used to be allergic to lots of fruits

anything with citrus. Along with eggs, wheat, nuts, lactose...pretty much everything.
Luckily I grew out of it.

[applegrove]

35. I've been sneezing like crazy over the last few months. I used to be allergic to cats (mildly).

Now I don't know what I'm allergic too but seem to sneeze at work (mall) just as often as I do at home with my two cat critters.

[RoyGBiv]

38. The sorts of statistics need serious study ...

Peer reviewed and subjected to all manner of variation to consider various variables.

And we have to be careful about the use of these sorts of statistics to make sure the terms are well defined and understood and maintained within a proper historical perspective.

Several people in this thread have offered that "no one" was allergic to "anything" back in the day, whenever that day was. This is not true. What is true is that many allergies went undiagnosed as allergies for centuries of human history. It wasn't until 1874, for example, that what had earlier in the century been described as "hay-fever" was attributed to grass pollen, and even then the mechanisms weren't understood. Afterward for decades the emerging science of studying allergies focused almost exclusively on pollen as causative agent.

The allergy people have to peanuts is a good example of how a historical perspective of the notion that no one (or very few) used to be allergic to peanuts helps inform us. Before the concept of an allergy was understood, people still made an association with eating certain foods and feeling bad or even dying. The use of "goober peas" as a staple item in the southern armies during the American Civil War caused these sorts of problems. Some people simply wouldn't eat them because after they did so, strange physical ailments struck them that were described by "doctors" as some other generic problem. The more common allergy to shellfish is another example. There's probably a reason it was a forbidden food among some ancient cultures who had access to other kinds of food other than "God said so." Some important person's child eats shellfish. The child dies. Shellfish is now illegal, or, sinful.

None of this is meant in any way to suggest the problem is not real nor that the instance of allergic reactions to common foods is not increasing. Most scientists agree that it is. But, while we're figuring out why we have more of these ailments, we need to figure out the scale. "More diagnoses" or "more reported" simply doesn't do it and doesn't really mean anything other than the obvious: more were reported and/or diagnosed.

My mother, as a personal example, has had a bona fide allergic reaction to cigarette smoke (as opposed to the standard negative reaction people have to the smell or the reduced ability to breathe normally for the same reason it's hard to breathe in any smoke-filled room) most of her life. It doesn't happen with cigar or pipe smoke or, I should add, "roll your own" smokes made out of 100% tobacco. She's known she had this problem most of her life, and it caused her a lot of problems at work before "smoke free" workplaces became the norm. But it wasn't until about 10 years ago that she got an actual diagnosis. The allergy existed before that, but it wasn't recognized as an allergy.

[HughMoran]

39. I'm now alergic to most everything

It's so bad that I have to take Zyrtec every day of my life. I take it because I have become so overwhelmed that I've had chronic hives for the past 2 years, though it's nice that it also counteracts the nasal irritation caused by dust, tree pollen etc. My mom developed asthma out of the blue. What's going on out there anyway?