Tag : Allergies

Washington: Many people who want to limit their meat intake are turning to legume replacements that are high in protein, vitamins, and fibre. Yet, allergies to legumes such as soy and peanuts are both common and deadly. Are patients who are allergic to certain legumes at danger from meat-free proteins made of legumes, even if the legumes are different? Dr Mark Smits and his colleagues at the University Medical Center Utrecht set out to explore. "Both protein consumption and the world's population are increasing which leads to an urgent demand for sustainable protein sources," said Dr Thuy-My Le, senior author of the study published in Frontiers in Allergy. "An increase in the consumption of legumes may increase the number of allergies to these foods. Furthermore, these new legumes may elicit allergic complaints in already legume-allergic patients. Therefore, we investigated how often sensitization and allergy to different legumes occurs in these patients." An allergy by any other name People develop food allergies when their immune systems confuse food proteins with a threat and produce Immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies. Sensitized individuals can, upon re-exposure to the same food, develop symptoms of an allergy. Patients that react to one food may also react to another: this is a co-allergy. Co-allergies are accompanied by co-sensitization, in which patients produce IgE antibodies against several foods. Co-sensitization may be caused by cross-reactivity, where IgE antibodies bind to proteins from multiple foods because the proteins share similar structures. Co-sensitization can lead to a diagnosed co-allergy, but doesn't always: it's possible for someone to be co-sensitized to a food, but not experience a reaction when they eat i ...