Only Expectant Parents Can Prevent Food Allergies

Out of Patients with Matthew Zachary

I learned a lot from my guest today, and I mean A LOT. For example, I had no idea that humans have something called the "Adaptive Immune System." Nor did I know — although I had my suspicions — why it seems that everyone is allergic to everything these days, yet, growing up in the 70s and 80s, no one was allergic to anything. My guest, Meenal Lele, host of the fantastic podcast "Fixing Sick," received two back-to-back Science degrees from Wharton and UPenn in the same year. That background came in extremely handy when her newborn nearly died from an undiagnosed food allergy. She went into advocacy beast mode, taking on the food allergy ecosystem. The result is years of research, data, and new facts that blew my mind and will hopefully blow yours. Did you know that no one is born with food allergies? And that, through shitty US-only ingredients in our food and the hyper-sanitization and "Over-Purell-ification" of society, we've completely eroded our natural immunity to ordinary things that our species has historically never had to worry about for thousands of years? Necessity is the mother of invention, and Meenal's ingenuity has resulted in her founding Lil Mixins, purveyors of solutions to help stop food allergies in infants before they start. Yes, you heard right. Enjoy the show.

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