Food Allergy Epidemic: Are Overprotective Parents to Blame?

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Scientists sniffing out the Western allergy epidemic

One in three of us is allergic. From grass pollen to latex, peanuts to pets, allergies send 20,000 of people in England to hospital every year.

But generations before did not suffer from this epidemic, so what is it that's making us so allergic in our modern world?

Every one of us is covered head to toe with bacteria, and intriguingly scientists believe these microscopic bugs are the key to explaining why we are becoming more allergic.

Families under the microscope

The bacteria that cover our skin, line our mouths and fill our guts not only outnumber our own cells by about 10 to one but may play a vital role in training our immune systems. Changes to our lifestyles are influencing these microorganisms, and allergies are the consequence.

To see if this theory played out in the real world, Horizon put the lives of two allergic families under the microscope.

The results were incredible. Like most of us in the Western world, the families had far fewer types of bacteria living in and on them when compared with people in traditional tribes in parts of the developing world. One hunter-gatherer community was found to not only have a higher diversity of bacteria, but only one in 1,500 suffered from an allergy - compared with one in three in the UK.

Life in the West appears to be changing our bacteria and susceptibility to allergy. But what is it about the Western lifestyle that is to blame?

There are likely to be many culprits, but a big factor could be how we are bringing up our children.

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The immune system is strengthened by exposure to bacteria at an early age, and the more, the better. We've known this for centuries. But now we've got a bunch of soft arse kids out there sashaying around their sterile homes. Little Billy isn't even allowed to pet the dog without taking a shower afterwards. Got parents with babies making sure everyone who comes to visit has had the full range of immunizations. It's no wonder your kid can't eat a ham sammich without going into shock.

I have a theory on this, but it's not for the faint of heart. It is, however, based on evolutionary principles:
If you can't eat bread, peanuts, fish, or drink a Coca Cola without your body shutting down, then we have to let you go. I'm sorry, but we have to let nature take its course. You weren't meant to make it. All we're doing by keeping you alive is perpetuating this cycle of progeny who can't eat food.