Dr. Ben F. Feingold's Flea Theory

I've been reading Dr. Feingold's book, "Why Your Child Is Hyperactive", and I thought that I would write a few things about. This book teaches the science behind the Feingold Program as Dr. Feingold discovered that additives and colorings/flavorings do harm the body.

"Demonstrated that the reaction to the flea bite was induced by a( low molecular weight) chemical present in the saliva of the insect. This is known as hapten. Because of its size, the little hapten is an immune or an allergic response. However, when combined with proteins which are larger-molecular weight substances, it is able to stimulate the body defense mechanism and produce allergic reactions. This phenomenon involving the hapten was demonstrated by Drs. Carl Landsteiner and Merrill Chase of the Rockeffer Institute.

Where the insidious flea bite was concerned we learned that the hapten combined with the collagen of the skin. Working with guinea pigs one flea nips would cause no trouble. Another bite a few days later would set them off- a clear example of delayed hypersensitivity. The chemicals man uses as drugs and chemicals used as food additives are both low-molecular compounds, subject to the same behavior as the hapten demonstrated in flea saliva." Thus leading to the possibility of food, drug, and cosmetic coloring dyes were in fact able to create hypersensitivity in people.