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Recent research findings indicate a possible connection between virus infections, the immune system and the onset of gluten intolerance, also known as coeliac disease. A research project in the Academy of Finland's Research Programme on Nutrition, Food and Health (ELVIRA) has brought new knowledge on the hereditary nature of gluten intolerance and identified genes that carry a higher risk of developing the condition. Research has shown that the genes in question are closely linked with the human immune system and the occurrence of inflammations, rather than being connected with the actual breakdown of gluten in the digestive tract. "Some of...

LEXINGTON, Ky. - An eighth-grader in Kentucky is accused of putting peanut butter cookie crumbs in the lunchbox of a classmate with a severe peanut allergy...

TORONTO -- A group of Toronto-area children is asking the Ontario Human Rights Commission to force their school to launch mandatory lunch-bag inspections to screen out foods to which they have severe allergies, a case which could make all Ontario schools do the same. The six children, ranging in age from six to 11, contend that the local school board discriminated against them when it shut down a voluntary lunch screening program at St. Stephen's Catholic Elementary School, in Woodbridge, Ont., aimed at keeping peanuts, egg products or other potential allergy-inducing foods off school grounds entirely. Maurice Brenner, a human-rights...

I just found out my daughter is peanut alergic, she is a 2/5 at just 15 months of age. Is there anything that a freeper can tell me about how bad this is? do chiledhood peanut allergies ever go away? how often? how ofter and how fast do they get worse?

McDonald's Corp is facing at least three lawsuits in the US related to its disclosure last week that its french fries contain wheat and dairy products. Debra Moffatt of Lombard, Illinois, seeks unspecified damages in a lawsuit filed on Friday in Cook County Circuit Court that accuses the company of misleading the public. Her lawyer, Thomas Pakenas, said his client has celiac disease that causes gastrointestinal symptoms when set off by eating gluten, a protein found in wheat. "You cannot sell gluten-free french fries when they have gluten," Pakenas said. Moffatt's lawsuit seeks class-action status. McDonald's said on February 13...

Newhouse News Service Multiple-choice question: Why are more American kids allergic to foods, particularly peanuts? A) Their immune systems are confused by increasingly clean homes. B) Nervous parents wait too long to feed their children peanuts. C) We roast peanuts rather than boil them. D) Maybe one of the above, and/or something else. Unfortunately, the answer is "D." One study estimates American children's rate of allergy to peanuts and tree nuts (like walnuts and pecans) — about 1 percent of those under age 18 — has doubled in recent years. No one can say why. But whatever biological mysteries are...

Boy, 12, Accused Of Threatening Allergic Teacher With Cookie POSTED: 4:05 pm EDT April 22, 2004 SOUTH ORANGE, N.J. -- A sixth-grader was suspended after school officials accused him of threatening to expose a highly allergic teacher to peanut butter cookies, the boy's father said Thursday. Loubert Gabriel said his son, 12-year-old Jules, had been kept out of class since April 2, after a girl in his social studies class at South Orange Middle School told the teacher that Jules had made the threat. The father said Jules was carrying a snack packet of Nutter Butter cookies and did make...