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EDITOR'S NOTE
Kathryn Calvert
Editor NZ FOODTechnology
INDIAN SPICE AND
ALL THINGS NICE
RESEARCH INTO PERSONALITY TRAITS AND FOOD ALLERGIES
University of Otago researchers have broken
new ground in the area of food allergies, with a
surprising study showing that personality traits
impact people living with a food allergy. The interdisciplinary
team of researchers from Otago’s
Departments of Psychology and Food Science
has found that certain personality traits make
living with food allergies even more challenging
than usual. Lead author Dr Tamlin Conner
says for two weeks, 108 adult participants with
a physician-diagnosed food allergy completed
daily online surveys that queried the occurance
of 25 food allergy issues, alongside their stress
and mood, to investigate whether individual differences
in the big five personality traits (neuroticism,
extraversion, openness, agreeableness
and conscientiousness) are related to food allergy
related problems in everyday life. Conner says
the findings went against the research team’s
hypothesis. “We were surprised that neuroticism
did not lead to more frequent allergy issues or
poorer mood on days with more allergy issues,”
she says. “Instead, higher openness to experience
was the biggest predictor of more issues,
which included going hungry because there was
no safe food available, problems finding suitable
foods when grocery shopping, anxiety at
social occasions involving food, being excluded,
and feeling embarrassed and poorly understood
about their food allergy. It appears the demands
of coping with a food allergy – requiring caution,
routine and consumption of known foods – might
be in direct conflict with the open personality
that craves exploration, variety and novel experiences.”
Conner hopes the findings – published
in the international medical journal Frontiers in
Psychology - will help people understand how
their personality affects the way they cope and
manage their food allergy. “Our findings might
also help parents understand how their child
with a food allergy may be being impacted. For
example, open children might be more likely to
want to try new foods, which could put them at
risk. Knowing their child’s personality, a parent
could look to mitigate those impacts to reduce
their frequency.” National charitable organisation
Allergy New Zealand says food allergy can
create significant burden for many people, and
welcomes the study bringing further knowledge
to the condition. “It the study highlights the
complexities facing adults managing food allergy,
in a New Zealand context, as well as from a
unique perspective. Helping people understand
how their personality traits might help or hinder
their management of food allergy, could improve
their quality of life,” chief executive Mark Dixon
says. It is estimated that 5% of New Zealanders
(up to 10% of children under five) suffer from food
allergies, having increased over the past 20 to 30
years. Hospital admissions for often-life-threatening
anaphylaxis have also increased by near
three-fold in children since 2005.
These days, the world is quite literally at your front door. There’s
no excuse for being insular and, no matter what product or service
you offer to the world, no reason to assume that certain markets are
closed off or too parochial for unorthodox food products.
That’s why efforts to forge closer export ties with India comes as
welcome news for a wide variety of food and beverage manufacturers
in this country. Where once it might have seemed far-fetched to
contemplate selling ‘icecream to Eskimos’, attitudes are changing as
we realise that good food is – no matter where you eat it – still good
food. The India NZ Business Council deserves a pat on the back for
its efforts, described on pages 16 to 19. Have a good March.
BREAKING NEWS
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