Hi Noreen,

I watch all of Dr Michael Mosley's shows. He has that rare commodity, common sense when sharing information about health and nutrition.

Will Fly, one theory I have read about and heard on a number of scientific shows is related to the hygiene theory discussed in the link you posted. The theory states that with the rise in Caesarean births, allergies to certain foods have risen as well. The babies born that way are not "inoculated" as they are in the usual birth process by the mother's microbes. Trying not to get too graphic here! Another study I read about said that kids who have pets are a bit more healthy and less prone to allergies. There is a lot of fascinating info out there about the recent interest in promoting beneficial gut bacteria rather than killing off everything, good and bad, and wondering why we get sick.

Where I work in a Unit of approsimately 30 people, three have been diagnosed with gluten intolerance, and a couple more have decided to stop eating gluten and have seen the benefits on their health. Another person has jumped on the bandwagon and says he/she is GI but still eats all the usual foods at our morning teas, so he/she is just an anomaly. One of the Oz scientific shows I watched called Catalyst discussed a study which showed that it may be a different component of wheat which causes problems for some people, so in fact these people are not gluten intolerant, but have a reaction to something else which is in the wheat.

It's fascinating stuff. I'm glad I'm not still a teacher. My hubby works in a school and is not even allowed to take a peanut butter sandwich for his lunch. No peanuts allowed in the school! And to make it worse I have also heard of other nut allergies, even pine nuts.

Helen