Another theory to add to the list (which is almost certainly not the entire case either, but a contributing cause) is that nut allergies are 'on the rise' because they're easier to diagnose than they used to be and people look for them more often now. In other words, it's not necessarily so much that more people have allergies, as more people are being diagnosed with allergies.

For that matter, the percentages above can be affected by the way that people today tend to know more people and people further spread out geographically than was the case even as much as twenty years ago. So the chances of running into someone with an allergy are increased.

Part of the problem, of course, is that while medically we have a fairly good handle on what happens during an allergic reaction, the reasons why allergies start up at all (or for some childhood allergy cases, disappear) is still a process that is as much guesswork as anything else.

And one of the biggest problems when studying this, as suggested by my first two points, is that real life is messy, and it's almost impossible to narrow down which conditions actually make a difference.

I'm leaning towards the theory that it's something in the environment, but it's just a guess. I had absolutely no allergies or food sensitivities until I moved from Toronto to Ottawa. In less than a month (with no changes to my diet, and not taking any medications), I was severely lactose intolerant, and allergic to tree nuts. The allergies haven't gone away since moving back to Toronto, so I have no clue what actually triggered the allergies :S

I am a allergy sufferer myself. As a child I had food allergies to dairy and grains. 3 yrs ago I had major surgery with some complications so had 2 more corrective surgeries, all this to say I believe the toxin theory as after the surgeries I now have more food alergies than I can list. All nuts excluding cashews and peanuts, several fruits and vegetables as well. My theory being the drugs used during and after surgery, anastesia, pain meds,antibiotics all leaving toxins behind now my system is like a hystamine factory.

My daughter has a deadly peanut allergy. For a long time I was guilt ridden when I read that it was because I ate nuts when I was carrying her.. now the readings seem to say it is because people don't eat nuts! My house is not sterile and we don't have anything anti-bacterial. I am not sure we will ever figure it out.. but I do know that more and more awareness is needed. She starts school in September and I can tell you that it is not the academic stuff I worry about - it is the lack of awareness of how deadly the allergy is that scares me most. One small mistake by a person (who eats an unsafe product) could mean her very life!!

I have two children. One without allergies and one allergic to peanuts. I joined an allergy group for parents and at the first meeting, we realized the all the boys in the group were around the same age. The allergic girls were all five years younger. Hmmmm....

I'm going to have to agree that better & younger diagnoses have in part led to the increase in allergies.
As for the age thing someone brought up: in my child's gr 6 class there are at least 3 epi-pens (2 for peanuts & 1 for dairy/egg/latex/etc) and in the my other child's gr 1 class there is a peanut allergic student & teacher.
One cousin (early 30s) is also allergic to nuts/seeds but she is the only one out of 32 first cousins with a life threatening allergy.
I lean towards the increased intake of chemicals/preservatives used in food since WWII when "convenience" food was introduced as a contributing factor.
My family (grandmothers, dad, myself)cook(ed) from scratch almost exclusively; it has to make a difference somehow...

Regarding Theory #4: I don't think it's likely to be caused by environmental pollutants. When I lived in Taiwan, a very dirty and polluted country, I never met a child (and I worked in a school with hundreds of them, as did my friends) who had any food allergies. They were required to eat their prepared lunches every day, regardless of what they contained. That included lots of potential allergens. Strangely, none of the kids seemed to be asthmatic, either (or were undiagnosed, to be fair).

I still believe, without any real evidence, that it has something to do with the environment. Just because you have an averagely dirty house doesn't preclude the general improvement in our environment. Could it be that somehow our legitimate concern with all kinds of food and product safety has prevented kids from properly developing their immune systems?

Maybe we're just reporting more nut allergies than in the past. 100 years ago it was unlikely we'd hear about what the nut or any other allergy stats were in the given population.

We're also a greater population than 100 years or even 50 or 25 years ago. More people=more allergies of every kind simply due to demographics.

We're also better at diagnosing allergies than in the past and we're hyper vigilant about our health and more litigious than ever so more media attention is given to the subject. How many parents want to sue their public school for allowing peanuts in? Tons and they'd love to get a cash settlement too and make someone "pay"? Media outlets desperate for content make hay out the allergy stats.

My two cents on the matter

There do seem to be fewer older children and adults with nut allergies.

20-30 years ago perhaps individuals with anaphylactic allergies were more likely to die instead of receiving treatment. One could presume that as emergency medical treatment advanced, fewer and fewer people die of nut allergies, meaning that more people are living with severe allergies.

Also, are these types of allergic sensitivities in anyway genetic? If so, as children with severe allergies get older and have children, perhaps their kids are increasingly likely to also have severe allergies.

I think its possible for allergies to change as you grow older.When I was growing up, I don't remember being allergic to any foods, I just had issues with molds & grain dust (A bad allergy to have when you live on a grain farm). When I was about 22 or so, I found that my mold & grain dust allergy had subsided, however I developed a moderate to severe allergy to almonds, and have developed a high sensitivity to perfumes and colognes that I never had before. I found this surprising since I had some allergy tests done at 12 and there was no indication of any nut allergies at all. But, I must say, I hardly ever ate nuts then, since nuts still weren't a common staple in most rural homes in the area. Where I am now, its hard to avoid them.

Maybe part of the equation is how exposed people get to specific chemicals in their day to day lives, coupled with changes in our bodies as we grow.

When people mess with mother nature...someone is gonna get hurt. Its all about the turn around...scientically alter the peanut (or whatever) to grow faster, bigger so they can put another crop in and of course make more money. People just need to let mother nature grow things as they are meant to be grown and stop experimenting at the expense of human life because "they" want to make more money.

My son, in his mid-20's now, developed a life threatening allergy to peanuts when he was about 7 years old, and has carried an epi-pen since. Although there is a history on both sides of our family of asthma, excema, and mild allergy to foods such as citrus and chocolate, these conditions were outgrown by other family members by adulthood. In addition I love peanuts and ate them when pregnant with my son and with his younger sister (not allergic) and I breastfed both for over 12 months (so those theories are somewhat questionable). Has anyone thought that perhaps the mass production process of the peanut itself in order to produce new hybrids and larger commercial quantities has affected the composition of the peanut? I wonder if the sprays and other chemicals that are and have been used in commercial agriculture especially in North America are somehow culprits?

No, it has nothing to do with Asian foods. Forget the ultra clean environments. Not soy. Has nothing to do with not being breastfed.

The current and most intelligent theory has to do with the reaction of the human immune system to the chemicals, and/or pollutants to which we are exposed, every nanosecond of our lives.

I'm 50. I have had profound allergies, essentially, from birth. Profound. Not sniffles and hives; eat a peanut cookie and die, profound. Multiple severe allergies.

Both my sons have allergies; one worse than the other. One son is so bad, he cannot eat in any restaurant, he can't leave the country because of an inability to find insurance that is affordable.

One son is 29 and the youngest is 22. I am not a clean freak and don't believe in this anti-bacterial everything nonsense. I ate the foods permitted by my allergies and avoided those to which I am allergic (duh).

The youngest suffers from allergies that caused his allergist to write a paper with him as a subject. He is allergic to the suspension used in vaccines as well as being allergic (common) to eggs. So even if a vaccine is not cultivated in an egg; he's allergic to the suspension.

He is allergic to foods I ate and foods I did not eat. He is allergic to chemicals, plants, animals, natural occurring products and synthetic products.

The increase in the number of profoundly allergic children and adults has to do with an environment which causes our bodies to attack at random because IT is under attack at all times, turning the histamines, the T-Cells and all the other cells involved into microscopic Berserkers...attacking anything and everything.

The increase in allergies cooresponds to the increasingly polluted environments in which we live. The genetically mutated foods we eat, the chemicals we ingest, willingly or not...

Get used to this; there is no way that it can be stopped. The damage was done years ago. Chromosomes, DNA changed by DDT and other poisons; live with it. You can be de-sensitized to everything.

Leigh,

I tend to believe your proposed theory 4. I think "civilized" people have become so distanced from Nature (one with a capital N) that we are more comfortable with eating from a box of processed cereal than cooked whole grain, chicken nuggets to an organically raised free range chicken, and the list goes on. No one seems to have time to live "naturally" so we make many "technological" shortcuts. If I may elaborate theory 4 is that what we eat and do today in the modern world may be lacking in essential substances that our bodies need. Our factory farms and manufactured processed and refined foods have taken out a lot of essential minerals and substances we need to survive. That's why we are not seeing as much allergies and other health problems that our children suffer today.

I used to have hay fever every year and was on long-term antihistamine. I was a walking zombie for most of my adult life. Then, I started changing our food regimen using macrobiotic method because my husband has a blockage detected via ultrasound. We cleaned out our cupboards of everything "processed" including things that are not obvious like table salt, soy sauce, refined oil, cornstarch, and so on. Today, my husband's cholesterol is great (mine too), my allergy is totally gone (I mean totally)! We are not 100% vegetarian, but we eat meat and eggs from an organic local farm and all our veges are from our local farms. I can't emphasize how much we appreciate our local farmers for growing and bringing these wonderful and unadulterated food to our table. We are what we eat!!!

I have three children and my middle child is the one with the severe peanut allergy. I have always loved nuts and ate them while pregnant. I was a breastfeeder and fed him until he was sixteen months. I avoided peanut butter for him especially when we suspected a milk allergy. Once tested we found out he was allergic to milk, eggs and peanuts/nuts. My son has since outgrown his milk allergy and his egg allergy has reduced. In God's graces I have yet to see him take a severe attack. He just tested extremely positive and coulded even finish the test.

I think we hear more about allergies because of a larger population and more awareness to what allergy attacks are. It's like any other disease before we were able to get into the body and understand the anatomy better.

In some cases, cancer is on the rise in the last 20+ years. I'm sure there was a lot that went undiagnosed due to lack of medical uncertainty and a population that was unable or unwilling to get proper medical help.

I don't believe there is answer to this question and probably will never be. It's just another part of life that no one wants to deal with. Not everything can be fixed as much as we want it to be.

Studies are being conducted and look like there is a potential for success but we see that for all maladies.

I am wondering if the recent surge in allergies is due to all the processing and additives our food has. I know very few families that eat primarily raw or unprocessed foods anymore. Additionally how much of our raw food is now genetically modified. I just think we are experimenting with our bodies by eating genetically modified foods and then add in all the chemicals that most of us eat and I say it is no wonder there is an increase in allergies and sensitivities.