The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, used a multi-ethnic database of 1,104 children to measure antibodies to egg white, cow's milk, peanut, soy, shrimp, walnut, wheat and cod.
The overall findings reveal that black children are twice as likely to have an immune response to certain foods, especially peanuts, eggs and milk. About 38 percent of black children in the study had food sensitives compared to 22 percent for the white children who participated.
To determine race, the researchers used the children's mothers' self-report of race as well as the distribution of 150 genetic markers in the children's blood, which track ancestry.
