The Peanut Puzzle
Could the conventional wisdom on children and food allergies be wrong?
Dr. Hugh Sampson, the director of the Jaffe Food Allergy Institute at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York and Dr. Scott Sicherer, a pediatric allergist who is also at Mount Sinai, have conducted extensive studies throughout the United States that show that the rate of allergy is rising sharply. Sampson estimates that three to five per cent of the population is allergic to milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, or seafood. “This increase in the incidence of food allergy is real,” Sampson said. He cannot say what is causing the increase, but he now thinks the conventional approach to preventing food allergies is misconceived.