About 32 million Americans have food allergies, a number that is higher than ever before. The CDC reports that 1 in 13 children – or about two students per classroom – has a food allergy. The question is what is causing the epidemic?
In an article published in the magazine today Cell, four Yale immunobiologists suggest that an excessive activation of our food quality control system is mainly to blame for the increased incidence of food allergies. (Related: The 7 Healthiest Foods You Can Eat Now.)
Prior to this research, a prevailing theory suggested that the absence of natural pathogens – such as parasites in the modern environment – might cause our bodies to become sensitive to certain foods. After all, our immune system has evolved over time to deal with such natural threats, and now that we do not encounter them, it responds to something we do encounter every day – food.
The immunobiologists now say that our current food quality control system, designed to protect us from eating harmful foods, may be the culprit why so many Americans develop allergies to common foods. Between the unnatural substances in heavily processed foods and environmental chemicals in dishwashing detergents, for example – in addition to the absence of natural microbial exposure – the food quality control program is disrupted.
So, how does it affect you or your loved ones? Think of it this way: how should we treat these allergies without our knowledge? why it happens?
“We can not think of ways to prevent or treat food allergies until we fully understand the underlying biology,” co-author Ruslan Medzhitov, Sterling professor of immunobiology and researcher at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, said in a statement. shared with Eat it, not it! “You can not be a good car mechanic if you do not know how a normal car works.”
There is a kind of immune system reaction that flares up when we ingest toxins and work to neutralize the threat. However, the same reaction also causes allergies – both environmental and food. Again, this hypersensitivity to pollen and gluten occurs, for example, due to the lack of true natural threats (parasites) in the contemporary food system.
According to this original theory, this immune response is directed at harmless proteins found in certain food groups, such as those found in the big 8 food allergens (milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, wheat and soy).
However, Yale researchers now theorize that three other environmental factors have influenced the natural food quality control systemand claim that they also made an important contribution to the sensitivity of our immune system to different foods.
“One factor is the increased use of hygiene products and the overuse of antibiotics, and secondly a change in the diet and the increased consumption of processed foods with less exposure to foods that are grown naturally and the composition of the intestinal microbiome changes. , “Medzhitov said.
“Finally, the introduction of food preservatives and environmental chemicals such as dishwashing detergents has introduced new elements that can monitor the immune system.”
In short, the authors of this article suggest that this behavior gives rise to the immune system to attack food proteins in the same way as toxic substances.
Until more research is done and gives us more clarity on the actions we can take on a daily basis to reduce our exposure to these unnatural substances and chemicals, what better reason to further limit your consumption of processed foods?
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