There was a good article in the December 9 2008, NY Times on Food Allergies.
(Picture from Times article: A DAILY STRUGGLE Sean Batson, 5, who is allergic to soy, eggs and milk, is participating in a large food allergy study.)
Excerpt: "Indeed, with recent data showing a marked increase in the number of food allergies, which cannot be explained by a lack of detection in years past, the national institutes have begun an initiative to address food allergies as an emerging health challenge.
Although it is possible to be allergic to any food, eight foods account for 90 percent of all reactions — milk, eggs, peanuts, fish, shellfish, soy, wheat, and tree nuts like cashews and almonds."
If you have an interest in this subject, this is a good place to begin. Researchers Put a Microscope on Food Allergies
Brian Maurer, a pediatric physician's assistant in Enfield Connecticut has these comments about this article and food allergies:
"In today’s New York Times we read about the latest emerging healthcare challenge: 4 percent of the general population suffers from food allergies. Fifteen years ago, clinicians paid little attention to food allergies; they were thought to be relatively rare. Nowadays, more and more children are being diagnosed with allergic disease triggered by milk, soy, egg, wheat, peanut, tree nuts, fish and shellfish. The question is: how many of these are bona fide allergies?
Certainly, if a child demonstrates clinical signs of an allergic reaction when challenged with a particular food substance—hives, wheezing, dysphagia, angioedema—there is little doubt of the diagnosis. The clinical waters become murkier when we attempt to arrive at a diagnosis through screening tests. Many patients who show significant reactions to skin-prick testing demonstrate no problem when challenged with the actual foodstuff in the diet. As the article points out: “[i]n China…skin-prick testing found that large percentages of one rural population were sensitive to shellfish (16.7 percent) and peanuts (12.3 percent). Yet actual food allergies in that population, as diagnosed by physicians, were all but unheard of: less than 1 percent.” How reliable is skin-prick testing?
Anecdotally, I have had one pediatric allergist—an internationally recognized researcher and clinician—tell me that blanket screening tests are basically useless. His recommendation is to measure quantitative IgE levels for those substances to which the patient has demonstrated a past sensitivity in order to assess the degree of allergy over time.
