Nuts...why are they so bad

I don't think it's the case that we recognise it these days so those with allergies survive. It seems to be well documents that the number of people with serious allergies has increased significantly in recent years.

When I was pregnant for the first time >20 years ago, I was advised not to eat nuts in case the baby was allergic to them. I didn't avoid them because they're a regular part of my diet, and it felt like bad advice. By the time I was pregnant for the last time several years later, the advice was to eat nuts to expose the baby to them and reduce the risk that they'll be allergic to them.

exactly, I read the advice against sea food, nuts bla bla bla and ate them all the more in pregnancy and baby had tons of these in her home made purees. Healthy child now , tall and strong eating everything

Very good point.

I followed the advice to give from 6 months religiously and ensured they got nuts 3 times a week. Yet I had friends who thought they knew better and restricted nuts until age 2 or similar. Very odd that someone would choose to increase the risk of allergies voluntarily, I thought.

What I hadn't realised with nuts is that often the person with the allergy doesn't have to ingest them personally. I was told (though have not researched/verified) that reactions can happen from airborne particles, or touching something which has recently been touched by someone who has been handling nuts. So in a playground for example, child a eats their snickers, gets peanut residue onto their hands then uses the rails to climb the stairs to the slide. Child b is next on the slide, puts their hand on the nutty rails, touches their face and that's enough!

So I assume with more awareness comes more rules and restrictions

Also there's genuinely double the number of people on the planet than there were 50 years ago so your interpretation that there's more of it about is not inaccurate.

I'm allergic - born in the 90s

Snickers should be banned!

I wonder this too, I went to school in the 90s and use to take nuts in my lunch, now they don’t allow anything in schools with nuts as so many are allergic apparently 🤷‍♀️

No idea but I’m sure there will be more than one reason. I went to a school with over 1000 pupils in the 90’s, no one with a nut allergy. I now only eat nuts at home because of hate to take some on a picnic and someone nearby to be allergic. I remember them being a common snack on planes.

There's a scientific reason for this!

Up until the early 2000s women were told to avoid nuts in pregnancy if they had certain health conditions like asthma, up until 2015 parents were told to avoid giving children any nuts until 3 years of age.

Studies now show that starting at 6 months and giving them regularly reduces allergy likelihood by over 80%.

I think it's a good question OP.

Having just googled it I see that it's not a straightforward answer because there are a few different factors to consider.

I also found this interesting wee article ob the BBC about food allergies.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-46302780

Yep.

All the people who were allergic to nuts probably had died.