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.

My daughter has a nut allergy and it is so stressful. Every restaurant, coffee shop etc the fear of cross contamination is always there. Her allergist said there are different schools of thought and one of them is that we are too clean/sterile. Though I think pollution is another possible factor. In the last 10/15 years we were also told to wean later and not introduce allergens til later (she said the research now says it's better to introduce the allergens to the gut sooner rather than later incase it gets through the skin - especially if your baby has excema and the skin is thin, broken). I'm not sure there's anything conclusive but it is an immune response. My sister has a severe egg allergy so it does run in our family. My daughter also has asthma and eczema which all seem to be directly linked. It is a pain not being able to eat a snickers bar but having an allergy and the stress it can cause really sucks.

I think we called it choking, but actually it was allergic swelling of the throat. So as a PP said, many of the children with allergies in the past did not survive.

All food allergies are increasing though.

Its not clear why this is the case.

My best friend is allergic to peanuts, it was diagnosed when we were 11 and we're now in our late 40s so it was definitely around in the 80s and 90s. She is extremely allergic and can have a reaction to someone who has eaten peanuts previously breathing on her or through touching a surface that has been contaminated so Snickers and all peanut products were immediately banned at school and I very rarely eat them now because I'm so conditioned to avoiding them even though we live 1000 miles apart 🤣

My now adult child would have died years ago.

They had to have neocate and have remained highly allergic, anaphylactic and intolerance to many foods.

The theory that fewer intestinal worms is related to the rise in allergens is pretty strong. Plenty of research has shown this.

Intestinal worms release a chemical that dampens down the immune response (in order that they are not destroyed by the host).

Children began being treated for intestinal worms more regularly when the medication became readily available in the 60's, 70's, 80's and beyond. There is a correlation between a huge reduction in intestinal worms and the rise in allergic reactions to food stuffs.

You can do your own research as lots online but you are by no means the only one who has issues with nuts, or indeed, other supposedly healthy plant based foods. Beans , nuts, seeds etc. are all used by plants to reproduce and therefore have evolved strategies not to be fully digested.

Nuts are very high in omega 6 which is a known driver of inflammation. They also contain phytates, oxalates, lectins & tannins which are known mineral chelators. So not only do we struggle to absorb the minerals from them but they can actually deplete us of minerals. Oxalates are the worst as they build up in the body over time - see Sally Norton for more info.

Nuts also are often grown in areas that are heavily sprayed with synthetic fertilisers and pesticides which are directly toxic.

Some nuts contain high levels of FODMAPS which can trigger IBS etc.

I would love to believe that nuts are healthy but my body and what we know about them tells me otherwise. Some people may do well on them but I don’t as do many others.

I’m not sure sure our ancestors ever ate large quantities of nuts except for when desperate. Can’t imagine them surviving a harsh Northern hemisphere climate eating mostly nuts. Dose makes the poison.

And yes they do contain anti nutrients in abundance - phytates, tannins, oxalates, lectins. If you understand plant biochemistry it makes sense why these benefit the plant but not a consumer of them such as humans.

I think Seafood is abput food poisoning not allergies but happy to be corrected.

Yes I had DS in 2004 and we wereencpiraged tp do perineal massage with nut oil ( can't remember which one now) - terrible idea in terms of allergens also baby massage was hugely popular.

Looks lile it still is a thing - almond oil apparentlly

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.

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?

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Good luck moving forward.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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