May 17, 2010--Food Challenge
I am not talking here about a new program on the Food Channel. Food Challenge is not on following Iron or Top Chef. Rather, it is a medical test. The only diffinitve way to determine if one is allergic to a specific food. Here's how it works:
If someone suspects that they have a food allergy they typically take a skin prick test. It is done by placing a drop of a solution containing a possible allergen on the skin, and then a series of scratches or needle pricks allows the solution to enter the skin. If the skin develops a red, raised itchy area called a wheal it usually means that the person is allergic to that allergen.
With a responsible doctor and a willing patient, since this positive reaction, the wheal, "usually" means you have an allergy, if you want to be certain it is time for the Elimination Diet and for you to take the Food Challenge. These are the only tools that can definitively determine if you have a food allergy.
The Elimination Diet, as its name suggests, involves removing specific foods or ingredients from your diet that you and your doctor suspect may be causing allergy symptoms. Properly done, your doctor will supervise this diet over a few weeks.
During this time, you will need to carefully read food labels and find out about food preparation methods when dining out. You'll also need to keep a food diary to record the foods you are eating. If you remove a certain food and the symptoms go away while following this diet, your doctor can usually identify that food as the cause of your problems.
I go into all this detail because of a fascinating and disturbing report in last week's New York Times. (Linked below.) According to it, from a massive study by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, though 30 percent of adults report they have food allergies fewer than 5 percent in fact do. Only a small number ever had skin prick tests and even fewer went through the rigors of an Elimination Diet or Food Challenge.
But when those who thought they had allergies were induced by researchers to keep a food diary and to do all the other things required to be certain about suspected allergies, almost all discovered that in spite of what their doctors might have told them or what foods on their own they assumed they were allergic to, after running the tests in the only manner that would verify this, they discovered that in reality they had very few allergies.
Though some actual allergies can be life threatening and others cause rashes and other serious symptoms, when tested properly, it turns out that very few people are allergic to anything at all.
Anecdotally, I have many friends and relatives who claim they have been plagued by food allergies for years but none of them ever went through a battery of skin prick tests or the more comprehensive Food Challenge. Some have had blood tests, but allergy specialists claim that this is the least definitive way to determine if allergies are present. Since so many believe they have allergies, I have known people who have gone to physicians and homeopaths who contend that they can diagnose allergies by testing samples of clients' hair. This also is an even more inauthentic test.
What is this all about? This rush to, in effect, self-diagnosis or accepting a life sentence of what not to eat and drink based on evidence that lacks rigor or credibility? What Dr. Robert Aronowitz, professor of the sociology of science at the University of Pennsylvania calls "the career of a diagnosis." A situation where a non-existent allergy can "take over someone's life."
I am aware of the mantra "You are what you eat." And, of course, if this means eating well and sensibly makes good sense. But to avoid looking for the actual physiological and/or psychological causes for ailments and to seemingly so unquestioningly embrace allergies as the answer is perplexing.
Another sociologist, Dr. Barry Glassner of the University of California and author of the Gospel of Food, writes that "We attribute magical powers to food. We believe that if we eat the right foods we will live forever and if we eat the wrong foods we will shorten our lifespan."
Thus, since magical thinking is involved, he is not optimistic that people who embrace these beliefs will allow themselves to be properly tested. Belief and self-deception are that powerful.
If someone suspects that they have a food allergy they typically take a skin prick test. It is done by placing a drop of a solution containing a possible allergen on the skin, and then a series of scratches or needle pricks allows the solution to enter the skin. If the skin develops a red, raised itchy area called a wheal it usually means that the person is allergic to that allergen.
With a responsible doctor and a willing patient, since this positive reaction, the wheal, "usually" means you have an allergy, if you want to be certain it is time for the Elimination Diet and for you to take the Food Challenge. These are the only tools that can definitively determine if you have a food allergy.
The Elimination Diet, as its name suggests, involves removing specific foods or ingredients from your diet that you and your doctor suspect may be causing allergy symptoms. Properly done, your doctor will supervise this diet over a few weeks.
During this time, you will need to carefully read food labels and find out about food preparation methods when dining out. You'll also need to keep a food diary to record the foods you are eating. If you remove a certain food and the symptoms go away while following this diet, your doctor can usually identify that food as the cause of your problems.
I go into all this detail because of a fascinating and disturbing report in last week's New York Times. (Linked below.) According to it, from a massive study by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, though 30 percent of adults report they have food allergies fewer than 5 percent in fact do. Only a small number ever had skin prick tests and even fewer went through the rigors of an Elimination Diet or Food Challenge.
But when those who thought they had allergies were induced by researchers to keep a food diary and to do all the other things required to be certain about suspected allergies, almost all discovered that in spite of what their doctors might have told them or what foods on their own they assumed they were allergic to, after running the tests in the only manner that would verify this, they discovered that in reality they had very few allergies.
Though some actual allergies can be life threatening and others cause rashes and other serious symptoms, when tested properly, it turns out that very few people are allergic to anything at all.
Anecdotally, I have many friends and relatives who claim they have been plagued by food allergies for years but none of them ever went through a battery of skin prick tests or the more comprehensive Food Challenge. Some have had blood tests, but allergy specialists claim that this is the least definitive way to determine if allergies are present. Since so many believe they have allergies, I have known people who have gone to physicians and homeopaths who contend that they can diagnose allergies by testing samples of clients' hair. This also is an even more inauthentic test.
What is this all about? This rush to, in effect, self-diagnosis or accepting a life sentence of what not to eat and drink based on evidence that lacks rigor or credibility? What Dr. Robert Aronowitz, professor of the sociology of science at the University of Pennsylvania calls "the career of a diagnosis." A situation where a non-existent allergy can "take over someone's life."
I am aware of the mantra "You are what you eat." And, of course, if this means eating well and sensibly makes good sense. But to avoid looking for the actual physiological and/or psychological causes for ailments and to seemingly so unquestioningly embrace allergies as the answer is perplexing.
Another sociologist, Dr. Barry Glassner of the University of California and author of the Gospel of Food, writes that "We attribute magical powers to food. We believe that if we eat the right foods we will live forever and if we eat the wrong foods we will shorten our lifespan."
Thus, since magical thinking is involved, he is not optimistic that people who embrace these beliefs will allow themselves to be properly tested. Belief and self-deception are that powerful.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
5:44 AM
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