Food Family List?

[Astyas]

Does anyone know of a good link that lists out all the food families and/or possible cross reactions? I was using http://www.calgaryallergy.ca/Articles/English/botanical.htm but the link has died. It's been super useful in the past and I'd hate to lose such a good resource.

[CMdeux]

After I've had a bit more coffee, let me see what I can dig up for you.

I think probably the modern key is going to be food protein superfamilies.

Those things may not be closely BIOLOGICALLY related, but they definitely produce higher rates of cross-reactivity and panallergenicity than other things.


Oh-- there's also this, at least for nuts/seeds:

http://waynesword.palomar.edu/fruitid1.htm

[CMdeux]

Ah.  Okay.   




I think that one of these may be similar information:

http://aaia.ca/en/food_groups.htm

This one also has pretty good (accurate?) info re: botanical relatives:

http://www.thesuperallergycookbook.com/PDF/FoodFamilyChartbyFamily.pdf

(Just ignore the pseudoscientific 'rotation diet' stuff, obviously)

Also recognize that the second list contains completely bogus info in terms of food allergen proteins.  For example, yes, Jerusalem artichokes and lettuce are in the "compositae" family, like chamomile and sunflower, but there should be about ZERO cross-reactivity there, and it's also not necessarily true that sunflower seed or tarragon is cross reactive with ragweed pollen, either.  Different parts of the plant, VASTLY different proteins expressed, ergo-- not a logical mechanistic reason why there SHOULD be cross-reactivity there.

Honestly, some things which are not in the same family are far more cross-reactive than things which are...  witness... sesame and peanut, for example.  Or chickpeas and sesame.  What DO those things have in common?  Well, they are seed-storage proteins and both belong to the same protein super-family.  This is where peculiar phenomena like OAS originate, for anyone who was curious. 

On the other hand, carrots and rutabaga might be cross-reactive since it's the same part of the plant and in the same family. 

Similarly-- known cross-reactivity clusters like pistachio-cashew-mango, peanut-lupine, and soy-pea.  Same family AND same part of the plant(s).

[rebekahc]

The AAIA link CM posted may be the same information as your original link since CalgaryAllergy is run by AAIA (according to their website viewed on the Wayback Machine).

Here's a list I found, but it's not as easily readable - might be worth cross-checking between several lists to get a complete one...

http://www.foodallergygourmet.com/Food%20Allergy/Food%20Families.htm

Interesting article from 2002 (so may be dated) about food cross-reactions

http://www.allergyclinic.co.nz/guides/42.html

[Astyas]

Thank you both so much!!

I COMPLETELY forgot about the wayback machine!!! Thank you so much, Rebekahc!

Wow! Those are super interesting tidbits about how and why different things cross react, CMdeux! It seems like there's always a new set of rules for every additional aspect of allergies XD