Food allergies on the rise: the role of anthropogenic chemicals

Abstract

Food allergies have increased dramatically in the last decade, especially in developedcountries. Food tolerance requires strict maintenance of a specific microbial portfolio inthe gastrointestinal tract, as changes in the gut microbiome can lead to its disruption,which in turn causes inflammation and pathogenic gut conditions leading to thedevelopment of food allergies. Any environmental factors that lead to a disturbanceand/or malfunction of the gastrointestinal tract and digestive performance favor thedevelopment of food allergies.Based on that, what do we know about the role of increasing anthropogenic chemicals,including emerging ones, resulting from the new global situation?There is awareness that their effects are multifaceted, e.g., chemicals affect the growth ofplants and animals and thus the quality of the food produced. In addition, chemicals affectour food during its production and processing, but also affect our body andgastrointestinal tract. It is time to fill the knowledge gaps and understand how theseinteractions between environmental triggers such as industrial and traffic pollution,transition and heavy metals, pesticides, chemtrails, etc., affect food allergens and theirallergenicity, adjuvant effects, and the increasing prevalence of food allergies.Some improvements in this area are already being made through advances in ‘omics’technologies (i.e., proteomics, genomics, metabolomics) and systems biology approachesthat will hopefully provide a scientific understanding of the relationship betweenincreasing food allergies and the increasingly present wide variety of anthropogenicchemicals in our environment.