Do I really have a food allergy?

Body Stuff with Dr. Jen Gunter

TED

Health & Fitness

4.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 15 June 2022

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

These days it can feel like anyone can be allergic to anything– with sensitivities ranging from common allergies to certain foods and animals to more unusual things, like semen or the chemicals used to treat leather. But is that true–ARE we becoming more allergic to things? What IS an allergy anyway and what are things that simply mimic an allergic reaction? Can you have a temporary allergy, and do we ever develop them later in life? In this episode, Dr. Jen explores theories of how allergies evolved and shares how to get tested – legitimately – to see if you really have one. For the full text transcript visit: https://go.ted.com/BSTscript13

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ted Audio Collective
0:07.5	When we decided to make an episode about food allergies, one of the producers for body
0:12.0	stuff, Camille, told me about a story from her childhood.
0:16.3	She was four years old and she loved going to the grocery store.
0:21.3	Well, first there's the fruit and vegetable section where there are a lot of colors and
0:27.3	different shapes and smells and there's just kind of a lot going on.
0:33.1	And then you have like the misting of the vegetables, which is obviously really cool.
0:39.1	It feels like you're in a rainforest or jungle.
0:42.2	And she'd always point out new foods to try.
0:45.2	She was an adventurous eater.
0:50.0	But one day, her parents took her the doctor for Xima, a skin condition and the doctor
0:55.7	gave her an allergy test.
0:57.8	We came out of that appointment with like a long list of things I was allergic to.
1:04.6	All these foods that Camille couldn't have anymore, but it wasn't until she went back
1:10.6	to the grocery store that she realized what that list really meant.
1:15.7	So like we're in the fruit and vegetable section and I remember pointing to grapes and being
1:22.9	like, can we get those?
1:26.1	And she's like, no, and I'm like, why not?
1:28.8	She's like, you're allergic to grapes.
1:30.9	And then the next thing was apples.
1:33.3	She was like, you're allergic to those too.
1:35.7	And then oranges.
	...

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