Q&A: Super Bowl ad indicates need for more allergy education

Key takeaways:

• Uber Eats cut a joke about peanut allergy from its commercial after advocates voiced their concerns.
• One in 10 adults and one in 13 children have a life-threatening food allergy.

In the hype leading up to this year’s Super Bowl, Uber Eats released a preview of its Big Game commercial. Along with appearances from Jennifer Aniston, Usher and other celebrities, it included a joke about a man with a peanut allergy.

Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE) was not amused. The advocacy group shared its concerns with Uber Eats, which agreed to delete the gag from the final version of the ad that aired during the game.

Healio spoke with Sung Poblete, PhD, RN, CEO of FARE, to find out more about the kind of effect that depictions of food allergy in the media can have on patients and what physicians can do to improve outcomes.

Healio: Generally, what does the public get wrong about food allergy?

Poblete: People often think about food allergy as a diet. That is the wrong way to think about it. Life-threatening food allergy is a disease, not a diet.

People don’t realize how much it affects someone throughout their day-to-day. The burden of this disease is tremendous. It is chronic, it is constant, and it is anxiety-inducing because you don’t have total control over what you are exposed to. No matter the level of vigilance you bring to your day, there are going to be moments when you have to trust a label, trust a restaurant, trust that foods made in someone’s home are safe for you to consume. If you are a food allergy parent, that anxiety is heightened when your child is at school or away from home. At FARE, we are calling for more consideration of inclusivity for the food-allergic community. No one chooses this disease.

In addition, the public may not know that there has been a lack of research funding around the disease of food allergy, particularly as compared with other diseases. Our mission at FARE is to improve the quality of life and health of those with food allergies through transformative research, education and advocacy, so research that leads to the development of more treatment options for those with food allergy is core to our mission.

Until this past week, only Palforzia (Aimmune Therapeutics), an immunotherapy designed to decrease the severity of peanut allergies, had received FDA approval. We are pleased that Xolair (omalizumab, Roche), the first FDA-approved medicine to reduce allergic reactions in people with one or more food allergies, has now been added to the toolkit for the community of people living with the disease of food allergy.

Healio: How prevalent is food allergy in the United States?

Poblete: More than 33 million people in the U.S. are afflicted with this disease — one in 10 adults, one in 13 children — and the only way to stop life-threatening food allergies is through avoidance or the use of epinephrine.

Healio: What kind of impact do food allergies have on the quality of life of these families?

Poblete: The anxiety, the bullying that can come, the isolation that can come from constantly being set apart because of a disease you didn’t ask for and can’t control.

Children sometimes experience isolation in many forms.

Parents report that their children are sometimes asked to sit alone or apart from other children to avoid an exposure or potential exposure. Sometimes they are left out of activities or events because their presence presents challenges for accommodation. And sometimes, there is outright bullying from peers.

For example, the teammates of a high school football player in Texas allegedly intentionally exposed him to peanuts after finding out he had a life-threatening allergy to peanuts, flicking them at him and hiding them in his locker and in his cleats in the locker room. These kinds of incidents, both those involving isolating children and those involving active bullying, need to stop.

Healio: What can physicians do to promote awareness of these dangers and challenges?

Poblete: We need to build awareness through every possible avenue that food allergy is a disease, not a diet. Food allergy needs to be a tier-one health care issue for everyone.

Communities that lack easy access to trusted information about food allergy are particularly vulnerable, and physicians can play a vital role in bringing education and support to food allergy patients in these neighborhoods.

What people sometimes do not understand about food allergies is that they are truly life-threatening. To protect themselves and their children, families always need to be vigilant with reading labels and knowing the ingredients in food. Managing food allergies becomes a way of life because of the threat that even a small amount of food can cause serious reactions. Physicians can empower newly diagnosed families with the knowledge of how to manage these day-to-day challenges and how to treat anaphylactic reactions if they occur.

Healio: What can the media do to combat these misconceptions about food allergy?

Poblete: FARE recently released a documentary called It’s a Disease, Not a Diet available online that shows a day in the life of someone with life-threatening food allergies. It depicts the relentless questions and decisions that can arise to prevent an allergic reaction, to avoid a trip to the ER, and to prevent anaphylaxis and death.

FARE also worked with Uber to change its Uber Eats Super Bowl ad, which included an insensitive portrayal of an allergic reaction. FARE reached out to Uber after releasing a statement expressing our disappointment on behalf of the food-allergic community. After bringing Uber to the table to talk about why the reference was not appropriate, Uber listened and did better, removing the offensive segment of its ad.

We plan to work with Uber going forward and other organizations in the hospitality, sports and entertainment industries to promote awareness and change the way that the world understands food allergies so that it is understood as a tier-one health issue where there is far more research, far more funding and far more work toward more therapeutics and a cure for this community.

Healio: Does FARE have any resources that can help physicians and the public alike make these changes?

Poblete: FARE created the FARE Food Allergy Academy with online resources including webinars for health care professionals and a tool kit for patients who have been recently diagnosed. FARE also works with its collaborators to educate the food and restaurant industries.