These Eight Foods Cause 90% of Food Allergies

Celiac.com 02/26/2021 - Researchers estimate that 32 million Americans have food allergies, including nearly six million children under age 18. About 40 percent of children with food allergies are sensitive to more than one food. In the U.S., more than 170 foods have been reported to cause allergic reactions. However, new evidence confirms that nearly every allergic reaction to food is caused by one of just eight foods.

The food group known by the United States Department of Agriculture as the "Big Eight," includes wheat, peanuts, milk, eggs, tree nuts, fish, crustacean shellfish and soy. These foods account for 90 percent of food allergies in the U.S. 

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Food Allergies on the Rise
The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention reports that the number of children with food allergies rose by 50 percent between 1997 and 2011.

Even though many people suffer from serious, potentially life-threatening food allergies, most people with food allergies suffer only mild reactions to the offending food. Those people may benefit from efforts to grow and cultivate low allergen versions of many of these foods.

Some of the Big Eight foods, such as "[w]heat and peanuts are...major sources of proteins to many, especially those living in resource-deprived conditions, [so]...Finding affordable ways to make wheat and peanuts available for all is very important," says Sachin Rustgi, a member of the Crop Science Society of America, who studies ways to breed less allergenic varieties of the Big Eight foods. 

Currently No Cure for Food Allergy
There is currently no cure for food allergy. Food allergy therapies are under study in clinical trials, but none has been approved yet for general use.

Here are the Big Eight major food allergens and some things researchers are working on:

Wheat
Celiac disease affects more than three million Americans. Researchers are currently using CRISPR gene editing to create wheat varieties that are less allergenic than present strains. "Disrupting the gluten genes in wheat could yield wheat with significantly lower levels of gluten," says Rustgi.

Tree nuts
Nearly four million Americans suffer from tree nut allergy. Between 1997 and 2008, the prevalence of peanut or tree nut allergy appears to have more than tripled in U.S. children.

Peanuts
Peanut allergies affect more than six million Americans. In one approach to the problem, researchers are currently testing numerous peanut varieties to find strains that are naturally less allergenic than others. They then hope to use these strains to reduce the allergic sensitivity in people who suffer from peanut allergies. 

Milk
More than six 6.1 million Americans suffer from dairy allergy.

Fish
Nearly 2.6 million Americans suffer from fish allergy.

Crustacean shellfish
More than eight million Americans suffer from Crustacean shellfish allergy.

Soy
Soy allergy affects nearly two million Americans.

Egg
More than two and a half million Americans suffer from egg allergy.

Sesame
Sesame is not considered one of the Big Eight major food allergens, but more than a half a million Americans have an allergy to sesame, and it is a growing concern.

Researchers are currently trying three different approaches to reducing allergens levels in some, and eventually, all, of those foods.

Breeding to Lower Allergens
Researchers have been trying to breed varieties of wheat with lower gluten content. The challenge, in part, lies in the complicated nature of gluten genetics. The information needed to make gluten is embedded in the DNA in wheat cells.

Gene Editing Offers Promise
CRISPR technology allows scientists to make very precise changes to a cell's DNA. Wheat has numerous offending proteins, making gene editing more challenging. Recent improvements in CRISPR technology allow researchers to target many genes at once.

By using CRISPR, researchers can change genes so the body's cells no longer 'read' them, and stop making allergenic proteins.

Targeting the 'Master Regulator'
Another approach includes understanding how gluten production is regulated in wheat cells. As it turns out, in gluten genes, a single protein acts as a 'master regulator.' Targeting a single gene is much easier than trying to disrupt the several gluten genes, so targeting the master regulator could produce low-gluten wheat strains. 

If researchers can figure out ways to reduce the levels of allergens in these eight foods, they can conceivably make them safe to consume for large numbers of people with food allergies.

Read more at News-medical.net