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Products from smaller food manufacturers are more likely to contain allergens, whether or not they have an advisory statement, according to a study from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York. Researchers looked at 400 products to see how the labeling for allergens held up.
For example, almost 6 per cent of the products from smaller companies that didn’t have an advisory label for milk did, in fact, contain milk. “The bottom line is that it might be wise to exercise more caution with smaller companies,” says Dr. Lara Ford, a fellow at Mount Sinai. (This includes checking directly with a food maker.)
The findings for those with peanut allergies were more encouraging: out of all the products that did not have a warning for peanuts, none contained the allergen. However, for milk and egg, there were a few products without these ingredients on the labels that in fact contained the allergen.
Are “May Contains” overused?
Last year, humour writer Joel Stein scoffed at the rise in food allergies among kids as “a yuppie invention” of over-zealous parents. Well, Stein is eating his words. And his one-year old is no longer eating nuts.
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• Peanut Patch: Is Tolerance Skin Deep?
The next frontier for peanut-allergy therapy may be absorbing the allergen through the skin, in order to desensitize. Researchers with the Consortium of Food Allergy Research, led by Dr. Hugh Sampson at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, say French research suggests using skin patches can make a person less allergic.
Allergic Living exclusive
• Epinephrine Use Lacking in Reactions
Many Canadians suffering moderate to severe allergic reactions aren’t using epinephrine to treat the reaction, says Dr. Ann Clarke, an allergist at McGill University Health Centre. Clarke and her colleagues surveyed close to 10,000 Canadians and found that 3.2 per cent were allergic to one or more of peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, fish and sesame. Of those, “at most, only 38.7 per cent reported receiving epinephrine” for a severe reaction, says Clarke.
More on the study
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Ever wonder what your intestines looked like before you went on a gluten-free diet? In an in-depth report on celiac disease, Dr. Joseph Murray of the Mayo Clinic explains: “Think of the inside of a healthy intestine as looking like a deep-pile carpet. In a patient with untreated celiac disease, the intestine ‘looks like a tile floor.’”
Researchers at the Mayo Clinic are using 50-year-old blood samples and mice bred with digestive problems to get to the root of why people get celiac disease and the disease’s dramatic growth. Read the report. |
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Now’s the time to start speaking with your child’s school about keeping your allergic children safe this year. To get you started, read Anaphylaxis Canada’s executive director Laurie Harada’s tips on Talking to School Officials.
Plus:
- How to prevent asthma’s September Spike.
- Who’s Watching Lunch? – a look at school lunch supervision.
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ER visits for food
allergies doubled
at Boston hospital. |
Double whammy:
Ragweed reactions
come on quicker,
worse if you have
other allergies. |
Chelsea Clinton’s
fabulous gluten-free,
9-tier wedding cake. |
Children with celiac
disease need more
sunshine vitamin. |
Meat, fat and sugar
= more allergies. |
Video: Summer’s
heat, humidity has been tough on asthmatics. |
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Aug. 14 Bicycle Trek
for Lung Association,
Newfoundland. more |
Aug. 15 Ride-walk-run
for celiac disease,
Edmonton. more |
Oct. 17 Walk to
Axe Anaphylaxis
fundraiser, aims to
surpass $45,000 for
allergy research,
Toronto. more |
Oct. 22-24 FAAN teen
summit, for ages 11 to
20, Baltimore. more |
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