Food Allergy: Searching for the Modern Environmental Culprit

Abstract

Food allergy is a modern disease. Its exponential increase in prevalence in the last 70 years cannot be explained by genetic factors alone. In this review we discuss the hypotheses that have been suggested previously, and the evidence that supports them, to explain this rise in prevalence as well as the medical treatments that have developed as a result of basic exploration within these paradigms. We argue that one major area of fruitful exploration that would help generate new ideas may be systematic analyses of the unknown factors of the modern environment that may contribute to the formation of food allergy. Through this lens, we review the current understanding of food allergy pathogenesis and propose novel research directions, with implications for the current strategies for managing food allergy.

Keywords: evolutionary mismatch; food allergy; type II immunity.