So many allergies! Why?

I was born 1954. Years ago us as a family were brought up on vegetables and some fruit that my dad grew in the garden. All meals home cooked. Cakes, desserts all homemade.
The only store that I can remember was the Co-op.
As the years went by big supermarkets opened up and there's a multitude of all different kinds of food on offer. Chemicals to make things have a longer shelf life and to look good. Additives and goodness knows what that the body reacts to.
Every germ, virus cleaning products available. All I can remember my mum having was Ajax.
We went outside to play, in the muck, shared drink, bit into and shared an apple, didn't wash hands every time we came in or went to the toilet. I'm being honest here.
Our bodies built up immunity.
In this day and age we are too clean and open to all the stuff added to food.

I’m happy to do a vegetarian alternative but if any have more complex dietary, needs I ask them to bring their own food and I am happy to serve it together with the rest.
I have a granddaughter who does bring her own when she visits

There's a big difference between actual allergies and intolerances, but I think now, in some circles, it has become quite 'trendy' for people to claim they 'can't' eat certain foods, when what they actually mean is they won't eat them - for whatever reasons. And no, I'm in no way minimising the seriousness of genuine allergies or food intolerances - my GS has a nut allergy and a friend is extremely allergic to shellfish. I know one woman who kept claiming she couldn't eat X, Y or Z - then when quizzed about her supposed allergies, admitted she was just a very fussy eater. It's people like that who take the focus away from those with genuine, and often life-threatening, allergies or health conditions such as coeliacs.

Monica. I too am lactose intolerant but did not enter myself into the discussion
I am different I like milk and didn’t associate milk with the gut problems I encountered. It was only when I took the lads off milk I took myself off and bingo my symptoms improved.
I don’t think it’s that simple as I am only slightly more tolerant of the low lactose variety
However when I was on high dose prednisolone I was much more tolerant and two years since I came off it my tolerance has seriously deteriorated and just about as bad as it had been

Monica, I too was like you, with teachers standing over me, until I drank the milk. I would then be sick.

Lactose intolerance is, as its name says, an intolerance, not an allergy, so the discussion about allergies do not apply

Lactose intolerance is genetic in its origins and originally all humans were lactose intolerant and in some countries like Japan, many still are. We developed the ability to tolerate lactose over the years when we started to preserve milk as a form of food, but many people still are lactose intolerant.

I have mild lactose intolerance. I cannot drink milk, or consume lightly processed milk products like yoghourt, cream and most soft cheeses, without feeling sick and my stomach being obviously inflamed for up to 24 hours. However I can eat hard cheeses like cheddar etc, with impunity. Another link www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/2016-genes-and-lactose-intolerance

My school days were made hideous by being young enough to be the recipient of free school milk and teachers would stand over me to make me drink it and then blame me for making myself deliberately sick. My mother knew I had a problem with milk, but mild lactose intolerance wasn't recognised then, I only discovered very recently that the reason I (and DS) cannot drink milk and lightly processed milk products is due to a mild intolerance.

On the other hand DD loves milk and buys the greentop unpasteurised if she can. The very sight of the bottle makes me feel queazy!

Monica. I agree a lot with what you have to say. However as I have just posted both of my lads have a lactose intolerance.
I doubt the hygiene and exposure to bugs comes into it as they were raised on a small holding. We had dogs and cats and they spent a lot of time outside. Helping mummy. So bugs in the environment are not the total answer
A mucky kid is a happy one so long as there is a bath at the end of the day
There is of course the argument we wash too many bugs off our skin and the protective effect they have

The incidencee of allergies is rising world wide - and also the number of people with severe allergies than can lead to hospital admission and death. The number of things people are allergic to is also rising.

Some of these may be caused by people assuming a strong dislike or a food intolerance causes it, but it has been linked to the 'hyguene' thesis that small children and there environment is kept sso clean they do not meet enough challenges to immune system as infants. Othe reasons are those given up thread, eating a diet high in UPFs and the effect this has on our microbiome.
www.bbc.com/future/article/20201023-food-allergies-why-nut-dairy-and-food-allergy-are-rising The general findinga applie to more than just nuts and dairy.
This is an intersting article that discusses this subject

Gwyllt

Ultra processed food and the effect of the various chemicals. Also the effect on the gut biome could possibly be one answer to its increasing number of intolerances/allergies
It could also be why the IQ in children is supposedly dropping and attention is declining
Also they say the dementia rate is on the rise
Now talking about pets a high proportion are fed on complete. Which is ultra processed I have heard it said the life expectancy of dogs is on the decline

I do believe you are right.

Yes, I have.

Sparklefizz
I think I remember that report and agree I think it was the U.K.
Have you heard the twin Drs Chris and Xand Van Tilican ( not sure of spelling) amongst others going on about UPF and its effect even in the short term

Gwyllt

Ultra processed food and the effect of the various chemicals. Also the effect on the gut biome could possibly be one answer to its increasing number of intolerances/allergies
It could also be why the IQ in children is supposedly dropping and attention is declining
Also they say the dementia rate is on the rise
Now talking about pets a high proportion are fed on complete. Which is ultra processed I have heard it said the life expectancy of dogs is on the decline

I agree with what you say Gwyllt

Ultra processed and junk food badly affects the microbiome and can have effects on mental health. Our brains need proper food to function calmly.

There was a small survey done re prison food years ago ... I think it was in the UK but may not have been ... the prison inmates were fed decent food and not processed/junk and general behaviour quickly improved. Of course, this would cost more.

It's my belief that angry human behaviour nowadays plus angry dogs can be blamed on the food.

I think there’s a lot going on with food nowadays that we didn’t have to contend with when we were young. To take the OP’s comment about sesame and poppy seed allergies - I doubt very much that years ago either of those items would be in the weekly shopping basket.

Exactly, sued! I don't think I had come across sesame seeds or poppy seeds until well into adulthood.

Intolerance to food stuffs is certainly on the increase but I do think that some people use intolerance as an excuse for bad behaviour etc Like someone mentioned in another thread ‘ if they misbehave they must be hungry ‘.
Allergies are totally different to intolerance However to dismiss intolerance is very misleading.
A tale of intolerance from a long time ago
When my elder lad started school he was tiny. Below the 25 th percentile for weight and height. He had been a very windy baby who always seemed to have a sore bum. Bad mothering was implied !
Soon after my second lad was born and when I introduced cows milk as part of the weaning process. It became obvious there was a problem. I discussed it with a colleague at a well known children’s hospital in Liverpool and she agreed it might be a lactose intolerance.
He improved when a soya milk baby formula was substituted
At twelve months whilst on holiday I was unable to get the soya baby milk s o I used ordinary formula. The contented easy going baby turned into an unsettled monster.
I decided to take elder lad of milk. I could not believe what happened within a few months his weight was at the 50th percentile. Within about 8 months his height was also at the 50th percentile. He is now 6 ft He also became a lot calmer.
Still they both keep clear of milk. If more than a small amount of milk is consumed one get an ocular migraine. The other gets an eczema flair up
Coeliac disease is a sensitivity to wheat and gluten it is not an allergy

Less exposure to microbes change how the immune system reacts, the more processed food we eat the worse it will become.

Coeliac disease is not an allergy, it is an autoimmune disease.

Some people may be gluten intolerant, which is different.

Yes, Calendargirl, you are probably right:
I assume people were ill though and no one knew why.

People were sick, no-one realised why and often their life was shortened as the intolerances and autoimmune diseases caused long-term ill-health.

When my son experienced anaphylaxis at the age of four, (he is now 42 )after eating a monkey nut at Beavers, there was little information about severe allergies and food intolerance. Fortunately my GP friend realised immediately what was happening and administered adrenaline. My son was minutes away from his throat closing up.

It took a long time to organise an Epipen, which had to be sourced from the USA by his respiratory consultant and was so expensive that we were allowed only one at a time.
Later we discovered he was also allergic to G.A gasses, when his heart stopped on the operating table.

He had other allergies to drugs and food additives, (it was a steep learning curve) but in those days, ingredients on food and drinks weren't always listed.
These allergies were linked to his chronic asthma and eczema, but many GPs were not au fait with the link between these conditions.

Thank goodness clinicians are more on the ball now.

Allergies are on the rise and the reasons aren’t clear, but anaphylaxis is increasing so it’s not just improved diagnosis. It could be a combination of the fact that our food supply has changed, our microbiome might be involved or there is the sterile environment hypothesis - where we get less exposure to contaminants.

It wasn’t such an issue when we were young but it is now. Allergy UK has some really interesting stats www.allergyuk.org/about-allergy/statistics-and-figures/

I think there’s a lot going on with food nowadays that we didn’t have to contend with when we were young. To take the OP’s comment about sesame and poppy seed allergies - I doubt very much that years ago either of those items would be in the weekly shopping basket.

I was raised on basically meat and two veg and milk or fruit-based puddings, all home cooked. No additives or colourings, fillers or sugars except for tart fruits. A jar of peanut butter was an occasional treat as was a bottle of fizzy pop.

My first encounter with food allergies was in my own son, in the mid-1980’s. He would always have behavioural issues and exacerbation of his asthma on Fridays, which was most bizarre. A health visitor with an interest in diet asked about what we ate and she tracked it down to the fish fingers and orange juice the children were allowed on Fridays. The crumb of the fishfingers had tartrazine in it and in those days so-called fresh orange juice was made from the fruit of trees that had often been watered with a solution of tartrazine to make the juice look more orangey.

It’s mind-blowing to think of what we can unwittingly be putting into our bodies and I think it’s not surprising allergies are more frequent.

Many of these allergies are self-diagnosed; it sounds so much better than 'won't eat it.'
I used to worry about feeding my daughter's diabetic friend, but her mother said that as long as she didn't touch icing sugar and fizzy drinks, on the advice of her consultant it was better for her to have an occasional taste of party food rather than build up a resentment at a restricted diet, and binge eat when older.

Gwyllt

Ultra processed food and the effect of the various chemicals. Also the effect on the gut biome could possibly be one answer to its increasing number of intolerances/allergies
It could also be why the IQ in children is supposedly dropping and attention is declining
Also they say the dementia rate is on the rise
Now talking about pets a high proportion are fed on complete. Which is ultra processed I have heard it said the life expectancy of dogs is on the decline

Absolutely. I watched a program a while back where the Dr was talking about micro plastics relating to allergies/ birth defects etc. we are literally breathing them in.

Allergies are such complicated things that there is not easy answer.

Colouring and preservatives in food usually get the blame, but any kind of allergy diminishes general health so someone who is basically allergic to pollen, cat fur or anything else may suddenly develop an allergy to certain foods, or the other way round.

In our childhood allergies were not generally understood, so children who became ill after a meal out or a party were usually thought to have overeaten, and if you complained that your woollen winter vest made you itch, you were told you were making a fuss about nothing!

Ultra processed food and the effect of the various chemicals. Also the effect on the gut biome could possibly be one answer to its increasing number of intolerances/allergies
It could also be why the IQ in children is supposedly dropping and attention is declining
Also they say the dementia rate is on the rise
Now talking about pets a high proportion are fed on complete. Which is ultra processed I have heard it said the life expectancy of dogs is on the decline

There is a difference between allergies which provoke a severe response such as peanut, eggs etc and food intolerance which may cause unpleasant but not serious symptoms.

It is important to know the difference. One requires the use of an epipen for emergency treatment and can be life threatening.

I think some people just get these things out of proportion, but like to be on the safe side.

Funny how so few children are allergic to sugar though...and it makes a lot of them hyperactive if not sick.

No, me neither, we used to have a house full when it was our son's birthdays, they then went to their friends parties and never once did we think about them having an allergy. I wonder if it was because we cooked our own food from natural ingredients as there were no ready meals in the shops. We bought all the ingredients and made the meals from scratch and therefore the children became immune to many things. They ate what was put in front of them without any complaint, as we did when we were children. Our grandson only wants to eat pizzas so pizzas he gets which I don't agree with, he should be eating what the rest of the family are eating, but of course, I keep my mouth shut.