Thoughts about increases in allergies - humans and animals

I came across two articles that were interesting, but frightening at the same time.  Hopefully we'll have some reader comments and input on this subject.

I have a job because the incidence of food allergies, food intolerances, and immune-mediated disease have risen at a dramatic rate in dogs and cats.  In my mind, I attribute this increase to processed foods. Commercial foods in no way resemble the original whole foods that were processed to make pet food.  Similarly, hot dogs, nachos, pizza, etc. do not resemble the whole foods from which they are made.

This plays out in our daily lives in many ways.  For instance, think about the making of margarine, that we did for years. We learned that in the process of making a solid fat from a liquid fat, we made some "other" molecules, namely trans fatty acids.  We now know how bad they are for us.
Several years ago, the "too clean theory" was used to explain some of the increases in asthma and other allergies (including food) in children. But the increases in human and pet cases continue to rise.

Some scientists are looking at molecular changes that occur during the processing of foods for human consumption.  For example there has been a rise in the incidence of peanut allergies in the US. It is speculated that the very high roasting temperatures now used to process peanuts, is producing new or unnaturally occuring molecules. 

"Boiling Versus Roasting"

Most peanuts in the United States are dry-roasted at high temperatures. It is the high roasting temperatures, some believe, that causes problems by changing the protein structure. "The dry-roasting process makes these peanuts more allergenic," Weinberger said.

A report in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology found that frying or boiling peanuts, as practiced in China, appeared to reduce the allergenicity of peanuts compared with dry roasting. According to the study's authors, this may explain the different rates of peanut allergy seen in the United States and China.

"Asians predominantly eat boiled peanuts," Weinberger said. "Asians have a much lower incidence of peanut allergies."

The theory that knowledge and identification of diseases processes enhances reporting of these diseases, and I am sure that this is partly responsible for the increases.

How might the processing of our human and pet food affect our lives?

Scary thoughts.
Susan