Main causes and treatments for food allergies
More than 33 million people in the United States suffer from food allergies.
Scientists believe that the increase in peanut allergies is due to lack of exposure to peanuts during childhood. But Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said he did not support it.
At a Food Allergy Foundation event on November 17, the country’s top health official pointed to his own experience with food allergies and said the link “doesn’t make sense.”
Kennedy said five of her children have allergies, including one with a severe peanut allergy, which resulted in 22 emergency room visits by age 2.
“Our house was full of peanut butter, I was eating peanut butter two meals a day, and my wife was eating peanut butter when she was pregnant,” he said. “To me, that’s not a convincing hypothesis.”
Instead, Kennedy pointed to environmental factors such as pesticides and aluminum in vaccines as possible causes, and said health officials would conduct research into food allergies and their causes.
“Studies like this have never been done before, and we will now do the research to determine what is causing these allergies,” he said.
However, a recent study showed that peanut allergy rates among adolescents decreased in the years following early exposure guidance in 2017, suggesting that introducing peanuts into infants’ diets may prevent allergies.
“This study provides the first strong real-world evidence that early food introduction guidelines are working,” Dr. David Hill, an allergist and immunologist at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, told USA TODAY in October.
According to the CHOP Vaccine Education Center, aluminum is used in vaccines as an adjuvant, a vaccine component that increases the immune response to the vaccine, but it is also used in food and beverages. It is also the “most abundant metal” on Earth, found in plants, soil, water, and air.
Aluminum is found in foods and beverages such as seasonings, flour, cereals, beer, wine, dairy products, powdered milk and honey, the center said. The amount of aluminum in vaccines is lower than the amount of aluminum in breast milk or regular formula.
Adriana Rodriguez can be reached at adrodriguez@usatoday.com.
