I do wonder if this is true when controlling for increased recognition. Don’t find it per se implausible (there are plausible environmental causes, and one could also imagine genetic selection), but haven’t seen evidence yet.
E.g. celiac absolutely existed historically, even though we did not know what was causing it. Those poor kids simply got fed wheat daily anyway, as that was simply what one ate, and died. The study that finally trialed various food plans including one without wheat and had the kids in that group recover is famous for the fact that they stopped it and switched all the kids to that food plan when they were only part-way through, because it became so clear that they could finally, finally stop the deaths.
With a lot of peanut and soy allergies; your average European would simply not have had the exposure.
And as for other severe allergies… again, we are talking a society with no epipens, no allergy declarations. Avoiding a food, especially traces for it, when the average product you buy does not even have an ingredient list, let alone safe handling… Where the allergies were severe, those children died, and often, the parents could not even piece together why. Some thought their kids had been exchanged by fairies, because they were always crying, vomiting, choking, having diarrhoea, having skin discolouration, not wanting to eat, shying away. Doctors noticed that they “failed to thrive”, which essentially meant they were thin and sickly and small and constantly ill until pneumonia got them.
I do wonder if this is true when controlling for increased recognition. Don’t find it per se implausible (there are plausible environmental causes, and one could also imagine genetic selection), but haven’t seen evidence yet.
E.g. celiac absolutely existed historically, even though we did not know what was causing it. Those poor kids simply got fed wheat daily anyway, as that was simply what one ate, and died. The study that finally trialed various food plans including one without wheat and had the kids in that group recover is famous for the fact that they stopped it and switched all the kids to that food plan when they were only part-way through, because it became so clear that they could finally, finally stop the deaths.
With a lot of peanut and soy allergies; your average European would simply not have had the exposure.
And as for other severe allergies… again, we are talking a society with no epipens, no allergy declarations. Avoiding a food, especially traces for it, when the average product you buy does not even have an ingredient list, let alone safe handling… Where the allergies were severe, those children died, and often, the parents could not even piece together why. Some thought their kids had been exchanged by fairies, because they were always crying, vomiting, choking, having diarrhoea, having skin discolouration, not wanting to eat, shying away. Doctors noticed that they “failed to thrive”, which essentially meant they were thin and sickly and small and constantly ill until pneumonia got them.