All your life, you’ve delighted in the subtle, sweet taste of fresh shrimp. Until one day, when you bite into it and find yourself beset by itching hives and a swollen throat.
An unexpected food allergy seems to be a common experience for some adults in America, according to a recent study. Though the issue is often associated with children, researchers found that 1 in 10 grown-ups also had a food allergy, and that for half of them, it was a recent development. The find mirrors other studies that have found increasing rates of adult-onset allergies in recent years.
“It was really shocking,” says Ruchi Gupta, a professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University and the lead author of the study. “What’s happening where so many people are developing a new food allergy as an adult?”
