JustGetThere

Monday, February 22. 2010

Eating peanuts helps cure peanut allergy: Study

in Health

Defined tags for this entry: alternative health, food allergy, health, immunotherapy, peanuts

Food Consumer | A study suggests a new immunotherapy may help people with peanut allergy to overcome the allergic reaction in a matter of several months.

Researchers at Cambridge University Hospitals found giving children with peanut allergy a small amount of peanuts to eat daily over a period of several months boosts their tolerance to peanuts and temper the allergy reactions.

A health observer who was not involved in the study cautioned that food consumers should not try this approach at home.

Peanut allergy along with other tree nut allergy affects an estimated 3.3 million Americans and sends possibly thousands of people to emergency room each year.

For the study, Dr. Andrew Clark and colleagues gave a group of 23 children allergic to peanuts a small amount of peanuts to eat each day. The dose increased every two weeks starting with 1 mg until the children could eat five peanuts without a severe reaction.

After six weeks, 91 percent of children with peanut allergy were able to eat at least five peanuts every day without any allergic reaction. After six months, 19 could tolerate 32 peanuts.

Food allergy triggered by ingestion of cow's milk, fish, egg, shellfish, soybeans, and wheat cause 30,000 cases of anaphylaxis, 2,000 hospitalizations and 150 deaths each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Symptoms of food allergy include hives, tingling in the mouth, swelling in the tongue and throat, difficulty breathing, abdominal cramps, vomiting or diarrhea, eczema or rash, coughing or wheezing, loss of consciousness and dizziness.

Tuesday, January 6. 2009

FDA Orders Labeling of Bug-Based Food Colorings

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Defined tags for this entry: allergic reaction, carmine, cochineal, FDA, food allergy, food coloring, health

By Michael F. Jacobson

The bodies of the cochineal bug are extracted
to color foods using the name carmine or cochineal.

CSPI | After a decade-long gestation period, the Food and Drug Administration has finally ordered that food and cosmetics manufacturers that color their products with carmine and cochineal list them by name in ingredient lists. Until now, these colorings, extracted from the dried bodies of the tiny cochineal bug, have been hidden under the terms "artificial colors" or "color added." Naming those ingredients on labels will help people who suffered allergic reactions determine if the colors were the culprits.

That's useful progress. But, ideally, FDA should have exterminated these critter-based colorings altogether. The only way people can determine that they are sensitive to them is to suffer repeated reactions, including potentially life-threatening anaphylactic reactions. Also, the FDA should have required labels to disclose that carmine and cochineal are extracted from insects, which many consumers—including vegetarians, Jews, and Muslims—would be interested to know.

CSPI petitioned the FDA in 1998 to require labeling after a study by a University of Michigan allergy expert who discovered that carmine was the cause of an allergic reaction in one of his patients. Subsequently, CSPI received adverse-reaction reports from several dozen consumers. Yet carmine and cochineal extract remain in dozens of reddish-colored foods and beverages, including fruit drinks, ice creams, yogurts, and candies.

Thursday, November 13. 2008

Artificial Food Additives Affect Children’s Behavior

in Health

Defined tags for this entry: ADHD, artificial food additives, artificial food dye, aspartame, children, food allergy, health, junk food, MSG, preservatives

By Joan Endyke

The Patriot Ledger | Years of research finally supports what many parents already knew: Junk foods – loaded with artificial food dyes and preservatives – cause behavioral problems in children.

Research from a study of 297 children published in The Lancet found a significant number of children became more inattentive, impulsive and hyperactive when given a test drink with artificial additives (The subjects were from the general population, not diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.) In England, where the study was conducted, people are calling for the additives to be banned from the food supply because the effects can lead to reading and other problems in school.

In the U.S., doctors are advising parents to check and possibly change their child’s diet before considering ADHD drugs.

In the February edition of The American Academy of Pediatrics Grand Rounds, two medical experts praised the current research and advised pediatricians to recommend "a trial of preservative-free, food coloring-free diet'' when a child is hyperactive.

The connection between food additives and behavior was noted more than 30 years ago by an allergist, Ben Feingold. He also hypothesized certain children were sensitive to foods with salicylates, compounds similar to aspirin. He recommended trying an elimination diet and documented hundreds of case studies in which behavior improved.

Although rigorous research on the Feingold program is lacking, current research is substantiating many aspects of it. Fervent believers in Feingold’s methods support and manage the nonprofit Feingold Association. (www.feingold.org). In addition to salicylates, The Feingold Program recommends eliminating from the diet: all artificial (synthetic) colors, listed on the label as "food coloring'', "color added'' or by its FDA number, like FD&C Yellow #5 or FD&C Red #40 (both used in the Lancet study); artificial flavors listed as "flavoring'' or "artificial flavoring'' or artificial vanilla (vanillin); aspartame (an artificial sweetener); and three preservatives, BHA, BHT, and TBHQ – already removed from most food for children in the U.K.

Many children’s cereals contain BHT and artificial colors but Cheerios, Honey Nut Cheerios, Kashi, Barbara’s, and Trader Joe’s brands do not. Yogurts, like Stonyfield or Trader Joe’s do not have artificial colors. Plain tortilla or potato chips trump artificially colored Doritos, barbeque potato chips or orange cheese curls. Choose clear Gatorade, Capri Sun Sport, or dilute natural juice (in half) with water for young athletes. Dye-free Motrin or Benadryl are also available now.

Joan Endyke is a registered dietitian with a master's degree in nutrition and food science, and also a certified personal trainer. She is the nutrition director at Fitness Unlimited.
Readers may send questions about nutrition to Endyke at Fitness Unlimited, 364 Granite Ave., Milton, MA 02186 or by e-mail to jendyke@fitnessunlimited.com.

Tuesday, June 10. 2008

Food Allergies Trigger Multibillion-Dollar Specialty Market

in Health

Defined tags for this entry: allergies, food allergy, gluten, gluten-free, Health

By Annys Shin

Washington Post | Kari Keaton is the sort of customer most businesses used to hate. The Rockville mother lingers at the grocery store, poring over ingredient labels. She calls food manufacturers and interrogates their customer service representatives about what sorts of foods get processed in the same facility and probes them on the meaning of "natural flavoring." And after all that effort, she still may not buy their product.

The way Keaton sees it, she has little choice. Her two sons, 10 and 15, suffer from severe food allergies. Keeping them from accidentally eating something that could trigger a fatal reaction has become the former IBM field manager's full-time job.

But Keaton, 52, and consumers like her are increasingly coveted by corporations and entrepreneurs who see an economic opportunity in catering to the needs of people who have food allergies or celiac, a condition treated by avoiding gluten. Marketing to the food-sensitive has become so widespread that the Girl Scouts now sell three kinds of milk-free cookies, Anheuser-Busch has a gluten-free beer and Kellogg's makes Pop-Tarts in nut-free factories.

The market for food-allergy and intolerance products is projected to reach $3.9 billion this year, according to Packaged Facts, a New York research firm. And the market for gluten-free foods and drinks is expected to hit $1.3 billion by 2010, up from $700 million in 2006, according to research firm Mintel.

An estimated 12 million people in the United States have food allergies, and another 2 million have celiac disease, a disorder in which the body's immune system attacks itself when exposed to gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley and rye. Those figures are expected to rise. The number of children with peanut allergies alone has doubled in the past decade. Food-induced anaphylaxis, a potentially fatal allergic reaction, causes about 30,000 emergency room visits and 150 to 200 deaths annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

Medical experts don't know why the number of people with food allergies is increasing. Theories include reduced contact with germs, exposure to certain environmental pollutants and, in the case of peanut allergies, the way peanuts are processed and when they are introduced into people's diet. None of the theories is backed by much research.

Read full article here