Theorizing

So I came across an article a few weeks back that said that something like 4% of the US population has food allergies. That little statistic comes back to me sometimes when my brain is unoccupied (mostly when I'm trying to fall asleep and CAN'T! or when I'm at the gym...need something to think about besides the stats on the machine!) and I start theorizing...

I wander for a bit down the line of thinking of the increasing incidence and prevalence of allergies in general. There's a lot of theories out there about it but I've always liked the one that my immunology professor in college posited that it's because our environments are so clean nowadays. Kids don't eat sand and spread germs like they used to (makes you wonder how bad childhood diseases used to be) so they aren't exposed to things and don't develop immune responses to them. So our immune systems aren't that busy doing what they're supposed to do so instead they start developing responses to things that are innocuous and thus we have allergies (majorly simplified). Allergies are random, and some people have the same ones in families, or not. It's very individualized because we're all exposed to different things as we go about our lives. This fits, in my head, with what Claire talks about in Outlander, or one of the later books in the series actually. For those of you who don't know Claire and Jamie, Claire accidentally time travels from WWII to the Jacobite revolution in 1745. A random page in one of the books that caught my attention is how Claire mentions that she doesn't get the colds and other bugs that the Scots do and it's because she's got all this immunity passed on through two hundred years of ancestors. Also, vaccines. Either way, we've got all this immunity to everything we encounter in our bodies and thus the bored immune system goes wacko suspicious and starts being allergic to common things we encounter all the time.

Somehow that didn't come out as clearly as I meant it to, but bear with me. :) I'm also done with that thought and moving on...

I also think about 4%! That's a lot of people! Yet I know that as far as I've encountered, about 99.9% of people I know don't have food allergies. I think we all knew some kid in school who had an epi pen because they were THAT allergic to peanuts or something, but for the most part, nada. The next thought is one: what about the foods we instinctively avoid? I know a lot of people know I don't like coffee, but are you all aware that I don't even like the smell of coffee? I've never been able to get over it enough to really drink it. I've had a few mixed coffee drinks in my life, but even dilute...ew. This is a different food aversion than I have to say Swiss cheese--tried it, don't like the flavor. Or tomoatoes, watermelon, cataloupe, et al, things I don't like because I don't like the texture and the fleshiness. I just don't like coffee and I know that without really having gone down that path. Coffee is a potential allergen. They didn't test me for it because I don't drink it. But reverse that--what if I don't drink it because I'm allergic to it? And so potently allergic to it that my body knew that without my really having tried it? Or having tried it and not needed that much to know that I don't want to have any more. There's a part of your brain which doesn't have the infamous blood brain barrier because it quickly comes in contact with things that could be considered poisons and thus you sense it and vomit it right up before it gets too much in your system. All of this swirls together in my brain and makes me wonder if a lot of those foods we don't eat/avoid is because of intolerance/flat out allergy.

We all have foods we avoid--maybe because it caused food poisoning at one point. Or you don't like the flavor. Who else has a food they don't eat because it just grosses them out (and not like sweetbreads gross out!)?

Some food for thought before the work week sets back in...more recipes to (hopefully) follow later this week!

as a side note...I was watching the second episode of Game of Thrones yesterday and he said "an historical note" which made me sigh in happiness. Anyone else watch and notice? :)