Additional Findings

In 2003 independent research by Datamonitor backs up FAB findings that there is a very large discrepancy between the number of people who believe they suffer from a food allergy and official figures from government, research scientists and clinicians. Datamonitor, found that 1 in 3 people believe they have a food allergy, but according to official figures from the Food and Drink Administration (FDA) in the US, in reality less than 2% actually do.

Go into any restaurant or supermarket and you will inevitably see at least one fellow diner or customer scrutinising the menu or shelves and stating that they have a food allergy. It has become almost a mark of individuality for people to avoid certain foods because they are 'allergic'. However, there is a huge discrepancy between the 1 in 3 people claiming to have a food allergy and the official FDA findings that less than 2% actually do. Self-diagnosis is in part to blame for this huge discrepancy, with vast numbers of people eliminating nutritious food types from their diet without visiting their doctors in order for their 'allergy' to be properly diagnosed. Adding to this problem is the fact that many doctors are inadequately equipped to diagnose and treat 'true' food allergies.

The trend towards self diagnosis is worrying because it means that by eliminating certain food types, up to one-third of people are unnecessarily depriving themselves of nutritious food substances. Parents who 'diagnose' food allergies in their own child may unknowingly place the child at risk for nutritional deficiency. Whilst the allergy rate amongst children is slightly higher than it is among adults (approximately 6%), a far greater percentage of children are misdiagnosed as having a food allergy. In addition, research shows that most children will outgrow their allergies; this fact is often overlooked, however, with the result being that children continue to avoid certain food types well into adulthood. The general public has become more health-conscious and better informed about food safety issues, which has in turn led to increased self-awareness of the possibility of a food allergy.

This rise in inaccurate self-diagnosis has been heightened by the fact that physicians have been unable to diagnose food allergies adequately due to insufficient diagnostic tests. One major obstacle is the lack of reliable diagnostic tests for detecting allergies and the fact that existing tests are often based on subjective parameters. The current gold standard is the food challenge test, which entails placing various foods, some of which are suspected of causing a reaction, into an individual opaque capsule. The patient then swallows the capsule and are monitored to see if a reaction occurs. This process is repeated until all the capsules have been swallowed. In a true double-blind test, the doctor is also 'blinded', the capsules having been made up by another medical person, so that neither the patient nor the doctor knows which capsule contains an allergen.

Further reading

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Bock, S.A. et al (1988). Double-blind, placebo-controlled food challenge (DBPCFC) as an office procedure: a manual. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 82, 986-997.

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