{"id":489,"date":"2026-04-09T12:11:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T19:11:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/insidemultisite.salk.edu\/spring-2026\/?p=489"},"modified":"2026-08-08T19:05:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T02:05:18","slug":"why-does-the-body-deem-some-foods-safe-and-others-unsafe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inside.salk.edu\/fall-2026\/why-does-the-body-deem-some-foods-safe-and-others-unsafe\/","title":{"rendered":"Why does the body deem some foods safe and others unsafe?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<details class=\"wp-block-details is-layout-flow wp-block-details-is-layout-flow\"><summary><em><em>SCIENCE IMMUNOLOGY<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><br><em>03\/2026\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/summary>\n<p><\/p>\n<\/details>\n\n\n\n<p>In little moments like when sipping coffee or licking an ice cream cone, it doesn\u2019t seem like your body is pulling off a biological miracle. But it is. That ice cream is <em>not you<\/em>\u2014yet when you put it in your mouth, your body is able to tolerate it and process it without any detriment to your health in a process called oral tolerance.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.salk.edu\/scientist\/jamie-blum\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Jamie Blum, PhD<\/a>, is an oral tolerance expert, and her latest research identified new bits of food proteins that tell gut immune cells when to tolerate certain foods. They found three of these protein segments, called epitopes\u2014one each from soybean, corn, and wheat. These epitopes interact with specialized immune cells called regulatory T cells to inform that tolerance-or-rejection decision. The findings are an enormous step forward in understanding food tolerance and may inform future immunotherapies for people with food allergies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.salk.edu\/news-release\/why-does-the-body-deem-some-foods-safe-and-others-unsafe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Read news release<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In little moments like when sipping coffee or licking an ice cream cone, it doesn\u2019t seem like your body is pulling off a biological miracle. But it is. That ice cream is not you\u2014yet when you put it in your mouth, your body is able to tolerate it and process it without any detriment to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discoveries","category-immunobiology"],"blocksy_meta":{"has_hero_section":"enabled","hero_section":"type-2","page_structure_type":"type-3","styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"[data-prefix=\"single_blog_post\"] .entry-header .page-title {--theme-font-size:30px;} [data-prefix=\"single_blog_post\"] .entry-header .entry-meta {--theme-font-weight:600;--theme-text-transform:uppercase;--theme-font-size:12px;--theme-line-height:1.3;} [data-prefix=\"single_blog_post\"] .hero-section[data-type=\"type-2\"] {background-color:var(--theme-palette-color-6);background-image:none;--container-padding:50px 0px;}","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":{"Albert Sans":["n4","n6"]},"version":6}},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Why does the body deem some foods safe and others unsafe? - Inside Salk | Fall 2026<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/inside.salk.edu\/fall-2026\/why-does-the-body-deem-some-foods-safe-and-others-unsafe\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why does the body deem some foods safe and others unsafe? - Inside Salk | Fall 2026\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In little moments like when sipping coffee or licking an ice cream cone, it doesn\u2019t seem like your body is pulling off a biological miracle. 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