Lean plate club: Eat at your own risk
The prevalence of food allergies continues to grow, doubling in the
past 15 years, but most people still don't think it's "that big a
deal."

By Sally Squires, Washington Post

Last update: July 10, 2007 – 4:51 PM

For the estimated 12 million Americans with food allergies, eating
can be quite an adventure.
Just ask Chris Paganelli, 54, of Silver Spring, Md., who has been
allergic to eggs and chicken since childhood.

"I always joke that I am not very much fun to go out to a new
restaurant with, because I end up being pretty neurotic," says the
pharmaceutical rep and father of two.

Can you blame him? At a recent business conference in Chicago,
Paganelli informed the organizers in advance of his allergies. So he
thought it was safe to eat what appeared to be mozzarella on his
luncheon salad. About 10 minutes later, Paganelli became violently
ill. That's when he realized he had accidentally consumed a large
helping of chopped boiled egg whites.

Like many with food allergies, Paganelli has learned the hard way to
be prepared. He reached for his emergency medical kit and quickly
jabbed himself with an auto injector of epinephrine to reverse the
anaphylactic shock that can be fatal in minutes. Despite his best
efforts to protect himself, Paganelli says most people still don't
think that food allergies are "that big a deal."

Tell that to the 30,000 people nationwide who are sent to emergency
rooms each year for food allergy attacks, which also claim between
100 to 200 American lives annually, according to a new report from
the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

If it seems like food allergies are on the rise, it's not your
imagination. "For reasons that we don't understand, the prevalence of
food allergies has doubled in the past 15 years," notes Wesley Burks,
chief of allergy and immunology at Duke University Medical Center. In
its report, NIAID calls food allergies an emerging and "important
public health problem."

During a food allergy attack, the immune system overreacts to some
food proteins by producing too much immunoglobulin E. That sets in
motion a series of reactions that can produce anything from hives and
a runny nose to a full-blown, life-threatening attack. The severity
of the reaction varies according to how many times the offending food
has been eaten, how much is consumed and the genetic makeup of the
food-allergy sufferer. Some of the most severe attacks occur from
eating peanuts and tree nuts such as cashews.

The NIAID report notes that about 4 percent of adults and 8 percent
of children ages 2 and under suffer from food allergies. The good
news: Many will outgrow the condition.

That's already started to happen for 1-year-old Gavin Perkins of West
Hartford, Conn. His wheat allergy seems to have disappeared, although
he's still allergic to chicken, eggs, dairy products, soy and fish.
Because Gavin breastfeeds, that means his mother, Lisa, has to be
very careful about what she eats because food proteins pass through
breast milk. "I can't rely on a lot of processed foods because soy
and dairy are in almost everything," she says.

Blood and skin tests -- coupled with a physical exam and a history of
food-related problems -- are the way food allergies are diagnosed.
Any food can produce an allergy, but milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts,
fish, shellfish, soy and wheat account for about 90 percent of the
reactions in the United States.

For now, avoidance is the only way to control food allergies. Since
January 2006, the federal Food and Drug Administration has required
food manufacturers to list leading food ingredients that can cause
allergies.

But a new study suggests that the warnings are used so frequently
that "consumers assume they are not serious," notes the study's co-
author, Scott Sicherer of the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute at Mount
Sinai School of Medicine in New York. The study also found that the
warnings "do not reflect the degree of danger" for those with food
allergies.

In the meantime, here's what experts recommend for people with food
allergies:

• Read food labels. Formulations can change without notice. "Don't
assume that because it was safe last month that it will be safe this
month," says Anne Munoz-Furlong, founder and head of the Food Allergy
and Anaphylaxis Network.

• When in doubt, ask. Not sure about a product's ingredients? Call
the manufacturer. "Don't just ask what it contains," Munoz-Furlong
says. "Ask specifically if it contains the ingredient or ingredients
that cause your allergy."


You can subscribe to the free Lean Plate Club e-mail newsletter at
www.leanplateclub.com. Sally Squires is a writer for the Washington
Post.

TREE NUTS

PEANUTS

DAIRY

EGGS

WHEAT

FISH

SHELLFISH

SOY

ANY FOOD CAN PRODUCE AN ALLERGY, BUT MILK, EGGS, PEANUTS, TREE NUTS,
FISH, SHELLFISH, SOY AND WHEAT ACCOUNT FOR ABOUT 90 PERCENT OF THE
REACTIONS IN THE UNITED STATES.

Photos by SHUTTERSTOCK

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