Nuts...why are they so bad

Nut allergy is a reality, but aid agencies send peanut paste to drought stricken countries, as it's high calorie instant protein for kids who desperately need it.
How can this be a life saver to kids who are starving, and a threat to life to some kids in Europe ?

My DB was born in the 80s and has a few allergies but nuts are one of the more serious ones. He was hospitalised after an incident in school where a class several periods before him had been burning peanuts as part of an experiment - the doctor said that the particles would still be in the air when he went into class. *He’s the person airlines ask you not to eat nuts in planes for - traces in the air could kill him.

When first dating his wife she didn’t know he was allergic and had eaten crunchy nut cornflakes for breakfast - they kissed hello later on that day and he had an immediate reaction requiring his EpiPen.

Often if people don’t know someone with an allergy they often don’t realise how serious it can be and that even very small traces on their skin etc can provoke a reaction.

My mom (77yo) recently had an allergy test done. Turns out she is allergic to all the stuff refused to eat cause "she was a picky eater".

What are urban forest planners? And what is this ‘predilection for male trees’? Most British tree species are monoecious so unless you live somewhere with millions of willows and poplars I can’t imagine this makes any difference.

I'm 76 and remember people/children having nut and other allergies. It wasn't very well dealt with them, lots of kids ended up in hospital which could have been avoided and would be now.

Back in the 80s when I had my oldest child , we were warned about nuts 🥜.
Not to give them to little children .
I tried my children with peanut butter when they got a bit older ( + on a weekday and our GP surgery was open and nearby )

A pregnant young daughter, of a friend, has been advised to eat nuts through pregnancy, to reduce the risk of baby developing an allergy. 🤷‍♀️

Not so many are allergic. It's because one may be so they try and protect that one. Or there is a liektyhood

Ah nuts that we are told are oh so healthy and good for us. Full of nutrients except that we can barely digest them and they’re full of anti nutrients.

Humans are not really designed to eat nuts in large quantities hence why we have so many problems with them from digestion to allergies.

@shazshaz I developed hayfever in my teens and the only summers I didn’t have it after that was when I was pregnant

@Fluffybuns88. This can’t be the reason because my dc were brought up in the USA where there was no “don’t eat nuts” in late pregnancy and kids are basically weaned onto peanut butter - still allergies are really prevalent. I personally think it’s down to the fact that we are so clean now, the very thing that prevents us from getting sick is making immune systems go into overdrive. My dc don’t have nut allergies but one is allergic to m&m’s (and similar) despite no dietary restrictions

I'm 51 and allergic to nuts, always have been.
As I child i just didn't eat nuts (or marathons) if they were around. And wheezed on planes and at parties when nuts were around.
Now there are more nut oils and flours used, more international foods using nuts, so its a bit more of a faff.
I'm also allergic to some other pulses (legumes) and in recent years avoiding those has got much harder as lentil (gram) flour or chick pea flour are in loads of things
So I think the awareness is greater, more food variety (a good thing generally) and more processed food mean more need for clarity about ingredients

I was born in 1971 and have a brazil nut and walnut allergy. My older brother has a fish allergy!

Celery, wheat, strawberries are all native to the UK and major allergens.

I think it’s more complicated than this. Eczema is a failure of the immune system to recognise ‘self’ and ‘not self’. It’s autoimmune which allergies are not - they cannot recognise ‘safe’ and ‘unsafe’ which is different. Eczema is hugely genetic also. On over 36 different genes which is why different treatments don’t work on everyone. So you may not be predisposed to allergy.

The hygiene hypothesis is an interesting one. We are all too clean and don’t let our immune systems encounter enough germs as under 2 year olds.

If I remember correctly the antibody involved in anaphylaxis is evolved to attack parasites. As people no longer get parasites in childhood in the same way this antibody doesn’t really have a job and causes issues with allergies. Including asthma, hay fever, food allergies, autoimmune conditions etc.

I wonder if people who were under 2 in Covid lockdowns will have record numbers of allergies in their cohort.

Allergies are so strange. I used to get the worst hay fever ever, now I don't get any at all. After my first pregnancy I developed a tree nut allergy, confirmed after serious reactions and then allergy tests at hospital. Last week I made a mistake and didn't read some packaging properly and accidentally ate hazelnut. I had no reaction at all. So it seems I'm no longer allergic to hazelnut. The only difference between then and now is I've gone through menopause. For me I think major hormonal shifts have affected my allergies.

Dietary advice to pregnant women has resulted in a rise of food allergies.

Regardless, ‘everyone’? Really? I only know two people with a nut allergy and no children. Of course it’s a common allergy, but it’s the minority.

I do wonder if it's because ( historically) most of the allergens are " foreign ".
We don't live in a country where peanuts and peppers have always grown and been eaten. Even in the US, most people haven't been there beyond a few hundred years.
My theory is loosely based in the fact that I grew up in rural Kent, definitely exposed to fruit trees, grasses and hay, but didnt develop awful hay fever until I moved to Cornwall as an adult and was suddenly exposed to foreign pollens. Damn you, white flowering trees! 🙄

Yes I agree with this I ate nits throu my first pregnancy no problems !
2nd pregnancy no nuts my daughter has a severe nut allergy it's wild ! Also she never ate any nuts til she was 5 that was the advise at the time !

I feel hundreds of years old right now, actually I was out last night and regretting it this morning. Maybe it was just an old wives tale.

Hmmm… I reckon it all kicked off when they changed Marathon to Snickers! No?

Further to the theory that if a body first encounters an allergen through the gut the body accepts it as a harmless food but it if the first exposure is through the skin the body launches an immune response, I fairly frequently see advice to test of an allergy by rubbing it on the skin first. This I think has become more popular as the fear of allergies and having your baby suffer an anaphylactic shock has grown, but if more children are having this exposure to allergens, then it follows that allergy rates will rise.

Honestly never knew nut allergy was even a thing until I moved to the UK as an adult. I've never heard if it growing up and never knew anyone with any food allergies. Now it seems shocking how many people have them and how serious they are. We must be doing something differently 😥

Why would you feel guilty about eating a snickers unless your eating it on a plane. If nobody in your household has an allergy enjoy your snickers