Antibiotics
If changes in the gut flora are an important factor in food intolerance, then the use of antibiotics must undoubtedly shoulder some of the blame. The major antibiotics have only been in widespread use since the 1940s, and no-one would deny their major contribution to medicine. Indeed, a short course of antibiotics is unlikely to do anyone much harm. It is prolonged use, or very high doses, that are most likely to affect the gut flora. In some situations the antibiotics are not strictly necessary – in treating acne for example, or in repeated childhood ‘infections’ that are not really infections at all but undiagnosed allergies.
A lot of things have changed in the last 50-100 years. Of all the momentous changes that have occurred, is there anything that might have made people more susceptible to food intolerance? On the basis of what we already know about how food intolerance begins, there are several obvious candidates.
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