It looks like there’s another reason for you to avoid your fast food favorites altogether. Apart from obesity, diabetes, and other lifestyle diseases, a large-scale study recently found an association between frequent fast food consumption and severe allergic reactions in children living in developed countries such as eczema, asthma, and hay fever.
Miami dermatologist Dr. Judith Crowell has been a longtime proponent of eating real food in favor of highly-processed food sources including fries, burgers, and chicken nuggets. The findings of the aforementioned research further supports the idea that we are exactly what we eat.
Largest Study to Date on the Association Between Fast Food and Allergies
By and large, the study found out that 3 or more weekly servings of fast food led to a 39 percent increased risk of severe asthma among teens and a corresponding 27 percent increased risk among children. The same trend was observed for both rhinitis and eczema.
According to the researchers, plausible explanations of their findings may have to do with the abundance of trans fats in fast food. Furthermore, they pointed out that their findings may be significantly beneficial in reducing the alarming increase in allergies in children as it massively covers 319,000 13-14 year olds from 107 centres in 51 countries and more than 181,000 six to seven year olds from 64 centres in 31 countries.
Despite the extensive nature of the study, the researchers further posited that reducing one’s intake of fast food does not necessarily mean that it will reduce the severity of asthma, hay fever or eczema symptoms altogether. They emphasize that what they found out does not prove cause and effect and warrants further investigation.
Eczema Treatment in Miami, Florida
If you or your child has been suffering from eczema for a while now, we invite you to get in touch with Dr. Crowell for a personalized approach to coping with eczema. Here at our practice, we believe that treatment of each patient should start by seeing him or her as a person on a whole rather than the skin condition.
To schedule an appointment with us, please call (305) 274-0221 ext. 100 or 125 .
