An allergic reaction to food sends someone to the emergency room once every three minutes, according to Food Allergy Research and Education’s website. Teenagers and young adults with food allergies are at the highest risk for a severe and potentially deadly reaction, the website said.
Food allergies among children have increased by about 50 percent between 1997 and 2011, according to a 2013 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is unclear why children are more allergic to foods now than ever before, but Harrison Baxter, the food production manager at Boston University’s Fresh Food Company at Marciano Commons, said that he has noticed changes in students’ allergies and intolerances over the years that back up the study.
“It was just nuts and gluten, but now it’s starting to be oranges, kiwis, apples, garlic,” Baxter said.
An allergic reaction happens when a person’s immune system falsely identifies a harmless protein or allergen as a threat and attacks it, according to FARE’s website.
Some of the most common food allergies in the United States are milk, eggs, peanuts, soy, fish and wheat, said Joan Salge Blake, a nutrition professor in the Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences. She said that about 4 percent of Americans have food allergies, and that some people are born with allergies while others get them later in life.
“Everybody’s a little bit different, but the good news is if you had a food allergy or think you have a food allergy, you should always talk to your healthcare provider,” Salge Blake said.
Salge Blake said BU “does a fabulous job” accommodating people with food intolerances and allergies. According to its website, BU Dining Services employs a fulltime Director of Safety and Sanitation, who trains the entire staff in how to prepare food for students with allergies.
“What is really unique at Boston University is that we have the Sargent Choice Nutrition Center where we have a staff of registered dietitians that can work with each student and help them plan a healthy diet around their allergies,” Salge Blake said.
The center offers student counseling to help provide education and support for food-related medical conditions, as well as to help ensure that students’ dietary needs are met in campus dining halls, according to the center’s website. Students can go to the center to access a wide variety of services, from sports nutrition counseling to eating disorder counseling.
“All BU students are allowed to have at least one consultation with the registered dietitians, so they should take advantage of that,” Salge Blake said.
In addition to the services provided at the Sargent Choice Nutrition Center, students can also take nutrition classes at Sargent or as a PDP.
“Through this class I became aware of the little [Sargent Choice] logo that they would have for certain foods in the dining hall,” Jennifer Murphy, a sophomore in Sargent, wrote in an email. “I would try to gravitate toward those options.”
Murphy said that her roommate last year became sick and had to stay away from fatty foods, which was a tough diet to stick to in the dining halls. This year, however, BU was able to accommodate her strict diet and “summer swap” her into a room with a kitchen so that she could make her own food.
“At the time, there wasn’t much BU could do,” Murphy wrote. “She just had to opt for salads and other healthy options at the dining hall.”
Baxter said that compared to other universities he has worked at, BU is especially keen to accommodating students’ food allergies.
“There’s a hyper-level sensitivity [at BU],” Baxter said.
While students should be cautious around foods they are allergic to, Salge Blake said, being overly cautious could be problematic.
“One out of three Americans thinks they have a food allergy, [but] it really is only about one of out every 28,” Salge Blake said. “When you think you have a food allergy, you really need to meet with your healthcare provider. The take-home message here is, don’t self-diagnose.”
