To some, food allergies seem like fabricated cries for attention. To others, they pose a dangerous health threat. Food allergies are bound up with so many personal and ideological concerns that it is difficult to determine what is medical and what is myth.
Another Person's Poison parses the political, economic, cultural, and genuine health factors of a phenomenon that dominates our interactions with others and our understanding of ourselves. For most of the twentieth century, food allergies were considered a fad or junk science. While many physicians and clinicians argued that certain foods could cause a range of chronic problems, from asthma and eczema to migraines and hyperactivity, others believed that allergies were psychosomatic.
This book traces the trajectory of this debate and its effect on public-health policy and the production, manufacture, and consumption of food. Are rising allergy rates purely the result of effective lobbying and a booming industry built on self-diagnosis and expensive remedies? Or should physicians become more flexible in their approach to food allergies and more careful in their diagnoses? Exploring the issue from scientific, political, economic, social, and patient-centered perspectives, this book is the first to engage fully with the history of a major modern affliction, illuminating society's troubled relationship with food, disease, nature, and the creation of medical knowledge.
By:
Matthew Smith
Imprint: Columbia University Press
Country of Publication: United States
Edition: 1
Dimensions:
Height: 229mm,
Width: 152mm,
Spine: 30mm
Weight: 340g
ISBN: 9780231164849
ISBN 10: 023116484X
Series: Arts and Traditions of the Table: Perspectives on Culinary History
Pages: 312
Publication Date: 26 May 2015
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
College/higher education
,
Undergraduate
,
Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
"Acknowledgments Abbreviations Introduction: ""Witchcraft, a fad, or a racket?"" 1. Food Allergy Before Allergy 2. Anaphylaxis, Allergy, and the Food Factor in Disease 3. Strangest of All Maladies 4. Panic? Or the Pantry? 5. An Immunological Explosion? 6. The Problem with Peanuts Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index"
Matthew Smith is a senior lecturer at the University of Strathclyde's Centre for the Social History of Health and Healthcare and was recently named a BBC New Generation Thinker. His previous books include Hyperactive: The Controversial History of ADHD and An Alternative History of Hyperactivity: Food Additives and the Feingold Diet.
Reviews for Another Person’s Poison: A History of Food Allergy
A thoughtful, well-sourced, and well-analyzed history of food allergies. This book is an important contribution to the history of medicine. It will stand as definitive for some time. -- Carla Keirns, Stony Brook University This excellent resource is strongly recommended for those interested in the history of health research, including undergraduates, graduates, and medical professionals. Library Journal While much remains to be discovered about food allergies, Smith capably introduces readers to the complex and confounding connection between what we eat and our bodies' adverse reactions. Booklist The story Mr. Smith tells is fundamentally fascinating... New York Times
- Commended for History of STM Category 2016