I was recently watching the show Shark Tank and these three entrepreneurs came on. They own a company called Ready, Set, Food! and they claim that their product can potentially stop your baby from developing food allergies to milk, eggs and peanuts. Of course, I was intrigued.
They continued their pitch and explained their product. They sell a powder, which contains a very small amount the three allergens. You add this powder, which comes in portioned packets, into breast milk, formula, or solid food, starting when your baby is four months old. They claim that if you continue this for around six months, or until your baby is regularly eating these allergens in their diet, it can reduce the risk of your baby developing allergies to these allergens by 80%.
I was shocked, confused, and really interested to learn more about this product.
At first I was thinking, there is no way this actually works, but after learning more, I think that this company is going to have a lot of success.
The science behind this product is that newborn baby’s are not born with allergies. Their immune system’s have not fully developed yet, so if you introduce allergens little by little, then you can stop an allergy from developing. Ready, Set, Food! has developed their product around three clinical studies. All three of them report that introducing allergens at a young age has reduced the rate of developing an allergy to that allergen by 65% or more. The Immune Tolerance Network stated in its clinical study, LEAP (Learning Early About Peanut Allergy), that for decades allergists have been saying to avoid potential allergens, such as peanuts, until the child is older in order to avoid allergies. But this new research is saying the exact opposite. Its starting to become clear that the advice to avoid allergens was wrong, and may have contributed to the huge rise in allergies seen the the past decade.
This is huge news and can shape the future of allergies. When I was little there was nothing like this around, in fact my doctor, like many others at the time, told us to avoid all allergens until I was a toddler. I cant help but wonder what would have happened If this product existed back then.
Ready, Set, Food! got a deal with Mark Cuban on the show, and I am excited to see them expand. This could help end allergies, and I think that that is really exciting!
Ready, Set, Food! : https://readysetfood.com/pages/home?utm_expid=.rJYX_LmtRL6-GFCcoZS9AQ.1&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F
LEAP Study: http://www.leapstudy.co.uk/
Food Allergy Eats 