Santé Magazine
Salute Magazine
健康新闻
A growing number of Americans are diagnosed with food allergies each year and experts say children are developing food allergies at younger ages. "The number of children under age 5 suffering from peanut allergy alone has doubled in the past decade," said Dr. Wesley Burks, senior author of a Duke University Medical Center study released in 2007. Food allergies occur when the immune system identifies a food as harmful and triggers antibodies to attack it. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates there are 12 million people in the United States with food allergies, while another 2 million suffer from celiac disease, a condition wherein the body's immune system attacks itself when exposed to gluten, a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye.
Each year in America, food allergies lead to 150 to 200 deaths, 30,000 emergency room visits, and 2,000 hospitalizations. Eight foods account for 90 percent of all allergic reactions: peanuts, tree nuts, milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, soy, and wheat. And while researchers don't have an explanation for the alarming growth of food allergies, they do have theories. Some feel society has become too hygienic, depriving children's immune systems from building up their defenses against germs. Others say it could be exposure to certain types of environmental pollutants or possibly the manner in which we process foods that has led to the increase. "We don't know if some of them are true or there's some truth to all of them," Marshall Plaut, chief of the Allergic Mechanisms Section at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told the Washington Post.
The reality is that until scientists learn more, the only thing people with life-threatening allergies or celiac can do is avoid the foods that make them sick. This can be of great concern to parents of an estimated 2 million school-age children with food allergies. Many schools and school districts in the U.S. have allergy policies, but only Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island and Tennessee have statewide plans, according to the National Association of State Boards of Education. "Some schools have very comprehensive plans; they've been working with food allergies for a long time, and others are just getting started and they don't know what to do," said Anne Munoz-Furlong, founder and chief executive officer of the Food Allergies and Anaphylaxis network. The nonprofit organization, based in Alexandria, Virginia, is pushing for a federal law to create uniform guidelines for schools to follow in order to protect children with food allergies.
Several recent media articles, including one in Newsday, featured Jennifer Davis, whose daughter Danielle has severe peanut and tree nut allergies, and knows the situation all too well. Danielle is one of those children whose allergies are so severe that she can go into shock if a child across a table or a school bus aisle eats peanut butter candy. The articles go on to say that she has to take four allergy medications every morning and carries two pens of self-injectable epinephrine, a form of adrenaline, everywhere she goes in case she starts to have a reaction.
U.S. Senator Chris Dodd from Connecticut also knows the problem firsthand. His 6-year-old daughter Grace is allergic to peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, sesame and tropical fruits and has gone into shock four times. Senator Dodd has introduced legislation which would require uniform food allergy guidelines across the country. "Without federal guidance, a child's health and safety may be protected in one school but not in another," Dodd told a Senate panel last month. The bill, called the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Management Act, passed the House in April and is pending in the Senate. "This bill is about keeping children safe and giving parents peace of mind. Food allergies affect millions of Americans and often pose a life threatening risk to the most vulnerable among us, our children," said Senator Bob Corker, who has signed on as co-sponsor of the bill.
In 2006, the federal government began requiring ingredient labels to disclose whether products contain milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts (such as almonds and cashews), fish, shellfish, soy and wheat. Since then, food manufacturers have had to pay more attention to the needs of people with food allergies, creating what is now a multi-billion dollar market for food-allergy and intolerance goods. According to Packaged Facts, a New York research firm, this specialty food market is projected to reach $3.9 billion this year. And research firm Mintel projects the market for gluten-free foods and drinks to reach $1.3 billion by 2010, up from $700 million in 2006.
Ten years ago, the allergy-free market consisted of small manufacturers who products were sold mainly in health-food stores, but today it encompasses an ever-growing list of mainstream retailers and food industry giants such as Safeway, Giant Food and General Mills who hope to profit from this consumer need. In April, General Mills announced that their Rice Chex had been reformulated to be gluten-free. 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 National Association for the Specialty Food Trade, a New York trade group, estimates that 300 of its 2,800 members offer more than 7,000 no-allergenic products, in comparison with five years ago, when only about 50 members did. Anne Munoz-Furlong sees this as good news for food allergy and celiac sufferers, who she says "want to be able to go to the grocery store and buy food like everyone else."
But it's not just the food industry that hopes to capitalize on the growing needs of those with food allergies. In April, Deep Dive Media of Los Angeles, which runs health information web sites, paid an undisclosed sum to buy PeanutAllergy.com, a site started by an affected parent. And in March, Sciele Pharma paid $29 million to buy Twinject, an epinephrine (used to treat anaphylaxis) auto-injector that competes with Dey L.P.'s Epipen.
