# M&Ms May Contain Peanuts **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 11, 2000, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-ms-may-contain-peanuts/7298 "2000-02-11T04:48:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![EvilGhandi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@EvilGhandi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilGhandi)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2000, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-ms-may-contain-peanuts/7298/21 "2000-02-11T19:12:00Z")
SoMo, You state food allergies are on the rise yet provide no data or even a source to back your assertion. You don’t mind if I take the Center for Disease control’s word over yours do you? A brief search on the web yeilded many hits on how \*litigation\ in food allergy reactions was on the rise. Pushed mainy by the folks from ADA of all people. Food allergies as a disability, interesting. Unfortunately, there was little info concerning the actual scope of the problem. The OP raises a good point. A few people can get very ill from peanuts. It makes sense to require that foods be labled to indicate their presence. In cases where a hyper-sensitive person is going to be, common decency would require us to refrain from exposing them. Treating a substance that is harmless (benificial even) to 99.03% of the population like it was radioactive waste is an hysterical over-reaction. ---
**Author:** ![Frankie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/258eb7/32.png) [@Frankie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frankie)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2000, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-ms-may-contain-peanuts/7298/22 "2000-02-11T19:32:00Z")
## What if im allergic to Rat Feces, or Roach legs though?? 😉 -Frankie “Mother Mercy, can your loins bear fruit forever?/Is your fecundity a trammel or a treasure?” -Bad Religion ---
**Author:** ![Akatsukami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea666f/32.png) [@Akatsukami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akatsukami)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2000, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-ms-may-contain-peanuts/7298/23 "2000-02-11T20:01:00Z")
This seems like a good thread in which to remind the Teeming Thousands that \\**(“natural” | “organic”) != (“good” | “harmless”)**\\ * * * “I don’t just want you to feel envy. I want you to suffer, I want you to bleed, I want you to die a little bit each day. And I want you to thank me for it.” – What “Let’s just be friends” _really_ means ---
**Author:** ![Padeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Padeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Padeye)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2000, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-ms-may-contain-peanuts/7298/24 "2000-02-11T20:12:00Z")
Akatsukami, you might want to translate that for the portion of the teeming millions who are not C programmers. 😃 Good point though. Hemlock is all natural but it didn’t do Socrates much good. ---
**Author:** ![Andy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@Andy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2000, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-ms-may-contain-peanuts/7298/25 "2000-02-11T20:16:00Z")
Being one of the unfortunate souls afflicted with this allergy, I can assure you guys that it is **essential** that I know if there are even traces of peanuts in anything. An example of the sensitivity: I ate a couple of potato chips (crisps to me :)) in a bar, a friend had also eaten some although at some stage in the evening, he’d also eaten peanuts and traces from his hand contaminated the crisps. The peanut traces hit my throat, I hit the floor and the ambulance hit ninety. The real danger (I can usually cope with the reaction myself without the need for medical help), as mentioned before, is that there is no way to predict how severely people will react subsequently, meaning after their first exposure and discovery of the allergy. I ate, although tried to avoid, peanuts until I was maybe 10 years old, they just made me a little sick. ---
**Author:** ![Andy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@Andy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2000, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-ms-may-contain-peanuts/7298/26 "2000-02-11T20:18:00Z")
Peanuts fuck with coding too, who’s eating them around here??? ---
**Author:** ![Oblio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c4cdca/32.png) [@Oblio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oblio)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2000, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-ms-may-contain-peanuts/7298/27 "2000-02-11T20:37:00Z")
Akatsukami: You can’t do that … It should be ( strcmp(“natural”,“good”) != 0 ) for “natural” != “good” etc. Sorry 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Akatsukami](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ea666f/32.png) [@Akatsukami](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Akatsukami)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2000, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-ms-may-contain-peanuts/7298/28 "2000-02-11T20:44:00Z")
**Padeye** , you mean that there are people who _don’t know C_? Alas, for my now-tarnished faith in human nature! :rolleyes: More seriously, though, as Unca Cecil once pointed out (I’ll see if I can find the column, although it might be too archaic to be on line), “natural” has no meaning at all. “Organic” and “unprocessed” have more, but they only mean that who consumes products so labelled will not die any more horribly or unexpectedly than the average pre-industrial slob…and that still leaves a lot of room for improvement. * * * “I don’t just want you to feel envy. I want you to suffer, I want you to bleed, I want you to die a little bit each day. And I want you to thank me for it.” – What “Let’s just be friends” _really_ means ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2000, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-ms-may-contain-peanuts/7298/29 "2000-02-11T23:59:00Z")
Please refer to the previous thread on this similar subject. [http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/000827.html](http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/000827.html) * * * I’m only your wildest fear, from the corners of your darkest thoughts. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2000, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-ms-may-contain-peanuts/7298/30 "2000-02-12T04:42:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by EvilGhandi: > Melin, > > They’re not. > > The CDC reported 88 cases of fatalities resulting from all food allergies _combined_ during the period between 1979-1995. An inconsequential number. They also estimate the population that suffers from penut allergies at 0.07%. I have no idea how to figure out how many deaths were from peauts using that data but I would hazard a guess of 1 or 2. > > Where all this anti-peanut hysteria is coming from, I haven’t a clue. Probably some type of save the children response. > > Any bets that Ray has a different take on the cause? I don’t know about Ray, EG, but I sure do. You ascribe your figures to the CDC, but do not provide a link. Here are some abstracts I got off Internet Grateful Med (MEDline): [http://igm.nlm.nih.gov/](http://igm.nlm.nih.gov/) searching using Peanut & Hypersensitivity (skip to bottom for a summary) > [@](#): > > TITLE: Peanut-induced anaphylactic reactions. > AUTHORS: Burks W; Bannon GA; Sicherer S; Sampson HA > AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Division of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, Department of Pediatrics, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Little Rock, USA. > SOURCE: Int Arch Allergy Immunol 1999 Jul;119(3):165-72 > CITATION IDS: PMID: 10436387 UI: 99367825 > ABSTRACT: Food allergies, particularly to peanuts, are a common cause of anaphylaxis. **Approximately 125 people die each year in the USA secondary to food-induced anaphylaxis.** Clinical anaphylaxis is a syndrome of diverse etiology and dramatic presentation of symptoms associated with the classic features of type I, IgE-mediated hypersensitivity [1]. Typically the term anaphylaxis connotes an immunologically-mediated event that occurs after exposure to certain foreign substances. This reaction results from the generation and release of a variety of potent biologically active mediators and their concerted effects on various target organs. Anaphylaxis is recognized by cutaneous, respiratory, cardiovascular, and gastrointestinal signs and symptoms occurring singly or in combination. This article focuses on allergic reactions to peanuts that manifest as signs and symptoms involving multiple target organs or the cardiovascular system alone. 125 per year vs. 88 in 17 years. Quite a difference. I’d be interested in seeing your cite, but please realize that the CDC has certain “reportable” causes of death - when a death is attributed to HIV, the death MUST be reported to CDC, and usually to state & local health agencies, as well. Allergy-mediated deaths, AFAIK, are not reportable. So if 88 deaths _were_ reported, how many were not reported to the CDC? > [@](#): > > TITLE: Prevalence of peanut and tree nut allergy in the US determined by a random digit dial telephone survey. > AUTHORS: Sicherer SH; Munoz-Furlong A; Burks AW; Sampson HA > AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Elliot and Roslyn Jaffe Food Allergy Institute, Division of Allergy and Immunology, Department of Pediatrics, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA. > SOURCE: J Allergy Clin Immunol 1999 Apr;103(4):559-62 > CITATION IDS: PMID: 10200001 UI: 99216451 > ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Allergy to peanuts and tree nuts (TNs) is one of the leading causes of fatal and near-fatal food-induced allergic reactions. These allergies can be lifelong and appear to be increasing in prevalence. Despite the seriousness of these allergies, the prevalence of peanut and TN allergy in the general population is unknown. OBJECTIVE: We sought to determine the prevalence of peanut and TN allergy among the general population of the United States. METHODS: We used a nationwide, cross-sectional, random digit dial telephone survey with a standardized questionnaire. RESULTS: A total of 4374 households contacted by telephone participated (participation rate, 67%), representing 12,032 individuals. Peanut or TN allergy was self-reported in 164 individuals (1.4%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.2%-1.6%) in 151 households (3.5%; 95% CI, 2.9%-4.0%). The prevalence of reported allergy in adults (1.6%) was higher than that found in children under 18 years of age (0.6%). In 131 individuals, details of the reactions were obtained. When applying criteria requiring reactions to be typical of IgE-mediated reactions (hives, angioedema, wheezing, throat tightness, vomiting, and diarrhea) within an hour of ingestion, 10% of these subjects were excluded. Among the remaining 118 subjects, allergic reactions involved 1 organ system (skin, respiratory, or gastrointestinal systems) in 50 subjects, 2 in 45 subjects, and all 3 in 23 subjects. Forty-five percent of these 118 respondents reported more than 5 lifetime reactions. Only 53% of these 118 subjects ever saw a physician for the allergic reaction, and only 7% had self-injectable epinephrine available at the time of the interview. The prevalence of peanut and TN allergy was adjusted by assuming that 10% of the remaining 33 subjects without a description of their reactions would also be excluded and correcting for a 7% false-positive rate for the survey instrument. A final “corrected” prevalence estimate of 1.1% (95% CI, 1.0%-1.4%) was obtained. CONCLUSIONS: **Peanut and/or TN allergy affects approximately 1.1% of the general population, or about 3 million Americans, representing a significant health concern.** Despite the severity of reactions, about half of the subjects never sought an evaluation by a physician, and only a few had epinephrine available for emergency use. Hmmm. A 1.1% peanut allergy rate vs. a 0.07% allergy rate. Another striking difference. Here’s a discussion about the different manifestations of peanut (and “tree nut”) allergies, and a description of how common accidental ingestions are. [quote] TITLE: Clinical features of acute allergic reactions to peanut and tree nuts in children. AUTHORS: Sicherer SH; Burks AW; Sampson HA AUTHOR AFFILIATION: Division of Allergy/Immunology, Department of Pediatrics, Jaffe Food Allergy Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York, USA. SOURCE: Pediatrics 1998 Jul;102(1):e6 CITATION IDS: PMID: 9651458 UI: 98356228 ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Peanut (PN) and tree nut (TN) allergies are potentially life-threatening, rarely outgrown, and appear to be increasing in prevalence. However, there is relatively little reported about the clinical features of acute reactions to these foods and their potential association. OBJECTIVE: To describe the clinical features of acute reactions during initial and subsequent accidental ingestions of PN and TN among children with a history of at least one acute allergic reaction to these foods. DESIGN: Questionnaire survey, examination, and serologic testing for specific IgE antibody of patients with convincing histories of acute reactions (at least one organ system involved within 60 minutes of ingestion) to PN or TN. RESULTS: A total of 122 patients (63% males; median age, 8 years at time of study) had acute reactions; 68 had reactions only to PN, 20 only to TN, and 34 to both PN and TN. Of those reacting to TN, 34 had reactions to one, 12 to two, and 8 to three or more different TN, the most common being walnut, almond, and pecan. Initial reactions usually occurred at home (median age, 24 months for PN and 62 months for TN) and were considered to result from a first exposure in 72% of cases. Eighty-nine percent of the reactions involved the skin (urticaria, angioedema), 52% the respiratory tract (wheezing, throat tightness, repetitive coughing, dyspnea), and 32% the gastrointestinal tract (vomiting, diarrhea). Two organ systems were affected in 31% of initial reactions, and all three in 21% of reactions. Thirty-eight of 190 first rea ---
**Author:** ![EvilGhandi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@EvilGhandi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilGhandi)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2000, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-ms-may-contain-peanuts/7298/31 "2000-02-12T09:29:00Z")
Aaak. Sue, At appears you have kicked my ass. Problem is, I have taken in a few ounces of ethenol tonite and am both unable and unwilling to read your post in it’s entirety. But even my cursurory scan indicates your dog is bigger than mine. In my defense, I can only say I presented my data in good faith that it was factual. My reasearch was a quick inquiry on alt-vista. That revealed about a zillion people that were sueing under the ADA for action to be taken. Little info was available about the actual scope of the problem. So being the lazy (and apparently more evil than usual) Ghandi I am, I latched on to the first article I found That addresed the issue in a seemingly unbiased fashion. I mistakenly assumed that he had done my reaserch for me and never cross checked his numbers by checking the CDC site myself. [http://www.reason.com/sullum/093098.html](http://www.reason.com/sullum/093098.html) Being evil and all though, (and sharing to a much lesser degree, Ray’s distrust of the legal/medical professions) I will be forced to actually crunch those figures in your summary. I am still unconvinced that peanuts pose a **major** health risk. ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2000, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-ms-may-contain-peanuts/7298/32 "2000-02-12T14:56:00Z")
I am equally as curious to see if the overall sensitivity is on the rise. I have seen this in pretty much all stages. My sister-in-law cannot be in a room where strawberries have been cut. Shellfish is equally dangerous to her, she cannot smell it, touch something that has touched it, or of course, eat it. A friend of mine ate a Gyro with sesame paste sauce ( Tachini ) instead of yoghurt sauce, and within 2-3 minutes was in shock. Incredibly ( me, the heroine ) I had Epinephrine in a vial and a syringe, in my house. His girlfriend called me, I got the stuff, and shot the entire vial into him, while she called 911. When I got to him, perhaps 4 minutes after ingesting the food, he was already clawing frantically at his throat. Extremely frightening stuff. I’d love to know the real mechanism that causes the reaction, and is there any way to suppress it? Those Epi-Pens are a great idea for bee stings and food reactions, but I’ve always wondered if there was some kind of preventative measure that is possible. ``` Cartooniverse ``` ---
**Author:** ![SoMoMom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@SoMoMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoMoMom)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2000, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-ms-may-contain-peanuts/7298/33 "2000-02-12T16:26:00Z")
Cartooniverse, Here’s a page that tries to explain allergic reactions in general. It’s not specific to food allergies. [http://falcon.cc.ukans.edu/~jbrown/allergy.html](http://falcon.cc.ukans.edu/~jbrown/allergy.html) You might be able to find what you are looking for at [www.foodallergy.org](http://www.foodallergy.org) ---
**Author:** ![SoMoMom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@SoMoMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoMoMom)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2000, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-ms-may-contain-peanuts/7298/34 "2000-02-12T16:29:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by EvilGhandi: > \*\* > I am still unconvinced that peanuts pose a **major** health risk. > > \*\* Then thank the powers that be because apparently you are blessed and no one you love suffers from this. You just can’t know how scary it is to wonder if the next thing you eat is going to kill you. ---
**Author:** ![SoMoMom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@SoMoMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoMoMom)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2000, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-ms-may-contain-peanuts/7298/35 "2000-02-13T06:30:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by EvilGhandi: > \*\* > You state food allergies are on the rise yet provide no data or even a source to back your assertion. > > You don’t mind if I take the Center for Disease control’s word over yours do you? > > \*\* I’m sorry I was in kind of hurry before. Here’s a few of the numerous articles that can be found on the subject: [http://www.cadvision.com/allergy/whypeanutswhynow.html](http://www.cadvision.com/allergy/whypeanutswhynow.html)[http://www.cadvision.com/allergy/whypeanutswhynow.html](http://www.cadvision.com/allergy/whypeanutswhynow.html)[http://www.townonline.com/boston/entertainment/parenting/009885\_2\_ask\_011499\_4602bd2db9.html](http://www.townonline.com/boston/entertainment/parenting/009885_2_ask_011499_4602bd2db9.html)[http://ificinfo.health.org/qanda/qafoodallergy.htm](http://ificinfo.health.org/qanda/qafoodallergy.htm) The CDC is a terrible place to try and find out about food allergies statistics and that’s all I’m going to say about that. ---
**Author:** ![SoMoMom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@SoMoMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SoMoMom)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2000, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-ms-may-contain-peanuts/7298/36 "2000-02-13T06:34:00Z")
Darn it! That second link was supposed to be: [http://www.nutritionnewsfocus.com/archive/PeanutAl.html](http://www.nutritionnewsfocus.com/archive/PeanutAl.html) Sorry! ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2000, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-ms-may-contain-peanuts/7298/37 "2000-02-13T06:46:00Z")
I hear they may actually contain chocolate too… ---
**Author:** ![JoltSucker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d2c977/32.png) [@JoltSucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoltSucker)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2000, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-ms-may-contain-peanuts/7298/38 "2000-02-12T19:18:00Z")
I found out the hard way that one of my children was severely allergic to peanuts at the age of 2. He ate a cracker that his friend had licked clean of the peanut butter (at that age, sharing food like that is normal), and immediately had difficulty in breathing. He had an allergy test, and sure enough, he was deathly allergic. He’s been trained from an early age to avoid M&Ms, to eye cookies carefully and to ask someone else to taste one to see if there’s peanut butter in it. At Halloween, we screen out the candy with peanuts. We make cashew butter and almond butter (which is **really yummy** by the way). I am grateful for the labelling “may contain peanuts”, and I’ve gotten to be quite adept at scanning the ingredient list on products - anything with chocolate automatically is suspect, since a lot of manufacturers flavor their chocolate with traces of peanut butter. ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2000, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-ms-may-contain-peanuts/7298/39 "2000-02-12T20:58:00Z")
Evil Ghandi - I read your cite. You say you made your post in good faith. Yet: Your post cites the prevalence of peanut allergies at 0.07%. Your source lists it at 0.7%. I am will to accept 0.7% as not being significantly different from 1.1% due to different study techniques, but I do question your “inadvertent” 10-fold reporting error. Here is a quote from your cite regarding deaths from food allergies: > [@](#): > > Such cases are quite unusual, however. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention counted only 88 deaths from all food allergies combined from 1979 through 1995. Even the Food Allergy Network, an advocacy group that says the government’s figures are way off, puts the number of deaths at 125 a year–25 times the CDC’s rate, but still pretty rare. In other words, the article provided you with 2 markedly different estimates of the frequency of food-allergy-mediated deaths in the US. You chose to present only one. Feel free to consider peanut allergy “not a major health risk”. :rolleyes: A typical K-5 elementary school with 100 kids per grade can expect to have 4-7 peanut-allergic kids attending the school. - Sue ---
**Author:** ![milroyj](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a88e57/32.png) [@milroyj](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/milroyj)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2000, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-ms-may-contain-peanuts/7298/40 "2000-02-12T21:27:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Feel free to consider peanut allergy “not a major health risk”. A typical K-5 elementary school with 100 kids per grade can expect to have 4-7 peanut-allergic kids attending the school. So school cafeterias should ban PBJs? From a liability standpoint, I can see them not _serving_ them, but to ban all the other kids from bringing a sandwich from home? Same thing goes for the peanuts they stopped serving on airplanes. Whether it’s .07, .7, or 1.1%, prohibiting 300 people on a flight from eating peanuts because 1-3 might be allergic is ridiculous. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-ms-may-contain-peanuts/7298.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/m-ms-may-contain-peanuts/7298.md?page=3)