LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--To mark food allergy and intolerance awareness week (23rd – 29th January), NHS Choices, the health information website for the NHS (nhs.uk), has launched a new tool to help dispel common myths around food allergy and intolerance.
There is often a lot of confusion around food allergy and intolerance, both in terms of what constitutes each, and how to treat them. For example, a number of surveys have found that 20-30% of people claim to have a food allergy1. However, a Food Standards Agency report in 2008 estimated that only 5-8% of children and 1-2% of adults have a food allergy.
The new tool, developed in conjunction with allergy experts from the Food Standards Agency, looks into the most common misconceptions around allergies and intolerances and sorts the facts from fiction.
Ideas explored include:
- The differences between allergies and intolerances
- Whether you can ‘outgrow’ allergies and intolerances
- The use of home test kits
- Whether allergies and intolerances can be cured
Sue Hattersley, head of food allergy branch at the Food Standards Agency, comments: “It is vital that people can access accurate information about allergies and food intolerances. This new myth-buster tool provides helpful information in an easy-to-use format and I challenge everyone to have a go on it and see how much they really know about allergy”
The tool can be found at: http://www.nhs.uk/Tools/Pages/Food-allergy-myth-buster.aspx
Notes to the editor
The tool is available on the NHS Choices website -
NHS Choices at www.nhs.uk is the most popular online source of health information in the UK, attracting more than 9m visits per month. The website has the most comprehensive A-Z of health conditions available, advice on healthy living, guides to local health services, and a daily analysis of the science behind the medical headlines.
1 Stats from the Food Standards Agency