Wave the Wheat Goodbye: Students and doctors share their take on the noticeable increase in food allergies

As sophomore Bella Lynch scoops ice cream for her job at Pop Culture, she wishes she could taste a bite of the cookie dough ice cream that used to be one of her favorite treats. But because of the dairy intolerance she discovered at the beginning of this year, Lynch has to stick to the dairy-free options. 

As teenagers like Lynch grow up, they’re finding that issues such as Lactose Intolerance, Celiac disease and other food allergies are becoming more common and talked about.

According to the Center for Disease Control, children in the United States between the ages of 10-17 have experienced a growth in allergies since 1997. Of these kids, 3.4% had an allergy to food in 1997-1999, which has grown to 11% of kids in 2015-2017.

Dr. Christine Khong — a family medicine physician with AdventHealth Prairie Village — has also noticed that the rise in food allergies may be due to the increased discussion about them.

“I think that food intolerance wasn’t a topic that was commonly discussed, so when people have a reaction to a food they end up avoiding it,” Khong said. “But it wasn’t until recently [that] it’s been a studied topic.” 

East nurse Stephanie Ptacek was “shocked” by how many students at East have anaphylactic — severe and life threatening — food allergies. She’s not sure what’s causing this increase, but considers a few theories. 

“I’m not sure why there are so many allergies, I mean there’s some different theories, like maybe the kids aren’t exposed to the allergens early enough,” Ptacek said. “Or maybe it is that it might have to do with genetically modified food.”

Khong thinks that food engineering has become so advanced that companies try to use ingredients — such as high fructose corn syrup and chemicals — that make their food more profitable for them and affordable for consumers, and our bodies have a hard time recognizing those ingredients.

“With processed foods, there’s a good number of preservatives and really not natural ingredients that can make our body, which is not designed to break those down, have poor reactions,” Khong said.

After complaining of frequent stomach problems, Lynch came to the conclusion that these stomach aches were the outcomes of a dairy sensitivity. And after cutting back on her dairy intake just to be sure, this proved to be the cause. 

Lynch agrees that processed foods are a primary factor in the worsening of food allergies. She also thinks that these allergies and processed foods are impacting people as they grow up.

“I definitely think that processed foods, especially for people with gluten sensitivities, have hormones in dairy products and plants,” Lynch said. “It’s caused a lot of sensitivities to people as they’ve gotten older.”

Junior Anna Stover has an anaphylactic allergy to fish, as well as an egg allergy and Celiac disease. She’s continued to develop new food allergies, as she was born Lactose intolerant and found out about her allergy to fish only three years ago.

“I’ve developed them, and I still continue to develop food allergies, so I always have to be really careful about what I eat,” Stover said.

People with severe allergies like Stover have to be conscious about everything food-related — from what she packs for lunch to whether or not she can pick up a Starbucks drink after school.

“I have to make sure I have everything prepared because I can’t just get food from anywhere like most people can,” Stover said. “I have to be really careful of things as simple as cross-contamination, and so I have to research restaurants before I eat there because I have to make sure they have things like separate fryers and all that fun stuff.”

Like Ptacek mentioned, Stover is sure that processed foods have worsened her allergies. Since processed foods often contain soy, chemicals, high fructose corn syrup and other ingredients that aren’t meant for the body, they contribute to Stover’s reactions.

“I 100% [agree that processed food worsen my allergies], ” Stover said. “At least from my personal experiences, I know that my body becomes way more reactive and more inflamed when I eat processed foods.”

Stover thinks that as she’s become older, she’s met more and more people with allergies like herself. 

“I would definitely say that I’ve noticed [the rise in allergies] at least a little bit,” Stover said. “When I went to elementary school, there were maybe two kids in the entire school who had it, so there’s just been more and more as I’ve gotten older.”

There are theories as to why so many people develop allergies as they get older — whether that be children not being exposed to it at a young enough age or the rise of processed foods — but doctors and researchers have yet to confirm the exact cause.

In the meantime, Ptacek encourages teenagers with allergies to be wary because as they get older, they’re less protected by their parents and at more of a risk to being exposed to their allergens.