Why Are We So Allergic and What I Tell My Family

Have you ever wondered why our grandparents didn’t seem to have many food allergies?

It just didn’t seem to be that common back then hey…

But now we all know someone or someone’s child who’s got a problem with the likes of milk, nuts or eggs right?

Food allergies are everywhere now and seems to be getting worse.

It can make life really difficult for the patient and certainly for parents who have to constantly protect their children from offending foods.

It’s all very well to have control over the food at home, but what about at schools, kids birthday parties and eating out in general… this can be a nightmare for parents, whose children have serious food allergies.

In America, they have a food allergy emergency every 3 minutes in their medical system.

And here in Australia, we aren’t far behind.

Hospitalizations in Oz due to food allergy attacks, have tripled over 13 years, and increased more than seven-fold among children aged 5 to 14 (according to the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.)

Allergies to nuts and tree nuts are the number one food allergy.

The “microbial hypothesis” could be the reason, which says that people’s immune systems are programmed by their exposure to microbes, especially during the first few years of life.

The greater the diversity of bacterial species to which they are exposed, the better for setting up immune function.

But over the last 25 years, people in Western countries have been exposed to fewer bacterial species – perhaps as a result of diet, the elimination of certain diseases, the increase of antibiotics and a more indoor lifestyle.

And some people’s immune systems have become dysfunctional, overreacting to foods that should be OK.

Vitamin D plays a huge role in boosting the immune system to prevent people from developing allergies and it’s seriously lacking as we live more indoors.

Also the growth hormones in milk and the 1990’s crazy antibiotic factory farming are said to be another cause.

Certainly a combination of all of these factors are at play in food allergies, including what I chatted about here in another post.

So What’s In Our Food Today That Wasn’t There Before?

Processed foods!

These are contributing to food allergies today…luckily our grandmothers didn’t have to worry about it.

Whether it be that simple can of ‘coconut milk’ …. Seems innocent enough, and they say coconut milk is good for us right? (the pure stuff is!)

But if you turn to the ingredients list on the back (not the nutritional health panel) many of the supermarket brands have way more than coconut milk in them!

Usually it’s topped up with flavours, preservatives and other additives to make it ‘taste great.’

What I’m saying is, it doesn’t have to be the obvious packet of chips or the sugar laden  ‘healthy’ muesli bar that’s causing the problem…

It can be a simple can of tomatoes, almond milk, chickpeas and ‘healthy’ vegetable soups (all that we think are fine) but these are the processed foods that are causing big problems in our health today.

The foods that we ‘think’ are fine, but really are far from it!

Sad but true.

If there’s ONE thing I aim to teach as many people as possible… it’s to look at the INGREDIENTS LIST on any food that’s ‘packaged up’ and not in a natural state.

Then we decide if we want to be eating it – is this stuff really going to help us stay healthy, after what we now know?

In the 1990’s new food proteins were made and put into our food, but we weren’t told.

This was to maximize profit for food manufacturers and there wasn’t any testing done to see if it was safe for our consumption.

At this rate we have to wonder what the future of eating looks like, as more and more toxins are introduced into our food.

So, it’s up to us to be vigilant with our food, teach our children to read the ingredients list, so that WE take control of what we’re eating.

Otherwise we’re handing our future health over to the commercial food manufacturers who put food on the shelves that ‘tastes great’ no matter what cost to our health.

Did your grandmother have food allergies?

Meanwhile, if you have any questions on our own personal situation, go to the Nutrition For Life Community and ask me a question in the forum OR you can private message me.

P.S. And don’t forget to share and subscribe to this blog for weekly help with your health.

Watch this video on what it’s like for kids in America with allergies (it’s the same for our Aussie children too!)