Understanding the prevalence of food allergy in different regions in the world is vital for measuring the impact of food allergy for implementing prevention strategies (Martin et al.,2013).
Accurate determinations of food allergy prevalence are difficult because factors such as allergy definitions, study populations, methodologies, geographic variation, ages, dietary exposure, and other factors influence the estimate (Sicherer,2011). A review of the literature concluded that food allergy affects between 1-10% of the population. It remains unclear whether the prevalence is increasing. A number of recent studies provide high estimates of food allergy. Gupta et al study estimated that 8% of children have food allergy, 2.4% have multiple food allergies, and approximately 3% experience severe reactions (Gupta et al.,2011).
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Better hygiene, resulting in less microbial exposure, may lead to an increase in atopic disease (Berin and Sampson, 2013).
Dietary fat hypothesis-This hypothesis postulates that decreased consumption of n-3 fatty acids (eg, omega-3 fatty acids) and increased ingestion of n-6 fatty acids (eg, vegetable oils) leads to greater production of IgE through the influence of prostaglandin-E2 (Berin and Sampson, 2013).
Antioxidant hypothesis-This hypothesis argues that antioxidants found in fresh fruits and vegetables, such as vitamin C and beta-carotene, have protective anti-inflammatory effects. Dietary patterns that include more processed foods, and less fresh products, may therefore increase susceptibility to allergy (Berin and Sampson, 2013).
Vitamin D hypothesis-Vitamin D has been shown to have immune-modulatory effects. Proposed but unproven theories suggest a role for both vitamin D excess and deficiency in the development of allergic disease (Berin and Sampson,