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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2016 7:10:08 GMT
Reading travel boards, I have often been astonished by the number of people announcing that they or their children have terrible allergies with which they must contend on a trip away from home. Peanuts, gluten, shellfish, dairy products, all sorts of things. This often creates a debate between Europeans who think that Americans are overdoing it. Naturally, the sufferers from allergies have all sorts of authentic proof that they have sometimes been in life-threatening situations and they are not making any of this up.
Well, I finally read some articles about all of this, and it turns out that there really is a huge difference from the number of people with food allergies in the United States compared to Europe. So, what is causing it? We are basically of the same ethnic stock, so there is no genetic reason for this.
As it turns out, it is mostly related to what babies eat. The more diversity in the diet at a very young age, the less likely one is to have food allergies, either as a child or as an adult. Apparently one of the "American" rules was that children under the age of 3 should not consume peanut products, hence the large number of peanut allergies. Luckily, a lot of little ones are given peanut butter or peanut butter cookies anyway, or the situation would be even worse. A lot of doctors have recently reversed the peanut advice and are saying that 4-month old babies should be exposed to peanuts.
Anyway, the same goes for most of the other food products. European babies (and probably most babies all over the world) are fed just about anything without a second thought, and this turns out to be exactly the right thing to do. Countries that try to be too careful are the ones that are in trouble.
The same thing is true for "food poisoning" -- the fewer germs you have in the kitchen (within reason!), the more likely you are to get sick. Children who go out in the garden and start eating dirt are probably similar to household pets who know what their bodies need at certain times.
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Post by lagatta on Mar 9, 2016 12:56:11 GMT
I had a serious cow milk allergy though, and was certainly given milk (other than mum's) fairly early. But it turns out that a MAJORITY of the world's population does have lactose intolerance to some extent.
There certainly are "fashionable" and fake allergies and intolerances - someone I know who is on the self-chosen and highly restrictive FODMAPS diet said I must surely have gluten intolerance because everyone does - I've never shown the slightest sign of it - but there are real ones too, even among Europeans.
The extremely varied diet served at French school lunches is beneficial in many ways.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2016 16:19:23 GMT
Lactose intolerance is perfectly normal in adults because milk is food for BABY animals, not adult ones.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2016 17:05:42 GMT
I really agree with so much of what you and the article states Kerouac.
I really think that today's parents are way too neurotic and overprotective as to what their children eat. When I was nannying for one family some years ago, I remember the mother going ballistic when she found out I had given the child a fresh fig!!!! The child loved it and wanted more. It turned out that that the mother hated figs so naturally her daughter should hate them too. (She also bitched at me the next day about the "stinky messy poop" she had to deal with later in the day which she attributed to the figs. Likely true, but, it didn't cause the child to be ill. Ignorance.). The father was equally as boneheaded about a lot of foods he didn't like but I largely ignored them both.
The same goes for parents who indulge their childrens "yuck, that's gross" attitudes. (granted, some aversions are acceptable to a certain degree). I know of a teenager who claimed to hate bananas without ever having eaten one. At age 17 he had his first banana and now loves them.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 9, 2016 17:34:26 GMT
Already getting a bit off topic, but my mother hated raspberries, and my stepfather hated root beer for exactly the same reason. My mother was given raspberry jam with castor oil as a child while my stepfather was given sarsparilla with castor oil. Oddly enough, my mother got over her raspberry aversion after about 50 years, but my stepfather never got over his repulsion of root beer.
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Post by bjd on Mar 9, 2016 20:03:27 GMT
Lactose intolerance is perfectly normal in adults because milk is food for BABY animals, not adult ones. It's not intolerance as a medical condition, it's that in many cultures adults don't drink milk and lose the ability to digest it. I think in places like Scandinavia (or N America?) where adults continue to drink milk as a beverage, they don't become intolerant.
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Post by rikita on Mar 10, 2016 14:49:21 GMT
there are also a lot of people who have mild allergies or intolerances without knowing so, though - so in part higher numbers in some countries could also be due to more awareness. like someone who often feels bloated, but it never occurs to them, that it is due to milk, or gluten, or something similar ...
casimira - as silly as those parents sound, i must admit i kind of think that with small children, those decisions should be up to the parents. there's nothing i think a. shouldn't eat (as long as it is actual food), but if there were, i wouldn't like someone going against my explicit wishes ...
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2016 16:39:37 GMT
there are also a lot of people who have mild allergies or intolerances without knowing so, though - so in part higher numbers in some countries could also be due to more awareness. like someone who often feels bloated, but it never occurs to them, that it is due to milk, or gluten, or something similar ... I assume that the statistics are compiled from medical sources, not just personal statements of feeling bloated. In any case, France and Germany consume more dairy products than a country like the United States but have far fewer cases per capita of lactose intolerance. One of the reasons might be eating more yogurt and cheese and drinking less milk.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2016 19:57:28 GMT
casimira - as silly as those parents sound, i must admit i kind of think that with small children, those decisions should be up to the parents. there's nothing i think a. shouldn't eat (as long as it is actual food), but if there were, i wouldn't like someone going against my explicit wishes ... Rikita, I assure you I exaggerated the liberties I took with this child. Certainly foods such as milk, and other foods that were suspect (from their view) such as gluten,peanuts and the like I did indeed respect. When it came to fresh fruits I admit that I overstepped the line but, minimally, and did alert the parents that I had introduced a fig, or a blueberry, a strawberry and some other fruits. Ironically, after they were returning from a road trip through several states, the child the day after their return appeared to me to be ill, and it accelerated to the point of major concern and panic on my part. Fever, chronic diarrrhea, and other symptoms developed. I could not reach the parents for quite some time and appealed to my husband (a former paramedic ) for assistance and just as we were about to take her to the ER until finally the mother called. She was very blase. Later in the evening I got a call from the father interrogating me as to what I had fed her. Well, the pediatrician confirmed that she had contracted salmonella from some fast food restaurant they went to and it was not from something recently ingested. I rest my case.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2016 20:21:25 GMT
This is the main reason I no longer host dinner parties; I can't be bothered to gather, assess and co-ordinate everyone's preferences, intolerances and allergies into one cohesive menu.
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Post by whatagain on Mar 10, 2016 21:07:15 GMT
So glad my parents gave me wine when I was a kid and that we put whisky in milkbottles in Belgium. Babies sleep better with whisky. And it gets them immune against alcohol-allergies
We discovered recently my wife and I that we are allergic to asparagus - not the tall ones, the wild ones (small).
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Post by Deleted on Mar 10, 2016 21:11:07 GMT
We didn't get booze in our milk bottles, whatagain, but my mother would massage our gums with whiskey when we were teething.
How did your asparagus allergy manifest itself?
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Post by rikita on Mar 10, 2016 23:04:38 GMT
there are also a lot of people who have mild allergies or intolerances without knowing so, though - so in part higher numbers in some countries could also be due to more awareness. like someone who often feels bloated, but it never occurs to them, that it is due to milk, or gluten, or something similar ... I assume that the statistics are compiled from medical sources, not just personal statements of feeling bloated. In any case, France and Germany consume more dairy products than a country like the United States but have far fewer cases per capita of lactose intolerance. One of the reasons might be eating more yogurt and cheese and drinking less milk. yeah but medical statistics can still only report people who get diagnosed, not those that might assume that bloatiness is what a stomach is supposed to feel like, because they had it all their life ... that's not saying that those other factors don't come into it, as well ...
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Post by whatagain on Mar 10, 2016 23:32:05 GMT
Difficulty in breathing actually, pain in the throat.
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Post by lagatta on Mar 11, 2016 7:17:55 GMT
Fermented dairy (yoghurt, cheese) is far easier to digest. That is true of many protein-rich foods. Indonesian tempeh is far more digestible than tofu.
I can tolerate fermented dairy, especially if goat or ewe's milk, but not drink any significant amount of milk. A bit in a cappuccino is ok.
lizzyfaire, I gave up on the idea of inviting two people who were housesitting for a friend who was in Cuba for months as they are on this fodmaps diet; they can't consume any onion or garlic, no gluten of course, a host of other things. Basically it is impossible to cater for people on it.
The faddism annoys me because there are real allergies and intolerances, and it makes those who have them appear picky or difficult.
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Post by rikita on Mar 11, 2016 9:03:33 GMT
on the other hand, due to the fads there are more things available for those with real allergies and intolerances. like, lately my local organic food store has a wider and wider range of lactose free, vegan and gluten free products that i am quite sure are only worth while since it has become popular - but which mean that those with coeliac disease or lactose intolerance can buy a lot of varied things they would have to make at home in older times ...
but i don't have that many friends who are difficult to cater for, so i don't know that side of the story. my brother's ex was vegetarian when he met her and later became vegan and ate gluten free - on family events, we'd eat our normal things but make sure there was something there for her, too, which wasn't much of a problem as we all like vegetables and similar things ... and she loved baking, so she'd usually bring some food as well ... if someone came to stay at my place who had a lot of food issues, i suppose i'd ask them to come shopping with me/cater for themselves/discuss what to cook beforehand (probably a combination, the times i had house guests we'd usually take turns cooking anyway).
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2016 10:45:01 GMT
One of my Swiss friends who has been an on-and-off vegetarian most of his life has always been happy to eat french fries and mayonnaise no matter what everybody else is eating. Of course, it should be mentioned that it has been his doctor who has made him stop being a vegetarian part of the time, because he was not getting proper nutrition and his cells were about 20 years older than he was.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2016 15:49:49 GMT
Classic mayonnaise - not vegan French fries - often cooked in beef fat
The world gets very complicated.
When I planned my wedding dinner, it was an exercise in creativity for the chef and me. We ended up with, I think, five courses, and perhaps only 30% of the people there could particpate fully, but I made sure everyone could eat something. There were wine pairings for each course - except for those people who don't drink alcohol.
Champagne Amuse-bouches - non vegan Baby greens and beet salad with local goat cheese - oops! Non-beet eaters, and the "older" people who wouldn't touch goat cheese. Wild mushroom strudel - not gluten-free Butternut squash risotto - made with vegetarian stock, served without parmesan for the non-dairy crowd Roasted halibut - Non-vegetarian An assortment of fruit and cheese - people could take it or leave it Gateau Poires Helene - I thought the cake was terrible, not at all what I wanted, so I didn't eat it.
Luckily, by the end of the meal, those who were left (my dad's wife was in treatment for cancer and they left after the strudel), at least those who drank, were pleasantly drunk. Half the people had to drive home, though (4 hour trip, including a ferry).
My husband says I could open a catering business but the amount of hobbles would drive me mad. Can you imagine having to cater a wedding party of consisting of vegans, paleos, Jews, Buddhists and raw-foodists?
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Post by lagatta on Mar 11, 2016 16:23:21 GMT
rikita, you are right about the availability of gluten-free and other foods now. There seems to be quite a bit of coeliac in Italy, and nowadays it is easy to find gluten-free pasta in many restaurants there. I hope it is cooked in a separate pot!
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2016 16:24:53 GMT
Those people would not be my friends and would not be invited.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2016 17:55:37 GMT
Well, we were related to more than 50% of them, so what are you going to do?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2016 18:10:53 GMT
Elope?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2016 18:13:16 GMT
That was a thought. But the wedding was mostly for my dad, so that wasn't an option. Anyway, it wasn't a major trauma, and I won't ever have them all together in the same room, eating, again.
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Post by lagatta on Mar 11, 2016 21:09:43 GMT
By Jews, I presume you mean the kosher-keeping variety. I have many Jewish friends but only one or two are even vaguely kosher. Idem my Muslim friends who aren't really halal, though they may be more likely to avoid pork (but not beer or wine)...
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Post by Deleted on Mar 11, 2016 21:15:56 GMT
Yes, I meant kosher-keeping Jews. My best friend is a non-kosher Jew, eats pork and shellfish, but he doesn't do cow-dairy, only goat's milk. And he eats about 200g. of cheap milk-chocolate a day, so go figure. I have a lot of flakey friends.
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Post by rikita on Mar 11, 2016 23:30:56 GMT
curious to see what we will have at my brother's wedding. but i suppose there will be just a few vegetarians and maybe the odd vegan ... with my own wedding it was no problem, everyone ate the appam and chicken we offered. but had i had a bigger wedding celebration here (instead of just close family), i might have gone for a very non-formal "everyone brings a dish" style of garden party ... i like those, because of the variety of food i get to try, and because everyone will like at least one dish - the one they brought.
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Post by mossie on Mar 12, 2016 16:35:35 GMT
Maybe I am old fashioned, but I have little sympathy with what I consider to be fads and fancies.
Now I am going to get shot to pieces, better duck really low.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 12, 2016 16:43:19 GMT
You are just lucky to have lived long enough to see so many more fads come and go than the rest of us, mossie.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 12, 2016 16:52:17 GMT
I'm right there with you Mossie.
My brother had a bona fide shellfish allergy. It was deduced when he was about ten years old and my mother had made some Lobster Newberg, a rare treat for us. His tongue began to itch and swell.then hives on his arms etc. Classic anaphylactic shock which my mother had no clue about and thought maybe it was just too rich a food for him. It was until his throat began to constrict that she freaked and called the ambulance. What an awful fate. No one else in the family had it. He would test it out every so often,nibble on a shrimp but, the first sign of a tingle on his tongue, he knew he was foiled.
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Post by lagatta on Feb 13, 2020 11:21:03 GMT
My neighbour has a grave seafood allergy. He can't even patronise a restaurant where shrimp/prawns are being served at a nearby table. And he loves southeast Asian food; it really isn't a choice.
Cow milk allergies were not believed in when I was a little girl. A teacher forced me to drink one of those little boxes of milk, and I turned bright red and started to gasp for breath. Neither of these very inconvenient allergies were faddism or trying to be "special". But there is a lot of faddish nonsense.
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