Nuts...why are they so bad

[NotAnotherScarf]

Nut allergy

Can someone please explain the fact that 54 years ago I started school and did 14 years without meeting anyone allergic to nuts...now everyone is and I can't enjoy a snickers without feeling guilty.

It is actually a serious question how we have got to the situation where so many people are in trouble if I open a packet of dry roasted.

No its not, peanut oil isnt licensed in any human vaccine. Try to use facts if you want to push your anti vax agenda

This is honestly such a ridiculous statement to make because its so easy to find out that it's a load of crap

No it isn't.
Standard childhood and adult vaccines are generally safe for those with peanut allergies as routine immunizations.
There is no credible scientific link between vaccine ingredients and the development of food allergies such as a peanut allergy.

Problem solved then.

When I was young (primary school) I remember being told more than once that children before the age of 3 shouldn’t eat nuts because their throats were too small and they could choke on them. Looking back on it I suppose some young children with nut allergies died and it was perceived as choking.

Unless you’re hundreds of years old I think most people - especially medical professionals - could tell the difference between normal choking and anaphylaxis.

It must be very scary to have a food allergy that can kill you and very stressful for the parents. What is in nuts that triggers allergies?

I don’t remember if I ate nuts during pregnancy but I don’t remember actively avoiding them either. I did avoid seafood but that was because I assumed it was for my benefit not the baby’s as they are a food poisoning risk. Neither of my kids had any food allergies and I didn’t know it was even a thing in my own childhood.

I have a child with terrible allergies and one without. Followed the same advice in pregnancy and through weaning, they were raised in the same house - we were never expecting it until that child went into anaphylactic shock in a restaurant age 5. Suddenly allergic to nuts (and other foods). Rushed to hospital, saved, prescribed epipens to carry at all times.

I would not wish it on anyone. It is stressful, it causes immense anxiety and we are determined that she lives a normal life travelling and eating out but it takes planning and cooperation from others. I hate that it happened to us and we will never know why or what we could have done differently. But food allergies are on the rise and there are more children than ever suffering from them. Reasons are not established.

Just because it didn't happen so often in the past doesn't mean it's made up or due to fussiness or can be directly attributed to pregnancy advice or weaning or vaccines (ie all things people can blame mothers for doing/not doing/doing wrong). Just be thankful, OP, that you can eat your snickers in your own home and never have to fear that a snack will send you to hospital.

I’m 38, I have a life threatening food allergy, I wasn’t diagnosed until I was about five, but it was discovered when I had an extremely severe reaction as a small baby. I’m now allergic to other things within the same family, some not as severe, some as severe. I have also recently become allergic to raw peppers, a food I have been eating my entire life.

Allergies aren’t new, we just understand them much better, particularly mild allergies. Mild allergies were ignored, but we know now that allergies can worsen over time/exposure. I for example could tolerate raw pepper when my allergy to it started, now I can’t even touch them if the skin has been cut without having a strong reaction.

That's a lovely word and I had to Google it...which opened a can a worms so thanks.

Everyday lately I seem to be learning something new! Did you know that the vikings actually west east too and basically established Kiev.

That's a lovely word and I had to Google it...which opened a can a worms so thanks.

Everyday lately I seem to be learning something new! Did you know that the vikings actually west east too and basically established Kiev.

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

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 😥

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.

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

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.

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 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! 🙄

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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