Kathy Rubin wrote:
>"Listening to the report and talk with Dr. Johnson & Dr. Nancy Snyderman, he
>commented that "we don't know why" all of these children are experiencing so
>many more allergies, asthma, etc than in the past.

Kathy, I believe that breastfeeding *does* have something to do with
this as you pointed out, and not just the early exposure to allergens
but also the lack of protective effects of breastmilk on the
developing immune system, etc. I have some comments on other things
they may influence this as well.

I have recently read a new edition (3rd ed, 2000) of Brostoff and
Gamlin's book 'Food Allergies and Food Intolerance' and they mention
several likely mechanisms going on, including:
- any individual food that we become very overly reliant on (eg cow's
milk, wheat and in the US, corn) has the potential to cause problems,
so these are the most likely to stimulate allergies. They argue that
humans evolved to eat a wide variety of foods that we collect or
hunt, etc. Once agriculture started, and we had 'staple' foods that
are in nearly *every* meal and snack we consume, like those above,
then we set ourselves up for trouble.

One explanation, in the case of plant foods, at least, is that all
plants contain toxic chemicals, evolved by the plant to protect
itself from being totally eaten out and destroyed - ie natural
selection at work. Our bodies, like other animals', have evolved
enzymes to detoxify these chemicals (mainly in the liver), but there
is a limit to our capacity to do this, and it seems that some
individuals are more limited than others. Those who overwhelm their
detoxification ability suffer signs of intolerance to the food.

- the increasing amount of artificial chemicals in the form of
colours, preservatives, flavourings, etc that are in the typical
Western diet. Nobody really knows what these are doing to our bodies
- they have only been tested for gross problems like obvious
poisoning, and not for subtle effects on the immune system, etc.
These have increased in tremendous quantities over the last 50 years
and are still increasing, as manufacturers of processed foods try to
get an edge over competition by making their products 'tastier', stay
fresh longer, etc, then ever before. They do that by adding more
chemicals.

This is a fascinating and very comprehensive book written from a very
'conventional' medicine background, but questions lots of 'medical
wisdom' and examines the few scientific studies that have been done
in this area.

Please note, I have absolutely no interest in the sale of this book,
other than to educate as many people as possible about this subject!
I bought it through Amazon books.

An interesting story about preservatives was in Sue Dengate's book
'Fed Up' (Australian book about how food chemicals affect children,
particularly with regards to ADHD - another excellent recommended
read). She tells a story about a person who bought a hamburger from a
well-known fast-food restaurant chain (in Aust that's either of the
two main ones as in USA) and put it in a coat pocket. It got
forgotten and was only found at the begiining of the next winter. It
was perfectly preserved, to such a degree that ants were happily
carrying away bits to eat! Just imagine what those chemicals might be
doing to people who eat this sort of food on a regular basis!

I don't know if it is true, but I heard that deceased human bodies
take longer to decompose nowadays compared to long ago - because we
are full of preservatives from our food!!

Apologies that this ended up so long - hit a bit of a button here
with me! If I had been watching that TV program, I would have been
screaming at the screen!<g>
******************************************************************
Joy Anderson B.Sc. Dip.Ed. Grad.Dip.Med.Tech. IBCLC
Nursing Mothers' Association of Australia Breastfeeding Counsellor
Perth, Western Australia.   mailto:[log in to unmask]
******************************************************************

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