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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

Egg allergy is like that as well.

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

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.

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.

People eating loads of UPFs?

There was an egg based vaccine some years ago that you couldn't have if you had allergies but I am sure that was changed. Never heard of a peanut one.

The oil can also cause pneumonia if inhaled during choking as well.

It like asthma. Some people only have it in childhood. Others have it for life.

It’s because doctors prescribe antibiotics to tiny babies all the bloody time before their guts are established (sometimes before they are even born when their mothers are pregnant or in labour for “preventative reasons”). This eradicates the gut bacteria and it all grows back wonky as there hasn't been enough time for a healthy foundation to have developed. The damaged gut leads to eczema, which in turn leads to food allergies developing.

My daughter has a lot of allergies unfortunately because she was given preventative antibiotics as soon as she was born.

It’s not just food allergies that are common - also IBS, IBD, bowel cancer, autoimmune diseases - all different expressions of our country’s poor gut health.

Epi-pens only became in common usage in the uk between the 90s and 00s. Before then peoples survival rate was lower from being exposed. There is definitely survival bias going on.

There is some argument that lack of exposure at all as a baby or during pregnancy can cause it as well.

Any evidence of this or is it just conjecture.

I don't know anyone with a nut allergy. My kids, their partners, eight GC, nieces and nephews and their kids.

My husband is allergic to penicillin, does that count.

I’m 59. I have a tea nut alert diagnosed when I was 7. When I was at school no one believed me. So UABU.

Yes they worried about the whooping cough vaccine and doctor delayed one of my kids having it in the 70s. He got whooping cough which was awful.

I don’t think anyone knows for sure why people are more allergic now. I have heard numerous theories.

One thing I do know is that allergies can come and go. Also DC2 was misdiagnosed with peanut allergy in about 2007. Apparently, someone discovered that when doing skin prick tests, the body cannot always tell the difference between grass pollen and peanut, so many people get a positive reaction to peanut if they are allergic to grass pollen. Anyway, in about 2015, DC2 had a blood test to confirm the misdiagnosis.

I wasn’t allowed the whooping cough vaccine as my sister reacted badly to it. I’d not heard it was a whole allergy thing, super interesting.

I have a nut allergy, had it since the 70s and I wasn’t the only kid in my class with an allergy.

I didn't restrict any kinds of foods when I was pregnant. Neither me nor my eldest son's father have any food allergies yet my eldest son had CMPA from word go, asthma and severe eczema. He was exclusively breastfed until 5.5 months and even reacted to what I ate through the milk and had a very severe anaphylactic reaction to peanut butter on a rice cake when he was just 9 months old. He now has to carry two epi-pens everywhere he goes. I wish I knew why these allergies are increasing in children but I think it must be multifactorial. My youngest child is allergic to nothing at all and is in perfect health.

I knew a young person with walnut allergy born in 1966 or 1965, It wasn't unheard of.

That's interesting @Pandorea . I was pregnant in 2001 and ate lots of 'nutritious wholemeal rolls with peanut butter ' as that was the advice in my pregnancy guide at the time (as long as no food allergies in the family). I presume I passed it on to DS through breast milk. But I remember reading at the time that there was no incidence of nut allergy in North Africa and I couldn't see why that would be when nuts are prevalent in their cuisine.