I grew up in the eighties with a peanut allergy. Exposure would trigger an asthma attack. At around 13, I lost the asthma, so now all it does is irritate me (although I’m not sure what would happen if I had a large quantity of it). I used to think I was allergic to tree nuts as well, if only because they all tasted and smelled the same to me as a kid. Much later on I would discover that I really like a lot of nuts and now feel that I wasted a lot of my life missing out on them (I’m only sort of kidding).
I did grow up with soy milk, but so do lots of other east asians …
And I did develop some eczema in my late twenties. This might be hereditary however, my mother has some skin issues (but loves peanuts – she would have me shell them for her despite my allergy. Interesting how different the attitude is nowadays).
My kid didn’t get soy milk (I don’t think - just standard Infamil), but he was on formula way earlier than normal. I’ve heard suggestions that eating PB during pregnancy could contribute (and the missus ate a lot of it), but the severity and quantity of allergies he started out with makes me suspect something else. He had a hell of a time - rough birth, heart problems, eczema, asthma, plus allergies to egg, soy, tomato, nuts, peanuts, grass, dogs… there were more, but I can’t remember them all. This according to an allergist after a series of tests, not according to a paranoid overprotective parent.
I’ve already mentioned that I have a walnut allergy, I also am allergic to cats and some other normal stuff, wifes brother has some pretty bad hayfever, so genetics seems to be more likely to me. We’re not neat freaks, so the over-sterile environment thing doesn’t hold much water in his specific case.
Anecdotal, but there you go.
Shagnasty - you got jumped because a lot of us have heard the old “oh, he’s not allergic to peanuts, you’re just trying to ruin my kids party” stuff for years. The tone of the OP was enough to get some cackles… no, “hackles”, yes hackles raised. Sorry about that.
I saw on a university lecture on TV a few years back that allergies tend to follow regional eating patterns; Europeans are more frequently horribly allergic to hazelnuts than peanuts, and Middle Easterners get sesame allergies more often. So I would think that a society where peanuts are a staple would experience peanut allergies; perhaps you could ask a local doctor when you run into one.
While “nut” has a botanical meaning, that is related to their external covering and does not have anything in particular to do with the part we eat, which is the seed. Many nuts are no more closely related to each other taxonomically than they are to peanuts. If there is a relationship between allergies to certain kinds of nuts and to other kinds of edible seeds such as peanuts, it is most likely due to the kinds of compounds that are stored in the seeds to provide nourishment to the developing plant embryo. It has little to do with whether the seed and its coating satisfy the technical botanical meaning of “nut.”
Case in point. Cashews are not true nuts, botanically speaking. They are in the same family as poison ivy and poison sumac (as are mangos), and many people are sensitive to the compounds they contain (although most are not). Raw cashews are toxic to anyone, so they have to be roasted before being eaten. Sensitivity to cashews may not be closely related to allergies to other kinds of nut.
This type of cross-reactivity can happen with lots of things, so it’s really not surprising if someone is allergic to one item, they’ll have allergies to others. Even if two food items seem unrelated, they can contain the same allergen, or ones that are similar enough to cross-react. The same is true with environmental allergies and food allergies. People with grass allergies, for instance, may also find themselves unable to eat tomatoes because they contain substances that are similar enough to each other to cause a reaction.
The OP wasn’t denying that allergies exist. The skepticism was about the apparent recent increase in peanut allergies:
(bolding mine)
I think the questions raised (Are peanut allergies increasing, and why are peanut allergies often linked to nut allergies) are valid ones and don’t at all exclude the possibility that some people have severe peanut allergies.
Thanks. That is correct and always was. I am not sure how some took it to mean that I think that peanut allergies (or even all allergies) may not exist at all. Most people are familiar with increased coverge of peanut allergies. I am moderately suprised the question touches such a nerve.
In case someone missed the main point, lots of people think that peanuts are nuts. It always sounded strange that people would report dual allergies if the belief that peanuts are nuts isn’t correct. We saw earlier that they do have some things in common that makes such an allergy make sense.
If you go back and read the older allergy threads, in which people are routinely accused of being hyperparanoid with freak children who ought to be kept home and out of the way of the normal people, it might not be so suprising. It gets very boring, being accused of these things all the time–not just here but IRL as well. IME most people do not take allergies seriously until they see it happen, and until then they can be quite offensive about it.
About a year ago I was swelling up, losing ability to breathe and coughing up blood that was bubbling in my lungs ( I still don’t know what that was). I made it to the emergency room just in time. Now I carry epipens but I still do not take allergies THAT seriously. I mean c’mon, it can easily kill me the second time (and I don’t know what the allergen was, so shouldn’t it be doubly-scary?!), but so can a bus, faulty brakes or cancer.
I understand that with kids it’s different, but not to the point of being dead serious about it. If your kid actually goes into anaphylactic shock when somebody says the word ‘peanut’ in adjacent county, then by all means be as careful and paranoid and serious as you wish – but allergies like that are extremely rare. If your kid gets some facial swelling and a rash, there’s a chance that the next reaction is going to be worse, but seriously: “Up to 500-1,000 fatal cases of anaphylaxis per year are estimated to occur in the US.” I mean for fuck’s sake: Diabetes Mellitus: 69,301. Should we have birthday cake free zones so that your child won’t be psychologically conditioned into diabetes? If you know it’s bad for you, short term or long term, you should not eat it. Be it cake or peanuts. I bet that 99 out of 100 times when somebody unknowingly or accidentally ingests something they know they are allergic to, it’s due to carelessness on their part, not somebody else’s.
I am in my mid-40’s and I have had food allergies all my life, so no, it’s not a matter that suddenly in the 1980’s we had allergic people
I am mildly allergic to peanuts, but I can eat tree nuts, as I am not allergic to them. I can eat soy and green beans and garbanzo beans safely - but I’m am definitely allergic to peas and lentils. So it can be rather hit-or-miss.
Allergies have run in my family back into my parents’ generation at least, if you count things like eczema. That’s a family history of allergies dating back to the 1920’s. Again, this is not new. People have had problems with allergies for a very long time. Maybe it’s just that we now know what they are suffering from. Undoubtably, with modern medicine, some people who would have died a century ago now live much longer lives.
Anyhow - certain foods, related or not, seem prone to provoking allergic reactions. Among them are legumes, nuts, wheat, fish, and dairy. On the other hand, there are people with allergies to say, pineapple or something who don’t have a problem with the “typical” allergy-inducing items. This disorder is not fully understood. There is probably some genetic factor that makes one more or less prone to allergies, but clearly other factors, such as environment, also come into play.
Actually, I recall one occassion when I was young when an adult attempted to force-feed me something I was allergic to in order to “cure” me of my bad attitude and picky eating habits. I have had people try to trick me (by concealing offending foods in another food) into eating things I am allergic to in order to “prove” it was all in my head.
I had a friend in elementary school who was severely allergic to milk. A substitute teacher attempted to force-feed her milk because it couldn’t possibly be bad for anyone and children MUST have their milk.
My neice, who has life-threatening food allergies, has also had to endure adults attempting to force her to eat things that could kill her (she has had multiple trips to the ER due to allergies) as well as the usual asshats trying to trick her into eating things.
What I am saying is that there is a surprising streak of malice in people. This is even more serious a problem for children, who are less able to fight off stubborn adults, defy authority, use their intelligence to avoid deception and problems, and in general are more vulnerable to accidents and bad judgement.
I’m pretty severely allergic to bee stings. Everybody in my family decided it was a good idea I participate in the bee keeping process we’ve inherited from my grandfather when I was about 8 years old or so. :dubious: I got stung about five times over the span of three years, and this was before epipens. I didn’t get anaphylaxis back then but I’d lose function of an entire limb or more for a week. I don’t know what they were thinking, but it did teach me to be careful around bees. Nothing like an airborne hostile determined and seeking allergen missile to make a peanut seem less serious.
My mom is 63 and is deathly allergic to peanuts. She carries a hypodermic of antihistamines in her purse. She doesn’t like Chinese restaurants because if you ask the waiter if there’s peanut oil in anything, you can’t tell if he both truly understands and takes the question seriously. She’s been told not to worry before, and then had an attack. A few years ago she got ahold of a peanut oil containing cookie, and even though she was with her pediatrician-cousin, and in his clinic, he was close to taking her to the real hospital.
A friend of mine became allergic to sesame seeds & oil in his 50’s. He was hospitalized for several days with the first episode. Now he carries an injection kit in case of “accidental” exposure–to prevent anaphylactic shock.
I’m pretty leery of them too. There’s a chain of restaurants around here called California Pizza Kitchens that have a ‘peanut protocol’. If a customer informs the server that he or she is allergic to peanuts, a red light goes on in the kitchen and the entire working staff is immediately made aware of the situation. Hopefully this practice will someday disseminate throughout the entire industry.
I guess I can understand the scepticism. I’m 40 and have lived in many countries and had many workplaces, including primary schools full of children. I have never been somewhere where there has knowingly been a child or adult with peanut allergies or where there is a peanut product ban.
Suddenly (it seems) there are now so many children who will die if they sniff a peanut that there are schools which have banned anyone from bringing peanut products to school. Something that I certainly never grew up worrying about.
I would be a little miffy if I was told that I mustn’t have anything with peanuts in it in my workplace. It would be akin to being told not to bring any particular food stuff to work but this doesn’t mean I don’t understand how dangerous it could be to the sufferer and that I wouldn’t comply but I’ve never been in that situation.
I work in a large university with on-campus food halls and I assume they have peanut products in use and on sale - I still don’t knowingly know anyone with a peanut allergy - thus making the issue seem somewhat overblown from my perspective.
This is not to make light of anyone who does have a life threatening allergy to peanuts.
I still don’t know what that was). I made it to the emergency room just in time. Now I carry epipens but I still do not take allergies THAT seriously. I mean c’mon, it can easily kill me the second time (and I don’t know what the allergen was, so shouldn’t it be doubly-scary?!), but so can a bus, faulty brakes or cancer.