Episode #444 When Agriculture Meets Allergy Prevention, With Markita Lewis, MS, RD
- 9 hours ago
- 4 min read
On This Episode Of The Public Health Epidemiology Conversations (PHEC) Podcast
When Agriculture Meets Public Health Innovation
Most families have never heard that peanut allergies can be prevented. The message about early food introduction remains largely unknown, despite research showing a significant reduction in allergy rates when peanuts are introduced to infants around four to six months of age. This gap between evidence and practice creates unnecessary health and financial burdens for millions of families.
Markita Lewis brings a unique perspective to this challenge. As a registered dietitian and Marketing Communications Manager for the National Peanut Board, she works at an intersection few people know exists: where agricultural commodity boards fund food allergy research, develop prevention programs with pediatricians and WIC, and challenge common assumptions about allergen management in schools.
Rethinking What We Know About Peanut Allergies
The conversation explores why peanut bans in schools create false security rather than actual safety. Comprehensive food allergen management requires communication, preparedness, and evidence-based protocols. Simply removing peanuts from cafeterias doesn't reduce allergic incidents and may actually increase risk by creating complacency around emergency preparedness.
Markita shares how research on cultural eating patterns revealed important insights about allergy prevention. Children in regions where peanuts are dietary staples show notably lower allergy rates, pointing to the benefits of early introduction.
The Hidden Public Health Impact
Food allergies function as chronic conditions requiring ongoing management, yet the public health implications remain underrecognized. Markita explains that managing a food allergy creates substantial annual costs for families. Black and Latino communities experience higher allergy rates, influenced by factors including healthcare access and environmental exposures. When prevention becomes possible through dietary changes during infancy, the equity implications become clear.
The National Peanut Board has awarded substantial funding to food allergy research and programming over the past two years. Markita's work demonstrates how plain language communication, creative resources for providers, and strategic partnerships help close the gap between research evidence and family practice.
About Our Guest
Markita Lewis, MS, RD
Markita Lewis serves as Marketing Communications Manager for the National Peanut Board, where she brings expertise in nutrition, food allergy management, and health communications. In this role, she drives commercial and non-commercial foodservice partnerships, provides nutrition and food allergen management education for K-12 schools and college dining programs, supports food allergy research initiatives, and guides the organization's nutrition education and health communications strategy.
Markita earned her undergraduate degree in Nutrition and Food Sciences with a concentration in dietetics and a minor in Psychology from Louisiana State University. She completed a combined master's degree and dietetic internship program at the University of Georgia, where her research focused on food purchasing practices among older adults and SNAP participants, examining how to incorporate culturally relevant Southern foods into healthy eating programs. Before joining the National Peanut Board, she worked in clinical inpatient dietetics at Los Angeles General Medical Center and developed nutrition writing expertise as a freelance communicator. Markita received the Distinguished Service for Media Excellence award from the Georgia Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics in 2025.
Listen To This Episode Of The Public Health Epidemiology Conversations (PHEC) Podcast
Conversation Highlights
Early introduction can prevent most peanut allergies.
Introducing peanuts to infants around four to six months of age significantly reduces allergy development. This accessible intervention during the complementary feeding stage offers affordable disease prevention with substantial public health impact.
School peanut bans don't improve safety.
Research shows schools with peanut bans experience no reduction in allergic incidents compared to schools without bans. Comprehensive food allergen management with communication protocols, staff training, and emergency preparedness proves far more effective.
Food allergies create significant financial burden.
Managing a food allergy costs families thousands of dollars annually. Black and Latino communities experience higher allergy rates, influenced by healthcare access disparities and environmental factors, making prevention strategies particularly important for health equity.
Agricultural boards fund public health research.
The National Peanut Board has awarded substantial funding to food allergy research and programming over the past two years, supporting work in prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and management. This demonstrates how partnerships between agriculture and public health create innovation.
Plain language communication closes the evidence-to-practice gap.
Making research accessible to families, WIC programs, pediatricians, and communities requires creativity and partnership. Resources and collaborations with professional organizations help translate science into family practice.
Cultural food practices inform prevention strategies.
Communities where peanuts are dietary staples show lower allergy rates, providing evidence for early introduction benefits and demonstrating how dietary patterns influence allergy development.
Allergy prevention belongs in standard preventative care.
Framing early introduction alongside recommendations for nutrition, exercise, and hydration positions it as routine preventive medicine rather than special intervention, normalizing the practice for families and healthcare providers.
"Research shows that food removal, food ban policies alone aren't enough to keep kids safe. They actually might not actually do anything because it creates a false sense of security."Â - Markita Lewis
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