Nuts...why are they so bad

People eating loads of UPFs?

True. Nuts were a Christmas treat. And peanuts were in chocolate which was more of an adult thing. We also had jam rather than peanut butter.

Interesting. This can happen if you have a break from a food then when you eat it your immune system recognizes it and fights it. Like how it's the second beesting that gives you an allergic reaction.
I remember children getting hives from strawberries as we only had them for a couple of months during summer. Don't seem to see hives now, probably because fruit is available year round in some form.

On Spotify the Zoe science podcasts are excellent, interviewing cutting edge scientists (not influencers!) they have just done one on allergies with a British professor who explains the change in rates well worth a listen

Egg allergy is like that as well.

I'm not allergic but was prone to coldsore breakouts. Someone told me peanuts cause it so I took them out of my diet and haven't had one since. Apparently they repress a mineral, can't remember what its called but begins with L.

My daughter has a peanut allergy. She would probably have died during her first reaction as a toddler a few decades ago but survived because of modern medicine and awareness of the issue. When she first had it we poured modern antihistamine down her throat which saved her life (it was touch and go with her breathing) and we knew it was an allergic reaction. It may well have been put down to a different cause in the past.

My son ate nuts, eggs, fish and more from weaning, and we ate them regularly before that,, no rubbing things on his skin or any other weird stuff, and it was all fine. It was only at 1 that he suddenly became allergic and had to get an EpiPen. He absolutely loved fish and seafood so it was a real shame that he couldn't have them any more.
So I think all this information about experiencing things through the gut first or not having things until age 2 is universally true.
No other food allergies in the family, just him.

You were lucky. I, like many got it worse when pregnant and you can't take anything for it during pregnancy.

Peanuts were avoided anyway as they are a choking hazard and can cause pneumonia if inhaled.

I was a new mother when these guidelines came in. We were also told to avoid egg white. Just recently they have changed it back to the old way. Can't remember being told to avoid them in pregnancy though. Allergies were already rising though even then.

54 years ago a lot of them will have died before they made it to school age.

I know someone who did a study on this. I can’t remember what outcome was completely but there was a connection between the rise of allergies and pollution and also of high cleanliness standards.
the cleaner you are the more likely you are to get allergies.
it’s very interesting. I didn’t know anyone with a nut allergy when I was a child either.
A friend from South Africa said it’s practically unheard of out there too, which makes you wonder why.

Loads of people have airborne reactions, surely. My friend’s husband couldn’t be in the M&Ms store in London because of his allergy and I was reading a journal article recently about allergy parenting and they cited the case of a child with an airborne wheat allergy who couldn’t go near the bread aisle in supermarkets.

One of my DC has anaphylaxis and I am thankful that it isn’t airborne!

Yes this. We have done it to ourselves. And the western trend for avoiding particular foods in pregnancy and when weaning is travelling across the world and there are growing numbers of allergy sufferers in countries that tradtionally have high intake of nuts and other allergens because they are avoiding them too.

If you’re talking about my post about my DB he’s actually had a reaction to airborne particles more than once and been hospitalised twice, the second time they could barely get oxygen in as his airway was so swollen they thought they were going to have to give him a surgical airway so about as far from a ‘minor reaction’ as you can get. It is a bit different as in the first 2 instances they had been burning peanuts in the room a while before he came in so there would be a greater amount of particles in the air but his consultant has advised that it’s absolutely not worth risking it on a plane now that he’s had such a severe reaction he’s more prone to more.

Many people’s aren’t but it doesn’t fit with the modern ‘plants are best’ mantra.

Good luck moving forward.

There was one girl in my school (1990's 300 pupils) who suddenly developed a severe peanut allergy. Full blown anaphylaxis nearly died etc.

The school didn't do anything about it, she was basically left responsible for avoiding nuts while we were chomping on Snickers from the vending machine. Totally crazy there was no total ban put in place, thankfully taken more seriously these days.

I think their must be a TUI crew member at Newcastle with an allergy as just about every flight I've been on in the last 10 years or so has had an announcement that nuts are banned on that flight.

Yabu-ish.
A lot of those people who choked on nuts actually had anaphylaxis.

Recently there was also the
misguided guidelines for introducing nuts later and weaning quite late.

I used to work in an office with something severely allergic to nuts. He was out one day, so a visitor used his desk. The next day he came in, wiped down his desk and equipment and still had a reaction almost soon as he’d sat down. The visitor was there again, and it turned out he’d had peanut butter on toast for breakfast the previous day. We could only imagine that traces of peanut butter were on the mouse/desk/chair.

Also, we didn’t eat as much massively processed food containing peanuts/groundnuts and the oil as much in the 70s, 80s & 90s.

Thank you for taking time to reply. It's good to feel some validation that having never had digestive problems all my life, since I started eating beans, seeds and nuts things have become quite bad. I reckon my system is not geared up for them.

Nuts aren't particularly bad, all allergies are increasing.

Probably multiple reasons - changes in the way food is cultivated, grown and processed.
More chemical exposure.
Cleaner homes.
Fewer parasites to battle so our immune systems overreact to food
More people with allergies, asthma and eczema surviving to adulthood to pass on their genes

My great grandfather had what I would now view as an anaphylactic reaction to shellfish - but back then everyone thought it was his asthma, and because the adrenaline that he had to carry (he had very bad asthma) seemed to work in either case, he was never diagnosed. Just had asthma attacks if anyone slipped him a prawn.

Interesting. Parents in Australia and New Zealand used to routinely worm children, as we do dogs. They were shocked that we wait until there are signs of worms. I wonder if their rates of allergy are higher?

We are too clean and used creams and cleansers on babies and young children which contained arachis oil from peanuts.
Mine were never fully bathed - top and tailed (I was too lazy and bathroom was cold) and my children have done the same with their babies and have no allergies yet.