WebMD, Food Allergy Myths

There’s a really well done article on WebMD about food allergy myths right now. Here's a quote:

“Unfortunately, the term ‘allergy’ is sometimes used by the public or health care providers to describe any unpleasant experience patients have with eating food, including ‘feeling bad,’” says Marc Riedl, MD, MS. He worked on the study in The Journal of the American Medical Association and is an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California at Los Angeles David Geffen School of Medicine. Linking ‘food allergy’ with ‘feeling bad’ causes confusion, and can lead to people cutting out certain foods thinking they're allergic to them, when instead they may be missing out on delicious foods or risking nutritional deficiencies. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which funded the study, is working on guidelines to correct of the confusion over the diagnosis and management of food allergies. The new guidelines are expected to be released later this year.

With the food allergy guidelines from the NIH coming out this fall (more info about the NIH and these guidelines can be found here), hopefully many myths like these will be dispelled for our community and for the health professionals that support us.

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