Food Allergies Rise in the U.S.

This article originally appeared on Yoganonymous.com.

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Food allergies are on the rise — making the lives of parents everywhere harder than ever. 

According to KJ Dell'Antonia, a writer behind the NY Times Parent Blog, recently stated that food allergies are on the rise, and "from 1997 to 2007, the prevalence of food allergies increased 18 percent among children."

This number is growing to a number so large that four out of every hundred children in the United States suffer from a food allergy, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

So, of the families interviewed, what were the most common allergies? Dairy, nuts, soy, shellfish, and wheat. The subjects interviewed that they stayed away from processed foods, and that they were regularly forced to question the sourcing behind the food they were consuming. 

Interviewees also tended to pre-plan their meals, cook with fresher ingredients, avoid processed foods, overcome shyness surrounding their unique qualities and are better prepared for worst-case scenarios (ie. having an EPI pen on hand, and knowing exactly how to use it before an incident presents itself). 

Dell'Antonia also states that parents who had never engaged in cooking activities were remarkably surprised by how easy it was to swap out allergy-inducing ingredients for healthier options, and how cooking can be a simple and easy task that takes no more than ten minutes to cue in a typical day. 

One mother states, that when her children get to indulge in unhealthy foods, “They’re really excited and much more appreciative—a treat really is a treat for them.”