Overactive Food Quality Control System Triggers Food Allergies, Scientists Say
Published:20 Jan.2021 Source:Yale University
Food allergies have been increasing dramatically across the developed world for more than 30 years. For instance, as many as 8% of children in the U.S. now experience potentially lethal immune system responses to such foods as milk, tree nuts, fish and shellfish. But scientists have struggled to explain why that is. A prevailing theory has been that food allergies arise because of an absence of natural pathogens such as parasites in the modern environment, which in turn makes the part of the immune system that evolved to deal with such natural threats hypersensitive to certain foods.
In a paper published Jan. 14 in the journal Cell, four Yale immunobiologists propose an expanded explanation for the rise of food allergies -- the exaggerated activation of our food quality control system, a complex and highly evolved program designed to protect us against eating harmful foods. The presence of unnatural substances, including processed food, or environmental chemicals, such as dishwashing detergent, in the modern environment, as well as the absence of natural microbial exposure, play a role in disrupting this food quality control program, they argue.