Diet, allergies and germs! OH MY!

As a chef, nutritionist and concerned human being  I wonder what’s going on with our bodies. There is no scientific data, that I know of ,but I’ve been in the food business for more then 20yrs and its alarming to me at how food allergies are becoming more and more prevalent in our society.
            As a child in my grandfather’s restaurant I don’t remember him having to be concerned about anyone having allergies, even when I first started cooking, there were people on diets for specific reasons but not all these food allergies I’m seeing today. Its just been in the past 10years that it has become so prevalent. Now in the past three years this gluten thing has gone crazy. Is it really an allergen or just the latest health / food craze?
         I think there could be one of two reasons or maybe a combination of reasons.
     First, I think we are way to scared of germs and we don’t spend enough time outside.  When we were kids during the summer we were outside from morning until night. As babies we rolled around in the dirt and when the parents turned their heads we ate dirt or worse. Now everyone try’s to keep everything so sterile and the kids spend a lot of their day in front of a video game or a computer they don’t build up the natural immunities they get from being in nature. Before milk was fortified with vitamin D, people in some of the northern states would get rickets because they were not outside enough to get enough vitamin D from the sun. I say it’s the same way with allergies, we have disconnected our selves from nature and much to our demise we are becoming less and less a part of nature.
       Another thing that might be the reason or a part of the reason is our diet. Prior to the mid sixties everyone ate home cooked, mostly from scratch, mostly locally grown food. Even the food in my grandfathers kitchen was all bought locally and cooked from scratch with mostly fresh ingredients. With the  proliferation of fast foods, prepacked and frozen foods and our foods coming form all around the world we are eating foods that are out of season. We are eating foods that don’t have the local pollen, the  local dirt, the local, what I think the ancient Chinese would call Chi. I think our bodies are becoming confused by the types of food and the combination's of food we are consuming, sending our digestive systems into turmoil.
       Of course it could be that our science has just caught up and found out at what's causing some illness are allergies.  But that would be too easy!!!! It has to be the devil somewhere! ha,ha!
      Once again I implore you to support your local farmer’s market and food co-op. Eat fresh, in- season foods.   AND
“Forget the Box Just get outside!”