African-American children are more than twice as likely to suffer from common food allergies than their Caucasian piers, particularly when it comes to dangerous peanut allergies; but there are some strange discrepancies in the data. The study drilled down into subjects’ specific ancestory: For every 10 percent increment in African ancestry the children reported, there was a 7 percent increase in having antibodies that cause certain food allergies. The more a child could trace his or her ancestry directly to Africa, the more likely he or she was to be allergic to something such as peanuts. Children who identified as black but didn’t have a great deal of African ancestry were not as likely to have a peanut allergy. Strangely, they were more likely to have allergic reactions to milk and eggs. “Overall, black children seem to be at higher risk of being sensitive to foods; but if you break down that risk, self-identifying as black explains the risk to milk and egg allergens but not to peanut, while ancestry explains some of the risk to peanut allergens,” says Dr. Rajesh Kumar, a pediatrician at Northwestern University Medical School. “That may mean different factors go along with an individual’s self-identified race compared to his or her genetic ancestory.” (Time)
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