Nuts...why are they so bad

No idea, but I had to cater to nut, egg and gluten allergies at one of my kids birthday parties one year.

You can’t be allergic the first time you have something as your body hasn’t produced the antibodies yet to cause the allergic reaction.

It’s also supposed to be to do with the fact that we are much cleaner now and kids don’t play in the dirt so their immune system doesn’t learn to distinguish between good and bad bacteria and their gut microbiome isn’t so robust leading to more allergies and an overactive immune system.

I agree with this. Although, I introduced peanuts to both kidd at 6 months. Youngest has a life threatening peanut allergy. Go figure.

Louder, please. I’m sure that the hallowed “protect the NHS” lockdowns caused much more harm than good, weakening children’s immune systems being one of many ways. There may be fireworks when the lockdown generation grows up, and not only because of this.

Peanuts are a more common part of the diet maybe? So people are exposed from a young age and even in utero so less likely to be allergic. In Israel a popular snack is Bamba which are a bit like a wotsit but made of peanuts and often given to babies during weaning. Israel has low rates of peanut allergies and it's thought to be because of Bamba (they are also delicious)

I’m simply intrigued as to why every single time I’ve flown EasyJet (Paris-Belfast-Paris) there is always someone with a “severe nut allergy” and never on any other airline. I am a frequent flyer and use many airlines. On Malaysia Airlines, Singapore Airlines, Garuda, and Air Vietnam they even give you peanuts when you board, and in your breakfast. Obviously I respect the EasyJet announcement and now expect it (I can last a couple of hours without nuts 😜 ) But why the geographical difference? Any answers from you scientists out there?

It was only for a very short period of time that women were advised to avoid nuts in pregnancy (1998-2008), so women were not avoiding them for generations up until the early 2000s.

Only Wild Strawberries are native to Britain. whilst commercially grown garden Strawberry is a result of crossbreeding two species brought from the Americas.

err NO! No one’s fault you’re allergic

I'm 59 and have a nut allergy, have done forever. When I was at school, people laughed because it was so rare, but yeah every man and his dog seems to have it now!

I ate nuts in all my pregnancies (2006, 2007 and 2010).. and the first 2 had nut butter stirred into porridge. Eldest has a brazil nut allergy.
Despite having eaten prawns and shellfish for years with no issue, I developed an allergy during my last pregnancy, and now have to carry epipens as the result of an anaphylactic reaction.

Absolutely tonnes of evidence for it unfortunately.

I never had any allergies as a kid, now at the age of 39 I have a list of them.
Fruit, baths products, perfume, polystyrene, dust, pollen ,cardboard, bake beans spaghetti, pork bacon milkshake.
And the sun.
And many more.

Yes, my brother had a violent allergy to cows milk, back in the early 1960s. The school knew about it, but one dinner lady thought she knew better and forced him to eat custard. He was in hospital for a week in an oxygen tent after that one.

Allergies were 'just fussy eating' to many people back then

But surely the reason for telling women to avoid nuts in pregnancy at that time was because there were already many people with nut allergies around so they were trying to do something to prevent it, unlike in earlier decades.

Nuts are only bad if you have a nut allergy op. If everyone you know has a nut allergy except you, then it's normal that you feel guilty for eating a snickers when you're with them!

I know someone who became dairy intolerance in later life, potentially as a consequence of having Covid.

"It genuinely baffles me that anyone would think I would go to a restaurant or live a life and deliberately not eat most lovely things. "

I know someone who used to say she was allergic just to make sure she didn't get something she really didn't like.

"Also, when I was a child it was uncommon to see people eating unless they were at home or it was mealtime. Sweets and crisps were infrequent treats. Of course, I’m not saying people didn’t, but it wasn’t commonplace to have snack food readily available as it is now."

I suppose eating while walking around wasn't considered polite.
In the 80s snacking was seen as destroying your appetite, but then it started to be promoted, not only by chocolate bar companies but even by health experts who said things like eat fewer and smaller meals. I think that's partly to blame for the obesity crisis we have now.

Without anyone seeing them have an allergic reaction first? I don't think its' this. There's an actual increase in allergies.

Having said that, most of the cafes I go to give me nuts and I didn't know people felt they had to avoid them except in schools and on planes. Colleagues eat them at work with no problem and we'd have no hesitation to have them at picnics unless someone had said they were allergic. OP's reaction seems a bit over the top.

When I was a kid (60’s/70’s) folk didn’t tend to eat nuts like we do now. Peanuts were typically salted, KP, style. The rest came out in shells at Christmas time.

My guess is the law of big numbers means the more prevalent a thing is, the higher number of people will be effected.

Also, when I was a child it was uncommon to see people eating unless they were at home or it was mealtime. Sweets and crisps were infrequent treats. Of course, I’m not saying people didn’t, but it wasn’t commonplace to have snack food readily available as it is now.

Having seen anaphylaxis in action, no way would I deliberately eat nuts outside my house anymore.

Yes definitely nothing peanut based in vaccines. But some vaccines are cultivated on hens eggs - the BCG used to be, don’t know if it still is, son couldn’t have It at school and had to go to a medical centre with a crash team in attendance. He also has severe peanut allergy which was only picked up after testing due to his anaphylactic reaction to raw egg white.
we were told to avoid all nuts so we did for years and avoided even cooked egg.
eventually at 11 he had an oral challenge test at a specialist centre and he’s fine with everything except peanuts. He can now eat cooked egg in cakes. The key thing is the temp and time it’s cooked at as it changes the structure of the protein.
it’s an absolute pain in the arse. He is also autistic with LD and frankly the allergies were far harder to manage outside the home.

i strongly suspect there is a relation to gut microbiome in
terms of the initial and subsequent exposures that set up the allergic response as quality of diet is the one thing that’s changed dramatically over the years. Maybe the improvements are related to better weaning practises ?
allergic response is poorly understood by most people and there should be better education before it gets to the specialist intervention stage.

I ate nuts like people eat crisps. When I was 43 I was strolling in Bluewater eating a bag of hazelnuts when my lips began to tingle and I vomited lavishly like the Exorcist. This has subsequently extended to almonds, walnuts and Brazil nuts. Tree nuts essentially. But not peanuts or cashews.

I was 22 when I first developed hay fever. In Kavos of all places!