Association of Components of the Mediterranean Diet with Food Allergies

Abstract

There is a rising incidence of food allergies, and both children and adults suffer from it. Existing research suggests that avoidance of food allergy relies more on avoiding exposure to food allergens in one's life. However, this method of eliminating food allergy through passive elimination may cause nutritional deficiencies, especially in children during their growth period. On the other hand, most of the food circulating may contain other chemical ingredients that can also cause food allergies. Therefore, this review discusses the effect of the components of the world recognized healthy dietary pattern (Mediterranean Diet) on food allergy, and finds that olive oil, fruits and vegetables, vitamin D (VD) rich foods all have anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory effects, with the potential to ameliorate food allergy. The aim of this review is to provide new ideas and options for the improvement and prevention of food allergy in the future by exploring the anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory roles and related mechanisms of the components of the Mediterranean diet. However, there is still a lack of in vivo experiments on humans in related studies, and there is a need to expand the sample size going forward to increase the direct evidence of food allergy amelioration by various components of the Mediterranean diet.