A new study has found that children are more prone to get food allergies if they are living in urban areas rather than rural communities.

The study, which included 38,465 children all 18 and younger, was published in the Clinical Pediatrics Journal. It states that 9.8 percent of children have food allergies, compared to 6.2 per cent in rural communities. It also mentioned that an American is sent to the emergency room every 3 minutes for food allergies.

I can imagine that in rural areas where you’re able to grow your own produce, food would be better, and food allergies wouldn’t be as prevalent.

Ruchi Gupta, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, led the study claiming,

“This shows that environment has an impact on developing food allergies. The big question is what in the environment is triggering them? A better understanding of environmental factors will help us with prevention efforts.”

Do you have any children who suffer from food allergies?