Logo IMG   Why We Develop Food Allergies  Coached by breast milk
and good bacteria, the immune system strives to learn the
difference between food and pathogens before the first morsel
crosses our lips  Per Brandtzaeg  No peanuts. No dairy. No eggs
or shellfish or soy. No wheat or corn, no tree nuts or fin fish,
no sesame seeds or spices of any kind. Few people have a diet
this restrictive, but allergies to foods affect at least 1 in 20
young children and about 1 in 50 adults in industrialized
countries. The numbers are rising: According to a recent study,
the prevalence of peanut allergy—which accounts for the majority
of emergency-room visits and deaths related to food allergies
each year—doubled between 1997 and 2002.  Figure 1. Only minutes
after being born...Click to Enlarge Image   The story of food
allergy is a story about how the development of the immune
system is tightly linked to the development of our digestive
tract or, as scientists and physicians usually refer to it, our
gut. A human being is b