Article Source: msnbc.com
from:msnbc.comFood allergies affect 1 in 12 kids: study
Seeded on Wed Dec 29, 2010 2:50 PM EST (msnbc.com)
— Filed under: health
- msnbc.com sites & shows:
- TODAY
- Rock Center
- Nightly News
- Meet the Press
- Dateline
- Morning Joe
- Hardball
- Ed
- Maddow
- Last Word
- msnbc tv
Leave a Comment:
It would be very helpful if we had any idea of whether the foods are at fault or the manner in which they are adulterated with antibiotics and hormones (e.g. dairy, fish, beef, poultry, eggs) and contaminated with residues from pesticides (nuts, produce). Nuts are also prone to mold, something many among the population i are becoming sensitized from living/working in damp, sealed indoor spaces.
Numbness and tingling, GI disturbances and breathing problems are not uncommon with such reactions. Differential diagnosis is crucial to the health of millions.
Barbara Rubin
www.armchairactivist.us
Agreed. Call me a stickler for semantics, but I don't like that the article keeps jumping between "allergic food reactions" and "food reactions." The two are different. And "allergic food reaction" is just that - an attack by the immune system to a certain food. A "food reaction," on the other hand, can be anything from an allergic reaction to food poisoning to gastrointestinal problems to a reaction to something other than the food itself (like you mentioned, a reaction to a pesticide or an additive).
True food allergies are very rare - only around 8% in children and less than 5% in adults (however, approximately 30% of people believe they have food allergies when they do not).* It's important to differentiate between a true food allergy and just not liking the way a food makes you feel. It does a great disservice to that small percentage of people with actual allergies because they aren't taken seriously, and the results can be fatal.
* http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/health/research/12allergies.html?_r=1
It's been proven that GMO foods are a major cause of allergies, yet we still have a government run by the corporation, for the corporations.
It's sad.....
Great points Barbara. I agree that between the pesticides we spray on to foods or worse yet engineer into foods and all the other additives added so we can keep animals in unclean surroundings one really can't be sure what the real allergy is.
I don't eat meat and I used to grow my own. Now I live at a high altitude and am researching how to grow my own once again.
big agra is scary.