eNews Archive
Could wheat allergy be linked to diabetes?
Friday, 11 September 2009
Type 1 diabetes is a serious and debilitating condition that occurs when the pancreas is unable to produce the insulin required to transport glucose from the blood stream. It is believed the cells in the pancreas are damaged through an autoimmune response, where the body essentially attacks itself by mistake. The causes of type 1 diabetes are unknown, and there is currently no cure. New research has suggested the gut plays an active role in the diabetes disease process, with an abnormal immune response to wheat proteins potentially triggering the development of type 1 diabetes in predisposed individuals.
Food allergy and eczema in children
Friday, 11 September 2009
The link between childhood food allergy and eczema is not well understood. Researchers at the Danish Allergy Research Centre have investigated the relationship using data from a cohort of children aged from birth to 18 months and 3 to 6 years. The cohort included 562 children, 122 of whom have atopic dermatitis (a form of eczema).
Keynote presentations from the 2009 Allergen Bureau Conference
Monday, 24 August 2009
We were fortunate to have Dr Stefano Luccioli as our international guest speaker at the 2009 Allergen Bureau Conference. Dr Luccioli is the Senior Medical Advisor in the Office of Food Additive Safety (OFAS) in the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). He gave three presentations, covering the following topics: Labelling Exemptions and Food Allergen Thresholds - the FDA experience; Allergen Advisory Labelling in the United States; Gluten-free and US regulations. These presentations are reviewed here in brief.
Read more: Keynote presentations from the 2009 Allergen Bureau Conference
Survey of allergen advisory labels
Monday, 24 August 2009
The Food Allergy Initiative in the USA has supported a study by the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, into the frequency and language used in voluntary advisory labels on commercially available products. The study also sought to identify labelling ambiguities affecting consumers with food allergy. The survey comprised the assessment of 20,241 unique manufactured food products across 24 categories.
Behaviour of food-allergic college students
Monday, 24 August 2009
Recent research reported that almost one quarter of food allergy-related fatalities occurred in college-aged individuals (18 to 22 years), yet college students have not previously been studied thoroughly with regard to food allergies. Results of a survey on a college population at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, to determine current trends in food allergy and potential risk-taking behaviours pertaining to food allergy, have recently been published.
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