"food allergy" news and stories

Doctors say that misdiagnosed food allergies in children are on the rise, apparently because of false positives on common allergy blood tests, reports the New York Times. These blood tests may only accurately identify allergies in 50 percent of the cases, leading to children being put on unnecessarily restrictive diets. Kids who are allergic to peanuts, for example, could test positive for soy, green bean, pea and kidney beans because they have similar proteins. One doctor even had a case where a child was being fed through a feeding tube because he'd been diagnosed as allergic to ALL foods. Once more accurate tests were performed, 20 foods were immediately declared safe.

"The only true test of whether you're allergic to a food or not is whether you can eat it and not react to it," says pediatrician Dr. David Fleischer.

Moreover, some doctors now think that introducing potentially allergenic foods like peanuts and shellfish is better done earlier than delaying until the currently recommended 2 or 3 years, as early exposure may reduce allergy risk.

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Thanks to the work of a North Carolina food scientist, help is on the way for the more than half million U.S. residents who suffer from life-threatening peanut allergies.

Dr. Mohamed Ahmedna of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University has devised a way to deactivate peanut allergens. The allergens are removed by processing rather than by breeding. All of this has no effect on the peanut's taste or quality, and may actually make them easier to process.

Ahmedna's discovery is also a boon for peanut farmers, who produce the U.S.' 12th largest crop valued at some to $1 billion a year. His work is good news for folks with other food allergies, too. Ahmedna is tweaking his process to remove allergens from other foods.

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If you're lactose intolerant, you know all about nausea, bloating, gas, and diarrhea. So while you might stay away from dairy products, you can still get calcium and vitamins from fish, dark green, leafy vegetables, and tofu. But you're an adult. As pediatrician Dr. Ari Brown asks, "How many kids, especially toddlers, eat broccoli, green leafy vegetables, rhubarb or tofu?"

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, even lactose-intolerant children should eat some dairy every day to help maintain daily recommended levels of calcium and vitamin D. Aside from the fact that it might be difficult to get lactose-intolerant kids to eat canned anchovies, dairy products are a more adequate source of the nutrients needed bone growth and development.

The AAP recommends that children drink about 4 to 8 oz. of milk with meals or other foods throughout the day. As children get older, aged cheeses and yogurt can be added to the diet because these foods lack the sugar that can make milk hard to digest.

A decision by the makers of Wonder Bread  to list the dairy ingredient whey on its labels far in advance of a change in its recipe has alarmed food allergy experts.

Interstate Bakeries feels it's giving the public a heads-up by listing whey in the list of ingredients, even though it expects to change the recipe by the end of the year. The allergy experts are concerned that such a move will undermine faith in labeling and could very well spur parents of children with food allergies to take dangerous chances with products. Interstate decided to add whey to the bread to improve its taste and texture.

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