Another Person's Poison: A History of Food Allergy
Matthew Smith
Abstract
This book assesses the political, economic, cultural, and health factors that relate to food allergies. It surveys the history of food allergies from ancient times to the present and provides a clear appraisal of new medical findings on allergies and what they say about our environment, our immune system, and the nature of the food we consume. It shows that for most of the twentieth century, while many physicians and clinicians argued that certain foods could cause a range of chronic problems, from asthma and eczema to migraines and hyperactivity, others believed that allergies were psychosoma ... More
This book assesses the political, economic, cultural, and health factors that relate to food allergies. It surveys the history of food allergies from ancient times to the present and provides a clear appraisal of new medical findings on allergies and what they say about our environment, our immune system, and the nature of the food we consume. It shows that for most of the twentieth century, while many physicians and clinicians argued that certain foods could cause a range of chronic problems, from asthma and eczema to migraines and hyperactivity, others believed that allergies were psychosomatic or simply “junk” science. It traces the trajectory of this debate and its effect on public-health policy and the production, manufacture, and consumption of food. It answers the following key questions: Are rising allergy rates purely the result of effective lobbying and a booming industry built on self-diagnosis and expensive remedies? Or should physicians become more flexible in their approach to food allergies and more careful in their diagnoses? It explores the issue from scientific, political, economic, social, and patient-centred perspectives. It engages fully with the history of what is now a major modern affliction and illuminates society's troubled relationship with food, disease, and the creation of medical knowledge.
Keywords:
food allergies,
public-health policy,
health,
environment,
immune system,
asthma,
eczema,
migraine,
hyperactivity
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2015 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780231164849 |
| Published to Columbia Scholarship Online: November 2015 |
DOI:10.7312/columbia/9780231164849.001.0001 |
