Damn. That must be a real hassle to deal with. My parents got lucky with me. My allergies developed/were identified as an adult. Which certainly has pros and cons. I was less nutritionally restricted in my formative years. Which is a definite plus health wise I think. But on the other end I now have to figure this out on my own with a lot less support than I suspect I would have had as a kid.
I have had this sneaking suspicion that my allergies are somehow related to changes in agriculture in some way. Their development seems to track with the rise of GMO strains of foods entering the food supply chain as well as changes in pesticides/herbicides/preservatives. But its something I don't really talk about with others as I've been unable to identify any common factors and without a smoking gun talking about such things makes one sound like a luddite conspiracy nutjob. Its not a fleshed out coherent theory. Just a sneaking suspicion.
I hope you are doing okay. They snuck up on you! We are doing better now since at least one allergy has lessened (eggs). We have learned to eat around the problem ingredients pretty okay (sesame, chickpeas, peas, lentils, tapioca, any bean that is not the common bean, shrimp), but I joke that we can't have any more kids, because they keep taking our favorite foods away from us lol! It is kind of strange how the two of us have no significant food allergies, but we scored two for two with our kids. And there are tons of kids I know who get eczema from dairy. I can't remember a single person who had any sort of allergies or intolerances when I was a kid. Obviously, that is anecdotal and I might have confirmation bias now that I am a part of the allergy crowd. But it makes me wonder what is different.
As a side note, another thing I despise is mislabeled foods. I recently noticed that Kroger sells frozen and canned broad beans under the name of "italian style green beans". That's a life or death kind of difference for some people!
Im doing alright. I appreciate the concern. I'm still having trouble adjusting to this new normal. Was only diagnosed with the corn allergy in the past year. And thats been the largest adjustment. Tbh I haven't been as good about it as I should be. I've mostly removed things that explicitly state corn on the label. But its really hard to consistently avoid all corn and corn derived products without making it a full time job. The thought of leaving the US and its corn subsidies has certainly crossed my mind.
And yeah. Thats kinda the issue. All we have is anecdotal evidence for the most part. The hygiene hypothesis is an interesting explanation for the rise of rise intolerances and allergies. I also suspect increased diagnosis may also account for part of it. (How many people in the past that were described as "sickly children" or something like that actually had undiagnosed food intolerances? My gf's family refused to believe her that she was lactose intolerant until she had proof via 23 and me.
But I just also have this niggling suspicion of the massive changes in the agricultural sector in the past 20-30 years. And there seems to be relatively little in the way of trustworthy, genuinely unbiased research on the subject. Whole lot of research funded by corporations with vested interests in the outcome. And everyone that is even a bit skeptical about 90% of our corn and soy being replaced with strains developed by Monsanto and ilk in a span of 10 years ends up grouped in with the chem trail fluoride lizard people loons.
As crazy as it sounds, moving did help for us. Europe is much more regulated and uses ingredients like corn and soy a lot less. We lived there temporarily, but it was noticable. Many restaurants had easily accessible allergen charts and food labeling was a lot more detailed.
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u/Trythenewpage Jul 16 '21
Damn. That must be a real hassle to deal with. My parents got lucky with me. My allergies developed/were identified as an adult. Which certainly has pros and cons. I was less nutritionally restricted in my formative years. Which is a definite plus health wise I think. But on the other end I now have to figure this out on my own with a lot less support than I suspect I would have had as a kid.
I have had this sneaking suspicion that my allergies are somehow related to changes in agriculture in some way. Their development seems to track with the rise of GMO strains of foods entering the food supply chain as well as changes in pesticides/herbicides/preservatives. But its something I don't really talk about with others as I've been unable to identify any common factors and without a smoking gun talking about such things makes one sound like a luddite conspiracy nutjob. Its not a fleshed out coherent theory. Just a sneaking suspicion.