Thread: Attitude to food allergies?

Originally Posted by Hanna

Well if you count Scandinavia as "surrounding northern-lying areas", actually lactose intolerance is really common. Every supermarket has lactose free milk, yogurt, kefir, cream etc, as well as milk free substitutes.

Allergies are a relatively "modern" phenomenon and there have been some differences in lifestyle, although I am not quite sure on exactly what sorts of factors make the big difference. But Russians clearly suffer less from allergies.

Oh, okay =) Guess I really didn't know! I'm glad to hear it though because I definitely plan on visiting Scandinavian countries in the future.. and one of my favorite people to travel with suffers with the peanut && the cheese thing. So it's good to know she can find a way to come along)))

There are a few rather common allergies in Russia, almost all of them fall into a category of allergic rhinitis with such symptoms as sneezing, running nose, sometimes red eyes, etc.:
1) dust allergy, 2) "pets" allergy (say, an allergy to cat's fur), both of which are technically allergies to droppings of little parasites who reside in dust and fur,
3) a seasonal allergy to certain pollens (for example, polar's little white fluffy balls, which are flying everywhere in spring).

But food allergies are very few and between. Among those the most common (but still pretty rare) allergy I know is a reaction to strawberries. I'm not sure if it's considered a real allergy, though, since people who suffer from it often get it only if they eat too much of it in one go.

While I was typing it thought of something interesting.

Many Russian/Soviet babies routinely had food rashes, which were called in Russian "diathesis" (I believe this term has different, less scary, meaning in Russian than it is in English, and western medical science considers "child diathesis" a myth). A typical "child diathesis" looked like a mild rash on baby's cheeks (basically cheeks looked pink like from the frost). If it was more severe or appeared on other parts of a body it was considered an anomaly and actively treated.
At the same time mild rashes were considered a necessary evil and a side-effect of child's body adapting to new foods.

After collapse of the USSR it was deemed an outdated point of view. Doctors stated that the reason of these rashes were bad quality foods or ignorant parents, and that "in the West" (which was at the time a synonym of "civilized world") these kinds of rashes are almost non-existent, though I don't know if it's true or not.

But if it is, could it be that these rashes acted as some kind of "immunization" of sensitive babies against future food allergies? Because any food allergies were really rare at the time, to the point of being an exoticism. What do you think?

I think those doctors were right. Rashes in kids are quite common. There is exczema which is very common, and then som more acute skin problems.

The one which sounds like what you describe, I think, is, but a bit scary and unpleasant. Most of the skin on your body turns pinkish or bubbly. In Swedish, it is called "nettles-fever" after a stinging nettles, you know. It's as if you fell into a bed of nettles.

Apparently, the latin name is Urticaria.
Urticaria - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I got it once, for no obvious reason when I was at another childs party. Then another time after swimming in a lake that was overgrown with algae and then a mild case as an adult, after taking penicillin (so now I am classified as allergic to penicillin...).

It only lasts a couple of days or so, and all you need to do to cure it is drink a lot of water and only eat something that is guaranteed "allergy safe" like rice or potatoes.

I, for one, don't understand the "rash" of hyper-allergic children.

I used to eat PB&J 4 days a week for my first 8 years of school.
Now it seems I'd be dead or a mass murderer.

*sigh* I feel old

I think PB&J is a brand or expression that is only familiar to Americans, so you'd better explain it. I don't know what it means and can't be fussed to google it.

There is something about our lifestyle and environment that makes people more allergic today than in the past. I think it's a very important matter to get to the bottom of. Some allergies are deadly and it affects people's life very negatively.

I have something called an auto-immune disease (the body is allergic to something in itself). I hate to talk about it and won't, but suffice to say it has caused me a lot of suffering throughout my life.

edit - figured out what cappecoddah's acronym stands for. Peanut butter and Jelly sandwich (jelly is jam, I am guessing, but what type)