20% of Americans think they have a food allergy only 10% actually do it – Quartz

More than a fifth of American adults believe they have a food allergy, but in reality it is quite possible that they imagine it.

This is what emerges from a new study published yesterday (Jan. 5) in the online journal JAMA Network Open. According to the study, about 10% of Americans with food allergies have been officially diagnosed with this condition.

In fact, very little is known about the prevalence and severity of food allergies in American adults. Population-based studies have been conducted to learn more about food allergies in children, but they are rare in adults. This is one of the only comprehensive population studies to date on food allergies in the United States.

Even overall, entire miniature industries thrived and grew as people sought dairy-free, gluten-free, peanut-free, and other products. According to a report by CNBC, sales of gluten-free products in the United States in 2010 hovered around $ 2.6 billion. Six years later, in 2016, the Californian company Grand View Research evaluated the global market for gluten-free products at nearly $ 15 billion, about half of it in the United States.

The perceived prevalence of food allergies – enough to fuel multi-billion dollar industries – has aroused the curiosity of researchers. Scientists from Stanford and Northwestern Universities have teamed up to conduct a telephone and Internet survey of more than 40,400 US adults. The survey was important because previous studies of allergic adults were mainly focused on specific foods, such as peanuts and shellfish. This new research project aimed to obtain a more complete picture.

What the researchers have found is revealing. More and more people think they have food allergies when they are not. According to the study, 10% of Americans suffer from a diagnosed allergy, while 20% think they have one.

Researchers say that there is still much to learn about food allergies in general. This includes at what age they are most likely to start, the severity of most allergies and whether sociodemographic elements are at stake.