Thursday, May 13, 2010

headlines!!!!

headline on the front page of the NewYork Times yesterday(5/12)--
"Doubt Cast of Many Reports of Food Allergies"
I'm REALLY frustrated.
In that one headline, years of hard work getting people to believe that food allergies exist--Zip-- out the door.
No matter that the article says the doubt is cast on SELF-REPORTS, not diagnoses. Nope, most people glancing at the paper will say: "see, all those people complaining about peanuts are really just overreacting, like I thought..."
even though:
  • Not one researcher connected with any of the major food allergy medical institutes: Jaffe Center in New York, Duke University, Johns Hopkins... was quoted or even spoken to
  • title of original JAMA piece was called "Diagnosing and Managing Common Food Allergies"
  • Recent study from PEDIATRICS citing increase in food allergies was never mentioned
  • CDC studies which demonstrate statistically signifigant increases in food allergies in children never cited

oh so frustrating!!!

2 comments:

  1. I so agree with you! I mean really... why would someone claim a food allergy if they didn't really have a problem with the food....

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  2. Hello, I am reading my new issue of ICAN and see you are a participant on the article on Food Allergy Prevention. This is inspiring to me. I am a Dietetics professional but more so- I am a mom of a boy with severe food allergies....except my son's allergies are not IgE mediated...they are Non-IgE. He has a condition called FPIES - food protein induced enterocolitis syndrome, it is a severe food allergy of the gut. It, like other allergies are on the rise in this country.
    I have a blog as well: www.fpiesmudpies.blogspot.com and also am a member of the PIC foundation- raising awareness for protein intolerant children.

    I agree with your above post- frustrating. Did you see the new Guidelines for diagnosing and treatment of allergies in the USA (released Dec.6)...I did a post on it on my blog.

    Thank you for your inspiration. I look forward to reading through your posts more here.

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