The oversimplified reasoning also ignores other more plausible theories as to why we might be seeing more food allergies. One of those is the so-called "hygiene hypothesis," which posits that our increasingly sanitized lives — complete with the "over-prescription of antibiotics and living indoors, with limited exposure to 'normal' bacteria and sunlight (vitamin D)," Dr. Goodman says — could be affecting our immune systems in a way that makes food allergies more likely.

Another theory: "In the early and mid-1990s, many pediatricians began recommending that allergic parents or parents of a food-allergic sibling avoid introduction of peanuts until after the age of two. Then, over 10 years, the prevalence of food allergy to peanuts in children more than doubled," Dr. Goodman explains. "Recent evidence suggests that delaying the introduction of certain allergenic foods (peanuts, cow's milk, eggs, and wheat) in infants until after six months of age bypasses the optimum time for infants to acquire immune tolerance to those foods."