Lucretius wrote, “What is food to one is to others bitter poison.” Nowhere is this Roman philosopher’s observation more apparent than with the steep rise in food allergies over the last two decades. In years past, some few suffered an allergy to one type of food. Today, it is common to see people suffering from allergies to three or more foods. The scary part is that no one is certain of the cause or how to stop the problem. The allergic condition plagues a person with anxiety, food phobia and constant fear of reactions, sometimes up to and including death.
Why did generations before us not suffer from this epidemic? What is it that’s making us so allergic?
What Causes Food Allergies?
Food allergies have become the fifth leading chronic illness in the U.S., affecting up to 15 million people, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The most common triggers are eggs, cow’s milk, peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, sesame, soy, fish and wheat.
A seemingly innocuous meal can be a loaded weapon. When the allergy sufferer ingests a trigger food, the immune system produces immunoglobulin E antibodies in order to neutralize what it determines to be a danger. The body releases chemicals such as histamine into the bloodstream, triggering an exaggerated external response and sometimes a deadly internal response of swelling, known as anaphylaxis.
The big mystery is why we get allergies. Theories abound. The hygiene hypothesis says rising rates of allergies mirror our declining exposure to bacteria during childhood, making us prone to reacting to substances that would otherwise be harmless. Some also point a finger at increased rates of vaccinations, the use of carcinogenic agricultural chemicals and even genetics.
Surprisingly, an often-overlooked cause of food allergies is food itself. In The Unhealthy Truth, Robyn O’Brien writes that food allergies and intolerances may be a product of toxins and genetically modified ingredients in the industrial food system.
Beginning in 1994 with the introduction of the first genetically altered tomato, we have now reached a critical juncture with genetically modified foods. They have been shoved onto the public without meaningful debate, without long-term animal feeding studies or government tests, and without labels.
The Grocery Manufacturers Association says between 70 and 80 percent of all processed foods may contain ingredients from genetically engineered plants. So most Americans are eating genetically modified organisms with almost every bite.
The genetically engineered hormone rbgh (recombinant bovine growth hormone), used to increase milk production, causes cows to have higher rates of disease, requiring the use of antibiotics for ill effects. Consuming products from these cows is a major factor precipitating leaky gut, a condition where a person’s intestines have increased permeability. This allows toxins, microbes and undigested food particles to leak into the bloodstream, causing food allergies and many illnesses.
Consuming Pesticides
Another common ingredient in processed foods is soy, a top food allergen genetically engineered to withstand massive doses of weed killer. Corn allergies are also rising, with some genetically modified corn engineered to withstand Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup. Other varieties are engineered to create their own internal pesticide, Bt toxin (Bacillus thuringiensis), which breaks open the stomach of certain insects and kills them.
This marks the first time in history that pesticide toxins inside cell walls are being sold for human consumption. It also raises the possibility that eating produce containing Bt might damage the human digestive tract the same way it does to insects.
A 2011 study at Quebec’s Sherbrooke University Hospital showed correlation, finding the Bt toxin in the blood of pregnant women and their unborn babies. And in 2012, The Journal of Applied Toxicology showed the Bt toxin causes leaky gut, something Bt’s aggressive mechanism was designed to do to insects in a ruthless way.
O’Brien writes that since the introduction of genetically modified foods, hospitalization rates due to food allergies have risen 265 percent. This has concerned scientists, including some in the Food and Drug Administration, who have warned that genetically altering a food plant could trigger food allergies. In 2009, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine stated, “[S]everal animal studies indicate serious health risks associated with gm food consumption, including infertility, immune dysregulation, accelerated aging, dysregulation of genes associated with … insulin regulation … and changes in [major organs] and gastrointestinal system. There is more than a casual association between gm foods and adverse health effects. There is causation ….”
What can you do if you suffer from food allergies? Look for a nutritional program that focuses on removing damaging foods and replacing them with healthy alternatives, giving the intestinal lining a chance to heal and seal. One such program is the gaps nutritional program by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride.
For prevention, eat a wholesome diet based on unprocessed, ideally organic or locally grown foods cooked at home. These form the foundation upon which your immune system can function and thrive without allowing allergies to become a lifelong disability.
I think previous generations didn’t suffer from food allergies is because their diet didn’t contain processed foods, preservatives, stabilizers, GMO or low quality cheep fillers.
The animal protein they ate wasn’t full of hormones or antibiotics. Being exposed to mass commercial food products (since birth) over time will have an effect on the body.
While the American diet offers convenience, availability, and provide a longer shelf-life, we are slowly poisoning ourselves. We are toxic.
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Absolutely correct. We can rationalise current scientific approaches, but in the end, our food was more wholesome in days past. The proof lies in disease statistics.
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I’m sorry if this seems critical but speaking as a PhD geneticist, you are blending all kinds of things under one rubric of “genetically modified”. This blending means the entire article then becomes potentially dangerous nonsense. The effects of pesticides and herbicides on our food are effects of herbicides and pesticides, and can indeed be negative but have nothing whatsoever to do with being “genetically modified”. The well documented negative effects of growth hormones are also not in any way due to being “genetically modified”.
Furthermore you have also not included numerous other causes of allergies such as those related to leaky gut. Some of the biggest culprits for causing leaky gut are over the counter drugs that reduce stomach acid production. If used inappropriately for controlling heartburn these can also cause leaky guts that produce allergies. Leaky guts are also caused by having a bout of gastroenteritis. And factory farming and factory processing can cause all kinds of issues with gut bacteria because one bit of contamination gets spread across the nation to thousands.
Another problem is common food additives put in all kinds of processed foods. For example I am extremely allergic is cherries, and one common “natural flavour” added to everything from chocolate to cake mix is concentrated cherry juice. I never eat anything red or brown with “natural flavour” because of this. Most people think natural flavours are far better than artificial ones. It simply isn’t true. Natural flavours can change from one factory batch of the same food to another (depending on what’s available at the time) and you can never know what you are going to get. As far as allergies go, natural flavours are far worse for you than artificial flavours. Artificial flavours are consistently the same thing and unlikely to cause allergic reactions.
Nature genetically modifies things all the time, every day. Dogs are genetically modified wolves whose DNA has been altered by human selection to encourage preexisting behaviours and remove other preexisting behaviours that suit humans. Apples are from genetically modified fruit trees which are artificially grafted onto stronger stock so they can survive because without that help they would not survive. Humans with light skin and blue eyes are genetically modified to live in northern climates where sunlight is limited to allow them to make more Vitamin D. All “genetic modifying” done by scientists is about is simply about controlling and replicating what Nature is doing each and every day anyway, in order to derive a naturally possible benefit that is precisely targeted. If it were not naturally possible to alter DNA and if nature weren’t always shuffling around the genes in our DNA anyway, we humans couldn’t do it ourselves. It is important to keep in mind all possible causes and all possible cures for allergies and not propagate misinformation when trying to help people with their health issues.
The final advice you give about eating simple foods from sources you know is correct. However seeking out and paying a premium to avoid genetically modified foods or going organic or avoiding artificial flavours is not going to reduce your chances of having an allergic reaction. In fact, it will likely be worse. As for “genetically modified” being evil, we need to stop putting the label “genetically modified” on everything and anything whether or not it fits and acting like it is evil.
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This is an 800 or so magazine word article that merely touches on principles on health; it is not a dissertation. As such, it was never meant to be a deep dive into details. I’ll answer in point form to keep this short:
1. Herbicides and pesticides contribute to food allergies. I include herbicides and pesticides in the same destructive arena because “genetically modified corn is engineered to withstand Monsanto’s herbicide Roundup. One is meant to counter the other. Both are poisons and both work against the body, contributing to various diseases. It would be criminal to defend either one!
2. I do not have space to include all causes of leaky gut. It is enough to say our food is poisoned and much of it is a major contributor to leaky gut. Again, space did not permit too many details.
3. I agree that natural flavors (as used by the food industry) can be bad for you, but disagree that they are inherently worse than artificial flavors. Both can be harmful. It is merely advertising jargon to confuse consumers.
4. You said, “All genetic modifying done by scientists is is simply about controlling and replicating what Nature is doing each and every day, in order to derive a naturally possible benefit that is precisely targeted.” That’s a “bunk” statement – sorry. I understand you feel there are benefits from this area, but I, and many others, do not. I have studied deeply into the shallow research in this field and it benefits companies, not consumers. But I am not here to change your mind, only to inform those interested in the subject.
5. You said, “However seeking out and paying a premium to avoid genetically modified foods or going organic or avoiding artificial flavours is not going to reduce your chances of having an allergic reaction. In fact, it will likely be worse.” That’s an opinion and since you accuse me of potentially dangerous nonsense in your first paragraph, I recommend you prove this assertion.
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Reblogged this on cancer killing recipe.
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