Food sensitivity is increasingly common, particularly with the increased use of food colorings, flavorings, and other additives. Nearly 40% of children in a recent study were found to have food sensitivities.
Some scientists hypothesize that a deficiency in vitamin D may lead to food sensitivity and, later, food allergy.
A group of researchers set out to determine whether vitamin D levels in cord blood samples from 649 children were associated with food sensitivity.
A strong interaction was found between certain gene variants and vitamin D deficiency.
"When examined alone, vitamin D deficiency was not associated with food sensitivity," says lead research Liu. However when examined jointly with single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 11 genes known to be involved in regulating immunoglobulin E, an indicator of allergy, a significant correlation was found.
The researchers concluded that this demonstrates that vitamin D deficiency may increase the risk of food sensitivity among individuals with certain genotypes.
This result helps to explain why some people are affected by food sensitivity, while others may enjoy eating nearly anything.
Reference:
Liu X, Wang G, Hong X, Wang D, Tsai HJ, Zhang S, Arguelles L, Kumar R, Wang H, Liu R, Zhou Y, Pearson C, Ortiz K, Schleimer R, Holt PG, Pongracic J, Price HE, Langman C, Wang X. Gene-vitamin D interactions on food sensitization: a prospective birth cohort study. Allergy. 2011
For more articles on this topic, see: MCSA News.
Copyrighted 2011 Lourdes Salvador & MCS America
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