Allergy is on the rise. It affects 1 in 5 adults, and the rise in children is astonishing.

1 in 3 will suffer asthma

1 in 6 will suffer eczema

And there has been a huge rise in food allergy now affecting 1 in 13 children, including a 5x increase in peanut allergy.

All this brings a huge amount of disruption to peoples lives, fear and the rising wait times for allergy clinics is a well known phenomena. Working as a GP and in A&E, I have seen 1000s of children with these issues and that’s why I wanted to talk about what things we can do to prevent food allergy using the research available today.

Dr Vincent Ho is a clinical academic gastroenterologist and Senior Lecturer at the School of Medicine, University of Western Sydney. He is also a practising gastroenterologist. More recently he published ‘The Healthy Baby Gut Guide‘. A book packed with sensible advice, surprising scientific discoveries and a nutritionist-approved nine-week infant meal plan to help you navigate the introduction of foods for your baby which I think is essential reading for every parent and parent-to-be.

There’s lot to cover today but by the end of the episode you should be able to understand:

The concepts of immune tolerance and the hypotheses behind why we are seeing a rise
Why early exposure to common allergenic food is key
The genetic and environmental links allergy including BPA and phthalates
What the first 1000 days refers to and why this is critical for supporting a normal immune system
How maternal diet impacts food allergy
The evidence for supplements such as fish oils, probiotics and vitamin D for mothers
The benefits of breast milk, probiotics and a diverse diet for kids
How to introduce known allergens into your babies diet from 6 months in a systematic and safe manner using an anti-allergy meal plan
And the future for allergy therapy

This is a fantastic episode and if you’re looking to get pregnant or have a high risk for allergy, I highly recommend Vincent’s book, it’s a wonderful resource.

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