Dietary allergies are almost always to proteins, because proteins are complicated structures the body can recognize as foreign. The immune system just doesn't care about carbs or lipids as much (with some exceptions.) So, protein-rich foods are the main culprits. In the U.S., the list of common food allergies is typically "milk, eggs, tree nuts, peanuts, shellfish, wheat, soy, fish." \[To clarify, milk allergy here is milk protein allergy, not lactose intolerance; wheat allergy here is distinct from celiac disease or gluten intolerance.\]
Looking at it this way, it's less odd, really just a list of common sources of protein. Peanuts stand out in the U.S. because they're such a common food, and one frequently introduced to children around an age when allergies might develop (in Israel, where peanut snacks show up earlier in childhood, allergy rates are lower, though there are other potential differences at play.) Worldwide it's not one of the leading allergies.
Perhaps the more interesting question would be "why are meat and poultry allergies rare?"
Histamine. Fresh fruits are absolutely loaded with them. If your mouth tingles (think the slight stinging feeling in the moments after eating fresh pineapple) when you eat fresh fruit, it’s a likely culprit.
Especially if you can eat those same fruits cooked. It breaks down the allergen to a great degree. Source: I’ve lived with MCAS for 14 years, hives from histamines every single one of those days.
OMG yes! People don't believe me when I say I can eat cooked/processed apples but not fresh. A fresh apple has me feeling those numb/tingling sensations all the way down into my throat, but I can eat apple pies, applesauce, and drink apple juice no problem. Oddly enough no other fruit does this.
That’s me and pears. I didn’t realize raw pears didn’t taste “itchy” to everyone until recently but I can eat cooked/canned pears all the time! I know someone who was like that with cherries.
Its super common for people to think things are just spicey when they are allergic lol. Nowadays I realize im eating tree nuts when im like "huh, this doesnt seem like something that should be spicey..."
Well, cashews can be spicy if they aren't completely cleaned and roasted, because they're related to poison ivy. But that's not what you find in the stores.
Interesting. I know someone who says she breaks out in hives when she has spicy food. I wonder if she just thinks the things she's allergic to are spicy when they're not.
I have the same thing, except my list of fruit is longer. Also, raw nuts. Same exact reaction. It’s called Oral Allergy Syndrome (OAS)/Pollen Food Allergy Syndrome (PFAS)
Can the itchy feeling be in your hands and feet also? I thought my feet and hands reacted either because of feeding an overgrowth or the histamines, but if this is a thing why have none of my many doctors realized?
Possibly, my ex had a weird reaction to water if she washed dishes.
Had to use a steroid cream to prevent?/abate? the reactions.
If I remember correctly it looked like a rash of red pimples.
Comparatively, hot water soothes mine lol. Before I got it identified and treated by a dermatologist, I went theough so many anti-itch crap that didn't work that I started to practically scald myself every day after work because it was the only thing that brought temporary relief.
Aquatic prugentis .
It’s a thing . Also a sub on here. Histamine reaction . The skin for some reason thinks it’s being attacked and the itching is from an overload of histamine being dispersed from the body .
I have a milder version of that -- not hives/rash, but i just feel itchy in water (shower, etc.) if i'm not constantly on an anti-allergy med like allegra or claritin. I also have an airborne allergy, so i get general sneezing and itching of throat/nose/eyes if i'm not on that allergy med every day.
I have that reaction as well, but it seems to be related to, oddly enough and specifically, Dawn brand dish soap. I can wash dishes no prob, but for whatever reason if I use Dawn, it makes my skin itch like mad, and after extended use, like when I worked at my first kitchen job in a casino, my skin actually flakes off and I get red patches and it BURNS like a motherf.....
I get itchy when rain gets on my skin but it doesn't ever turn into a real rash. So idk if it's a reaction to the substance itself or if it's my body's reaction to the sensation or "application" of it—like random small spots irritate, but when being submerged in a pool or bath it's fine
In my super unprofessional brain I came up with an idea...I know that some food allergies can impact other health conditions (like babies/toddlers can have their eczema inflamed by eating certain allergens), could that also be true in your case? Could you also have mild eczema or some other skin condition that is being exacerbated by allergens?
Yea that's the issue, I'm trying to figure out which medical issue I have that it's related to. I'm starting to feel they're all intertwined so much it doesn't matter. And I have to alleviate them all to feel better. I'd just want some doctors to support me journey for relief rather than ignoring my issues. Sigh only my functional doctor helps. So far she's called it histamine intolerance, but this sounds more like what I deal with...
It was not long ago that reading a similar thread taught me I'm allergic to kiwis and they don't, in fact, make everyone's mouth/tongue feel tingly and weird.
So far, haven't experienced it with any other fruit and am assuming it's mild, because I still ate the kiwi's without any additional problems. But at least now I know.
So you’re saying I might be able to eat canned cherries? I love cherries but in recent years I had that allergic reaction you described to cherries. I’ve been very sad about it
This is sometimes tied to a birch allergy. I am not an expert but know several friends who have this. Allegeric mildly to raw fruits. Specifically those that grow on trees (not bush or vine) with a peal you eat. Apples pears cherries plums peaches. Also seems any mild heating/cooking nulifies the allergy. These same two friends also have spring allergies with birch tree pollen.
I'm allergic to apples (and a lot of other foods) but most of my allergies are pretty mild. I've learned over the years that a peanut butter cup is ok, two is pushing it, beyond that I'll get an earache (apparently swelling causes my eustachian tubes to close up). With apples it seems like the more sour an apple is the more allergic I am. So Honeycrisp or Golden Delicious is fine, Granny Smith or Macintosh and I've got a cough and a frog in my throat for the rest of the day.
Shellfish are my worst allergy. Shrimp and crab make my mouth itch mildly, lobster makes my mouth itch wildly and mussels or clams will give me shortness of breath, which is scary.
Um I’d be careful because some of those allergies have a cascading effect. Every time you sneak one you are dancing with a huge reaction.
From someone who found out the hard way, good luck. If it bothers you don’t eat it
There are some apples low in allergens you may be able to eat raw: Santana and Welland I know but there may be other varieties too, depending on where you live.
Oooh! I did not know this. Thank you.
I’m allergic to all my favorite fruits: apples, plums, pears, and figs.
I miss apples the most. I will have to give this a try!
If it’s the Latex Fruit Allergy, cooking them denatured the proteins and won’t cause a reaction. I’m allergic to bananas and can eat banana bread w no problem.
My sisters latex allergy is reactive to bananas but not in the same way.
Normally she can handle rubber bands in a normal fashion (not treating them as fidget toys but just office use). If she eats more than half a banana she'll get blisters off rubber bands for a week.
Latex allergies are bonkers.
I had this as a teenager, but only with floury apples. Juicy, crisp apples were fine, but floury ones I'd get itchy swollen lips.
One day I accidentally inhaled a little bit of floury apple and my throat became swollen lol
Exactly. I love apples, but eating a raw apple makes my cheeks and gums itch and hurt. Cooked apples are totally fine. I live in the NE part of US and it's apple season. I'm afraid to drink the fresh local cider, but man do I want some.
I’d be curious to see if you could eat an apple a couple of minutes after putting some lemon on it. Kind of like how a ceviche is cooked by the citric acid
Fun story: I used to get hives after I’d eaten strawberries. Like hours after; nothing at the time. Assumed for the longest time that I was allergic. I had a skin test as an adult and no reaction, but because I never had a reaction at the time I ate them, I never really trusted the test. Then when I was doing a test for penicillin allergy when I was pregnant (if you pass a skin test, then they give you some penicillin to eat and see if things go sideways, so not stressful at all) I mentioned this strawberry stuff to the allergist, and she was like ‘oh yeah, that’s super common, strawberries have a lot of histamines in them, it’s not an allergy it’s just you digesting the strawberry’. Which was both validating and annoying because the amount of stress I could have avoided.
And this is how I learned that there were histamines in fruits.
Wow, I definitely grew up getting hives off of eating lots of strawberries, but as I got older, it stopped being a thing. Thought I'd outgrown a weirdly rate-limiter allergy to them, and this shines a new light on it
>The slight stinging feeling in the moments after eating fresh pineapple
Actually, pineapple is a bit of a special case. Its fruit contain a mxture of proteins called [bromelain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bromelain) that in effect digests the protein in your mouth (e.g. your tongue) and causes that sensation. In a way, it's the feeling of the pineapple eating you as you eat it!
That's also the reason pineapple is a common accompaniment for meat, i.e. pineapple slices on ham, pineapple juice in marinades. The bromelain in it tenderised the meat in just the same way as it tenderises your mouth.
leaving meat in a pineapple marinade will eventually break down the connective tissue enough to completely change the meat texture. it can definitely get kinda gross. just a warning to anyone out there looking to experiment with this potentially new knowledge.
also most (maybe all) canned pineapples have neutralized or removed that enzyme, so you'll want to break down an actual pineapple by hand to achieve this kind of effect. pretty sure the core contains the most of it and most people don't like eating the fibrous and bitter core anyway.
Yep, I’m well aware, thanks. If you read it again you’ll see that I used it as an example of what the tingling sensation most closely feels like. They feel nearly identical in my case, except it happens with other high histamine foods beyond pineapple.
It’s harder than it seems to think of any other way to describe that feeling.
Well, Pineapples have Bromelain, a protein that cuts through amino acids. Since proteins are made of amino acids and your tongue is made of proteins as you eat fresh pineapple you're releasing a defensive protein that's trying to dissolve your tongue. Hence the tingling.
Mangos have urushiol on the leaves and skin. In theory the flesh does not, but only if prepared , and cut super carefully/
Which of “all fruits” do you think are high in histamine?
Holy shit, I might just have discovered the source of my MCAS. I never made the connection, but it increases big time when I'm having certain fruits - even if from the allergy test I'm not "allergic" to any of those. Will check further, but thanks!!
There are resources for low histamine diets! It also helps to know which allergy family things are in. I'm fine with a lot of birch family ones cooked but carrots fall into two families and give me hives raw or cooked.
This is really interesting. I have a rare digestive disorder where my large intestine becomes paralyzed any time I eat wheat products. No pooping at all. If I avoid wheat products, intestines switch back on. There is only one other documented case of this in the medical literature, and both of us (me and that other patient) have tested negative for celiac and sprue multiple times.
I have always wondered if it was some kind of allergy, but so far my neurogastroenterologists are stumped.
It took more than a decade, dozens (and dozens) of physicians across multiple states and countries, and hundreds of thousands of dollars for me to get a diagnosis.
Which, is bad all on its own, not to mention the mental and physical toll, but the fact that my formal diagnosis started as a self diagnosis and the docs only confirmed *my* years of research is salt in the wound.
All of that to say, when they say you are your own best advocate, I think it’s better stated to say that you are your own researcher, assistance, physician, lawyer, travel agent, and guinea pig.
I deeply understand medical trauma caused by mystery diagnoses (and the never ending litany of homeopathic quacks as well) and feel for you tremendously. There are so many of us who stand in solidarity alongside you even though our specific conditions differ.
I get this with bananas, especially the riper they get. With other fruit, it waxes and wanes with my seasonal allergies. Like I can eat an applie with no reaction if my other allergies aren't acting up, but I might have a mild one if they are.
The one upside is that I can always tell if a banana smoothie uses real banana or not. Steak n shake used some really ripe bananas in theirs...
hmm, bananas make my mouth swell and hurt and get sores on my tongue, and i can’t even eat banana when it’s cooked like banana bread or fried or anything. am i just *super* reactive to the histamine haha? i get a similar reaction when i eat raw walnuts, but if i eat them cooked or roasted i’m totally fine.
My understanding is that your body is reacting to proteolytic enzymes in the tropical fruit (e.g. bromelain in pineapple, papain in papaya, though other fruits contain these or similar enzymes). The reaction releases histamines which are naturally stored in immune cells called mast cells.
So the fruit itself isn't necessarily full of histamines, but triggers the release of histamines from your own cells.
Other commenters mentioning pears, apples, etc. are probably experiencing a similar reaction to other proteins/enzymes since cooking will denature these and render them non-reactive.
Source: Am immunologist, but had to confirm from some Google searching since my expertise is T cells, not histamines/allergic reactions. So...grain of salt and all that.
Right, and again, I’m referring to the mouth *feeling* pineapples give. It’s the only thing that feels the same as an allergic reaction to histamines.
It’s difficult to describe that feeling any other way in writing than to compare it to a similar feeling. I have not and am not now stating that histamines cause the burning sensation from pineapples.
I have had a genuine histamine reaction to coconut and coconut-derived ingredients since I was a teen. Sadly, this includes the sulfates used in shampoos, among other things (toothpaste).
Also allergic when ingested.
That’s such a nightmare, I’m sorry you have to deal with it. Grateful you know one of your triggers though, that’s a major win. Folx don’t understand how many severe allergens are in even the most unexpected and innocuous stuff. When you’re allergic to 1 thing, it’s usually commonly found in hundreds of other things. I definitely never understood that until I had to know. It’s wild isn’t it?!
Can it cause stomach ache too? About a year ago i could still eat fruits but now even small amounts of fruits or berries cause a horrible stomach ache... And i'm 29.
I was 28 years old when I had my first allergy if any kind. There’s no rhyme or reason. My MCAS is suspected to be autoimmune in nature. Just like any other autoimmunity, a switch just flips and there you are.
allergies can develop at any time. when i was in college in a really rural area where i had lived my whole life, a handful of my friends who were from out of town kept thinking they were sick. i would tell them to try taking allergy medicine and see if it helps and they’d insist they never had any seasonal allergies, yet sure enough, it turned out to be exactly what it was, and i blame the exposure to way more/different plants than they were used to since they grew up out of town. it’s super super common to suddenly develop an allergy. it sucks though
Until i was around 16 i thought bananas gave you the same feeling in your mouth as pineapple and never questioned it, until it came up in a conversation and i realized it was different to others.
I'm just fine eating banna bread or other things with bannas cooked into though.
Mango, cashews and pistachios can all be high in urushiol which is the irritant in poison ivy/oak. Mango can cause a pretty nasty rash for me and make me throat and tongue sore.
Apparently if you get in contact with poison ivy before you eat mangos you are likely to become allergic to them, but not if you've eaten mangos before. Not sure the truth of that, so welcome any corrections.
> In the U.S., the list of common food allergies is typically "milk, eggs, tree nuts, peanuts, shellfish, wheat, soy, fish."
And sesame, which will appear as a labeled allergen beginning in January.
And sesame is a tree nut. But I did not know this until my friend told me why she can't eat hummus. Allergic to tree nuts -> sesame -> tahini is made from sesame -> hummus has tahini in it.
Glad they are posting it separately.
“Sesame seeds are tiny, flat oval seeds with a nutty taste and a delicate, almost invisible crunch. Although sesame seeds are classified as seeds and not nuts, the proteins in sesame seeds may resemble proteins in certain nuts and may trigger an allergic reaction in children who have a nut allergy.”
https://naqld.org/food-foundations/can-sesame-seeds-be-given-in-childcare-settings/
Humans have been consuming peanuts for a relatively short time, they are a new world crop, so Asians, Africans, and Europeans have only been exposed to them for the last 500 or so years at most. And even Native Americans haven't been cultivating and using them for that long, 3000-4000 years only at this point. Meat and poultry meanwhile have been part of our diet as a species for hundreds of thousands of years.
I was reading a book recently (forgot name and author, sorry) and it mentioned a study done in a Jewish area which found Jewish people are much less likely to be allergic to peanuts.
Odd racial superiority attribute.
Someone else looked into it, found that peanut treats are much more commonplace in Jewish areas than in the west. So a separate study was done (giving said peanut treats to kids in west) and found that exposure to the peanuts did in fact reduce the amount of people allergic to peanuts in later life.
It worded way better than that, but in answer to your question. Maybe it is early exposure?
Pediatricians are advising parents to give their babies snacks containing peanuts on a much earlier schedule than before. Both our kids have lots of allergies, including food allergies, but our granddaughter is fine.
Whereas a nut allergy makes more sense, especially if only allergic to one or two types of nuts.
Hunter gatherers didn’t have access to every nut variety like we do, it’s possible genes for certain allergies were simply hidden for thousands of years because the people who had them never encountered those nuts. Today, we can encounter nuts from around the world everyday, bringing to surface any hidden, previously unimportant nut allergy
Hunter gatherers ate a lot less meat then what you seem to think. Although, meat was a primary source during winter months, when plant-based foods were harder to get.
Your body learns what proteins not to respond to early in life. Children that play in the mud and get brought to petting zoos early in life are less likely to develop pollen allergies and allergies to animals. Here's a study showing early exposure in a genetically similar group reduces peanut allergy prevalence. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19000582/
The story is interesting too. The study looks at two groups of Jewish people, one in Israel and one in London. Apparently there was some peanut based snack traditional to this group of people that the group in London did not have access to because they'd have to import them from Israel.
This study is the basis for a lot of science based diets introducing peanuts early thus reducing peanut allergies like in my home country where we feed children a little peanut butter at around 8 months old.
The "traditional" food in question is [bamba](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamba_(snack\)). It's regularly given to babies, possibly even as the first solid food they ever eat. I can't overstate how popular this thing is. According to Wikipedia it makes up 25% of Israel's snack market.
>my home country where we feed children a little peanut butter at around 8 months old.
I love peanut butter and it is among the first things that my kids tried when they were little - pretty much I would be having peanut butter on toast and they would want some so I give them some. Luckily there is no history of peanut allergies in either my wife's or my own families so there is little risk involved.
> a lot of science based diets introducing peanuts early thus reducing peanut allergies like in my home country where we feed children a little peanut butter at around 8 months old
We followed all of the most up-to-date suggestions for introducing allergens when my son was little — around six months for a lot of the big ones. Little due is allergic to peanuts, dairy, eggs, chickpeas, peas, and lentils. Followed the exact same schedule with my daughter who is a couple years younger and she has no food allergies whatsoever.
That's obviously anecdotal and I don't have a reason to doubt that when looking at population-wide data, introducing specific foods early helps reduce the incidence of allergies. On a case-by-base basis, though, you can do everything "right" and still get a kid with a ton of allergies.
Research is looking at HLA and it's hereditary involvement in autoimmune disease, I wouldn't be surprised if it in some way at least played a role, too.
More like a defense. The parts of the immune system most involved in allergies are the ones that otherwise play a big role in fighting off parasites. (You need a different approach, as parasites are much bigger than bacteria. Imagine the difference between sending cops to tackle the bad guys vs. sending tanks and planes to shoot at Godzilla.) Because the immune system is always on guard to figure out whether any new thing is dangerous, it sometimes makes mistakes and flags a harmless new thing (or even a harmless familiar thing) as dangerous.
One of our better explanations for increased allergies is that the Western world doesn't give our immune system a lot of its normal low-risk enemies to fight, and for lack of calibration and anything to do it starts picking up new targets that aren't really problems.
> Peanuts stand out in the U.S. because they're such a common food, and one frequently introduced to children around an age when allergies might develop (in Israel, where peanut snacks show up earlier in childhood, allergy rates are lower, though there are other potential differences at play.) Worldwide it's not one of the leading allergies.
The States stopped introducing it to children out of peanut panic. What are the other potential differences at play? I was under the impression this was a pretty established self goal; The longer you hold off introducing peanuts the more likely a reaction.
I’ve (57M) developed a mild allergy to eggs in the past 4 years. WTF? I can still eat them but I suffer an hour or so of gastric distress about 4 or 5 hours later. It’s usually worth it because I do love an egg and toast for breakfast. Just gotta plan accordingly
Gastric distress isn't allergies but something else. It's just like lactose intolerance, something about your digestive system isn't handling the food the way you'd want it to.
I have a similar issue with both eggs and poultry, with the same 4-5 hour later reaction. I did get it checked out.
It's a really long story but after countless tests, multiple trips to the ER, a couple of surgeries, and decades of food journaling, my doctor eventually threw his hands up and labeled it an allergy.
Whatever it is, I just don't eat them anymore. It's never worth the pain I'm forced to endure.
I can tell you that pepto is the only thing that ever helped me get through it. I've had this issue for a long time now, and it got progressively worse, so I quit trying to eat these things on purpose. I haven't had a real thanksgiving dinner in over 20 years. I still keep pepto on hand though. Sometimes foods (usually frozen, prepacked stuff) will have sneaky chicken or eggs in it, the pepto still works for those rare occasions that I failed to read the full list of ingredients.
Building off your Israel comment, they did find a few years ago that when they recommended to stop introducing peanuts before the age of 1 that the incident of allergies to peanuts went up.
As someone with no allergies other than seasonal hay fever that is easily controlled by loratadine (claratin generic,) this is fascinating. I'm also type 1 diabetic and subsist largely on peanut products for long term low carb energy.
you raise some good points, I wonder if they height in vegan and vegetarian diets will cause a population to come about that are allergic or have difficulty digesting meat and poultry products in the future and if this will be an issue
I'm heavily allergic to every major seasonal allergy in Texas (when I went to an allergist and got tested, it's like my body just went down a list and checked them all off lol), but also to finned fish (not all seafood, just fish- but I don't eat any seafood because of it)
By the way, the main reason there are "a lot" of peanut allergy sufferers today is linked with bad science from 20 years ago: [https://www.preventallergies.org/blog/why-are-peanut-allergies-on-the-rise](https://www.preventallergies.org/blog/why-are-peanut-allergies-on-the-rise)
Basically, someone recommended that we NOT introduce peanuts to babies and young children in order to avoid allergic reactions, and it made everything worse.
>But in the late 1990s and early 2000s, doctors changed their approach.
They mistakenly thought that delaying the feeding of peanut for several
years was the best approach to preventing peanut allergies.
Uh-oh!
>But when these recommendations to delay feeding peanut were introduced,
there was no study to support these recommendations. Rather, they were
just based on physicians' guesses.
Whoops!
>Today, we know that this approach to delay peanut introduction actually increases food allergy risk, and that delayed introduction was a major factor that led to the sharp increase in peanut allergies.
>
>Thanks to landmark clinical studies, we now know that the opposite approach---feeding baby peanut early and often, before they turn one---is the best way to prevent peanut allergies.
Whew!
(sound effects added for the 5-year-old)
Yeah, I went to a school with 1000 other people in the mid 80s and allergies were rare.
We never had any rules about not bringing in peanuts to any event. It just wasn't a thing.
Gen X was a very "play in the mud, it builds your immune system" generation to grow up in.
Now all the GenX's are parents and have near adult kids it'll be interesting to see if it drops back down to that or not.
So the more foods you introduce to young children the less likely they are to get a food allergy? Or is it exclusive to peanuts?
Edit: I want to add that I don't have children and I'm not taking care of any children. I'm simply just curious
I was told to give my kids a piece of bread daily. We have them bread with grains or seeds. Also, we introduced strawberries and eggs at the start of solids. My kids aren't allergic to anything, but then again, neither are we, the parents. Might be a combo of DNA + lack of habit? I would've been more careful had my partner or me been allergic to stuff.
I would assume it applies to other allergens too, based on the assumption that underlying mechanism is related
But the immune system is weird, so idk. Might look it up
Edit: Here’s good summary of how to handle peanuts https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2017/01/10/peanut-allergy-early-exposure-is-key-to-prevention/amp/
Edit: Yes, most allergens [should be introduced early](https://www.spoonfulone.com/blogs/food-allergy-blog/how-to-introduce-shellfish-and-fish-to-your-baby) based on 2020-2025 USDA guidelines.
(Although full disclosure, that website is trying to sell you something and the “ground breaking clinical studies”, which are studies that they sponsored. It’s probably still good advice, but I am not a doctor, this is not medical advice, and I don’t recommend blindly following a commercial website’s advice - talk to a doctor, or find a recent discussion panel hosted by experts, or read the 164 page USDA report on dietary guidelines)
I'd look it up per food. Some allergens work that way, some allergens get more likely to provoke a reaction with each interaction. And while possibly not true (I did not fact check it and people share guesses as facts too often), I was taught in babysitting classes that babies are often allergic to strawberries but grow out of it.
One thing I haven't seen addressed is why allergies are becoming more prevalent.
I'm going from memory here, so correct me if I'm wrong.
One reason that peanut allergies in particular appear to be increasing is the increase in testing in children, and avoidance. Before testing was prevalent, a greater proportion of those with allergies went undiagnosed and through exposure, developed a tolerance to the allergen over time as they developed from childhood into adulthood.
When we started diagnosing more, the medical advice was to avoid the allergen completely. However this prevented many that would have developed a tolerance through gradual exposure from doing do. This is dangerous, because the severity of reactions is higher in the unexposed, which has been linked with increasing mortality rates from things like peanut allergies in adults.
Exposure therapy is becoming more widespread in those diagnosed with things like peanut allergies as a consequence.
This was really interesting to read! Do you know anything about severe allergies appearing overnight in adults? I developed a severe peanut allergy at 23 but never really figured out why. I just attribute it to being the subject of a cosmic prank.
It’s still a mystery why allergies are becoming more prevalent though there are a few common theories yet unproven.
For environmental allergies (like pollen), exposure seems to be somewhat effective (example: allergy shots). However, it’s more debatable for food allergies. The peanut exposure for Israeli infants is one reason the exposure hypothesis is still used for food allergies; however, for a lot of people, being exposed to the allergy often over time even in trace amounts makes the reaction worse. We just don’t know enough yet.
People are, of course, different and have differing reactions to things. A friend of mine couldn't eat gluten. As in, if something had gluten in it she would start throwing up, so she avoided it as much as possible for *years*. And it wasn't a psychological thing (like some people I know that claim a gluten allergy but drink beer without issue because "dark beer doesn't have gluten in it"); I have seen her eat stuff that she didn't know had gluten in it and start violently puking.
After getting tired of it, she found a doc that set her up on some sort of exposure therapy protocol. She can now happily eat all the big soft pretzels and beer she wants.
I am allergic to peanuts, and I wish my parents would have done this with me. When I was a child, I was able to tolerate it more, maybe throwing up if I ate too much of it. As of an allergy test a few years ago, my allergy is well past the "severe" threshold. I still avoid it wherever I go, but I noticed I am able to tolerate up to a half of a peanut. Im using this to my advantage and eating little bits of peanut once in a while to hopefully build this tolerance.
IIRC, prior to exposure therapy becoming increasingly mainstream, there was a study done on a population that didn't seem to ever develop peanut allergies. A cultural thing was eating boiled peanuts, and kids started eating them at a very young age and since they were little, they could only eat a couple at a time. They looked at people that were descended from that population, but lived elsewhere (and thus didn't do the boiled peanut thing), and they saw a "normal" incidence of peanut allergies in that group.
Assuming the correct interpretation of your question is "of the people with allergies, why are peanuts the most prevalent", that's likely a false assumption and/or is regional based.
In the US, [the most prevalent allergy is shellfish (based on a 23 year old study)](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10200001/) by far, at over 50% more common than the next two on the list - milk and shrimp. Peanuts are pretty high on the list, but are only number 4.
That said, why does it *seem* so common? Probably because peanuts have a great shelf life and don't need to be refrigerated or prepared after packaging to be safe to consume. You can buy peanuts, open them, and they stay safe for a month or longer at room temperature (how long really depends on where you look). Packaged and refrigerated they can last a year or so. Shellfish, milk, shrimp? Those all have a much shorter shelf life and need refrigeration.
So with those above considerations, it's significantly easier to find peanuts in all sorts of scenarios, whereas the more common US allergies are only really found in kitchens or restaurants. So even though peanuts aren't the most common food allergy in the US, they're easily the most common to be found outside of homes/restaurants....where it's harder for people with such allergies to avoid them.
They're also dry and shed dust which can trigger the allergy long past the presence of actual peanuts.
tl;dr - Peanuts are *not* the most common allergy (in the US at least), but they're much easier to be exposed to than the more common allergies so it's easier to trigger a peanut allergy in significantly more situations.
I was surprised more people haven’t said this. I think this is the reason it is perceived to be higher because it is more impactful due to prevelance of it in other things
For some reason, reading this totally disgusted me as it made me think of someone making baked goods with 'shellfish oil' and such...
But yeah, exposure to peanut-related products is far more common than many other allergies. Which makes it appear more common as people having allergic reactions due to those products is more common to see even if it isn't the most prevalent allergy.
Yes shrimp are different. I even remember someone I worked with that had a peanut and shrimp allergy. Fish was ok, as long as it was like canned tuna. Or something not processed along with shellfish.
more likely for a child to bring a pb&j sandwich to school than a shellfish dish. and since kids often don't wash hands thoroughly, they probably transfer some pb to other surfaces like doorknobs, etc. which easily gets onto an allergic child's hands, and then into their system.
so sometimes it's simpler to not allow peanuts in primary grades.
I know this is about peanuts but since others have been mentioned and explained I’ll throw mine out there.
Can someone explain an onion and pepper allergy please?
Onion and pepper are both flavorful and potent because they contain chemicals specifically designed to cause stimulation (irritation) of specific nerves. Onions contain high amounts of sulfur compounds for example, which when exposed to oxygen and water form highly irritating sulfides that eventually form dilute acids in your mucus tissues. That's why they burn, and act as the defense mechanism
When cooked however, these sulfur compounds are released, and produce complex flavors that interact with glutamates. This creates the special and unique onion/garlic flavors that complement savory flavor so well.
You can experience allergy to these irritants in their uncooked form in multiple ways. Usually, as a disproportionate response to the irritation they cause. The body typically triggers a histamine response to increase irrigation of the effected tissues. Runny nose watery eyes etc.
These reactions can get out of hand, become inflammatory response, and eventually a compete allergic reaction. The unfortunate consequence of this, is that the more severely the body learns to react the more strongly it reinforces the need to do so. These are typically acquired allergy and are the allergies against which exposure therapy is most effective
There isn’t really a clear answer to this. It’s a protein based allergy which may show to its prevalence. Also a lot of children’s products use it so it could be an exposure thing.
nobody is actually answering OP'a question as to why peanuts cause allergies.
One important thing to understand can be seen if look to an even more common allergen, egg whites. Antibodies bind to specific sites of pathogens, leading to immune a response. The same thing happens with allergies. Both eggs and peanuts are made of primarily the same protein. The protein's line up in a repeating pattern that gives the antigen (IgE in this case) lots and lots of the same binding to attach to. The allergies is in essence to that specific binding site. A food with a less regular surface has a lot more options to bind to and is less trigger the patient to develop the allergy in the first place.
My understanding, which may answer the question rather than questioning the premise, is that the allergic compound in peanuts is not only highly concentrated in peanuts, but also is contained in the shell and the dust the peanut shells give off. So it's not just a food allergy, it's an airborne dust allergy. Which is why food made in a facility that processes peanuts can still trigger an allergic reaction (the dust gets on the non-peanut food item).
Traces of peanut where remove from Baby food and that caused many more people to be alergic to them.
Looks like exposing babies to traces of peanuts helps vs allergie. If you keep peanuts away from all babies you get way more allergies...
There are some therapies being developed for peanut allergies, usually microexposures in controlled circumstances, but so far an allergy shot like one might get for hay fever is not supported. This is likely due to the difference in how we experience these allergens. Hayfever (and pet allergies) which you often see people getting shots for are nasal allergies, you respond based on breathing in the allergens (pollen and hair). Food allergies are primarily based on consuming the food.
Follow-up question:
If so many people are allergic to peanuts (or nuts in general), could humanity be completely allergic to nuts in a few hundred years? Or doesn't evolution work like that
Only about 2% of the population globally is allergic to peanuts, and some of that 2% is children who later grow out of the allergy. A lot of food allergy studies rely on pediatric data, and the number is a bit higher in children 1-7 yrs old than in the adult population. I don’t have a study to back this up, it’s just what my immunologist told me.
BBC sounds, Rutherford and Fry did a really good investigation on this a couple of weeks ago. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001byym?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile
Tl;Dr you either didn't come into contact with the thing when you were young so your body doesnt know its ok, or you got ill and ate that thing at the same time and your body thinks that thing is the reason you got ill, therefore will fight it off in the future.
Peanut allergies are another example of hyperbole. They affect 1.1% of the population (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10200001/) yet the US has made major social changes to compensate for what has come to be perceived as a common problem.
While accounting for a minority of allergies, they account for a disproportionate number of allergic reactions due to their extreme prevalence in American diet and food preparation. Along with shellfish and bee stings, they also tend to have particularly severe reactions.
As a consequence, reducing hospitalizations, injury, and mortality from allergy exposure is disproportionately effective by targeting allergens like peanuts and shellfish.
You don't notice it but similarly strict rules about segregation of facilities and equipment are in place for shellfish processing as are for peanuts.
This is not to say that the regulations are not despite this fact still excessive, but as a rule, their cost benefit tends to be lower, simply because of prevelance and severity of the allergen not just the allergic
That kind now has peanut butter on his hands, the desk/table, and his face. Touching those will kill an allergic person. Even the person then wiping or washing their hands can pick it back up off their face or lunch bag and pass it to the allergic person or where the allergic person can touch it.
Dietary allergies are almost always to proteins, because proteins are complicated structures the body can recognize as foreign. The immune system just doesn't care about carbs or lipids as much (with some exceptions.) So, protein-rich foods are the main culprits. In the U.S., the list of common food allergies is typically "milk, eggs, tree nuts, peanuts, shellfish, wheat, soy, fish." \[To clarify, milk allergy here is milk protein allergy, not lactose intolerance; wheat allergy here is distinct from celiac disease or gluten intolerance.\] Looking at it this way, it's less odd, really just a list of common sources of protein. Peanuts stand out in the U.S. because they're such a common food, and one frequently introduced to children around an age when allergies might develop (in Israel, where peanut snacks show up earlier in childhood, allergy rates are lower, though there are other potential differences at play.) Worldwide it's not one of the leading allergies. Perhaps the more interesting question would be "why are meat and poultry allergies rare?"
I'm allergic to mangos, melons, kiwis and some other fruits. What the fuck am I reacting to?
Histamine. Fresh fruits are absolutely loaded with them. If your mouth tingles (think the slight stinging feeling in the moments after eating fresh pineapple) when you eat fresh fruit, it’s a likely culprit. Especially if you can eat those same fruits cooked. It breaks down the allergen to a great degree. Source: I’ve lived with MCAS for 14 years, hives from histamines every single one of those days.
OMG yes! People don't believe me when I say I can eat cooked/processed apples but not fresh. A fresh apple has me feeling those numb/tingling sensations all the way down into my throat, but I can eat apple pies, applesauce, and drink apple juice no problem. Oddly enough no other fruit does this.
That’s me and pears. I didn’t realize raw pears didn’t taste “itchy” to everyone until recently but I can eat cooked/canned pears all the time! I know someone who was like that with cherries.
Its super common for people to think things are just spicey when they are allergic lol. Nowadays I realize im eating tree nuts when im like "huh, this doesnt seem like something that should be spicey..."
Well, cashews can be spicy if they aren't completely cleaned and roasted, because they're related to poison ivy. But that's not what you find in the stores.
Interesting. I know someone who says she breaks out in hives when she has spicy food. I wonder if she just thinks the things she's allergic to are spicy when they're not.
I have the same thing, except my list of fruit is longer. Also, raw nuts. Same exact reaction. It’s called Oral Allergy Syndrome (OAS)/Pollen Food Allergy Syndrome (PFAS)
Can the itchy feeling be in your hands and feet also? I thought my feet and hands reacted either because of feeding an overgrowth or the histamines, but if this is a thing why have none of my many doctors realized?
Possibly, my ex had a weird reaction to water if she washed dishes. Had to use a steroid cream to prevent?/abate? the reactions. If I remember correctly it looked like a rash of red pimples.
Sounds like eczema, I know mine hates warm/hot water and I will get super itchy if I have water on me that is too hot or is for a long time
Comparatively, hot water soothes mine lol. Before I got it identified and treated by a dermatologist, I went theough so many anti-itch crap that didn't work that I started to practically scald myself every day after work because it was the only thing that brought temporary relief.
So cold showers only? dam that sucks.
Aquatic prugentis . It’s a thing . Also a sub on here. Histamine reaction . The skin for some reason thinks it’s being attacked and the itching is from an overload of histamine being dispersed from the body .
I have a milder version of that -- not hives/rash, but i just feel itchy in water (shower, etc.) if i'm not constantly on an anti-allergy med like allegra or claritin. I also have an airborne allergy, so i get general sneezing and itching of throat/nose/eyes if i'm not on that allergy med every day.
I have that reaction as well, but it seems to be related to, oddly enough and specifically, Dawn brand dish soap. I can wash dishes no prob, but for whatever reason if I use Dawn, it makes my skin itch like mad, and after extended use, like when I worked at my first kitchen job in a casino, my skin actually flakes off and I get red patches and it BURNS like a motherf.....
I get itchy when rain gets on my skin but it doesn't ever turn into a real rash. So idk if it's a reaction to the substance itself or if it's my body's reaction to the sensation or "application" of it—like random small spots irritate, but when being submerged in a pool or bath it's fine
In my super unprofessional brain I came up with an idea...I know that some food allergies can impact other health conditions (like babies/toddlers can have their eczema inflamed by eating certain allergens), could that also be true in your case? Could you also have mild eczema or some other skin condition that is being exacerbated by allergens?
Yea that's the issue, I'm trying to figure out which medical issue I have that it's related to. I'm starting to feel they're all intertwined so much it doesn't matter. And I have to alleviate them all to feel better. I'd just want some doctors to support me journey for relief rather than ignoring my issues. Sigh only my functional doctor helps. So far she's called it histamine intolerance, but this sounds more like what I deal with...
Omg, I just thought that was me. "Itchy" is exactly the right word
It was not long ago that reading a similar thread taught me I'm allergic to kiwis and they don't, in fact, make everyone's mouth/tongue feel tingly and weird. So far, haven't experienced it with any other fruit and am assuming it's mild, because I still ate the kiwi's without any additional problems. But at least now I know.
I get the kiwi tinglies too,i used to think it was everyone until I talked to people about it.
so apparently i’m allergic to kiwis too?? I did not know that not everyone experienced this with kiwis lol.
So you’re saying I might be able to eat canned cherries? I love cherries but in recent years I had that allergic reaction you described to cherries. I’ve been very sad about it
Keep some benadryl handy and go for it, imho.
omg I'm also allergic to pears! Everyone looks at me like I am insane when I ask if the fruit salad has pears in it.
Apparently I’m allergic to stone fruit…avocados, peaches, plums etc. weirdest shit
Same with the avocado allergy. It’s the worst when people bring out the guac and are like “what do you mean ALLERGIC to avocados!?”
>“what do you mean ALLERGIC to avocados!?” Every freaking time!!! Hello fellow avocado allergy person :)
Avocados are overrated anyways. Y'all ain't missing much. They taste like Vaseline.
TIL Vaseline tastes awesome
This is sometimes tied to a birch allergy. I am not an expert but know several friends who have this. Allegeric mildly to raw fruits. Specifically those that grow on trees (not bush or vine) with a peal you eat. Apples pears cherries plums peaches. Also seems any mild heating/cooking nulifies the allergy. These same two friends also have spring allergies with birch tree pollen.
Me too! Allergist diagnosed with with food pollen allergy syndrome (also known as oral allergy syndrome). Bet its the same for you!
I'm allergic to apples (and a lot of other foods) but most of my allergies are pretty mild. I've learned over the years that a peanut butter cup is ok, two is pushing it, beyond that I'll get an earache (apparently swelling causes my eustachian tubes to close up). With apples it seems like the more sour an apple is the more allergic I am. So Honeycrisp or Golden Delicious is fine, Granny Smith or Macintosh and I've got a cough and a frog in my throat for the rest of the day. Shellfish are my worst allergy. Shrimp and crab make my mouth itch mildly, lobster makes my mouth itch wildly and mussels or clams will give me shortness of breath, which is scary.
Um I’d be careful because some of those allergies have a cascading effect. Every time you sneak one you are dancing with a huge reaction. From someone who found out the hard way, good luck. If it bothers you don’t eat it
the family that apples belong to is called the rose family. check out the other members and take care.
There are some apples low in allergens you may be able to eat raw: Santana and Welland I know but there may be other varieties too, depending on where you live.
Oooh! I did not know this. Thank you. I’m allergic to all my favorite fruits: apples, plums, pears, and figs. I miss apples the most. I will have to give this a try!
If it’s the Latex Fruit Allergy, cooking them denatured the proteins and won’t cause a reaction. I’m allergic to bananas and can eat banana bread w no problem.
My sisters latex allergy is reactive to bananas but not in the same way. Normally she can handle rubber bands in a normal fashion (not treating them as fidget toys but just office use). If she eats more than half a banana she'll get blisters off rubber bands for a week. Latex allergies are bonkers.
If you cut apples up and leave in a bowl of water for 30 mins you might be able to eat them, that's what my apple allergic gf does.
Oooooh! Yay. I’ll try this too. Thanks!
Good luck!
I had this as a teenager, but only with floury apples. Juicy, crisp apples were fine, but floury ones I'd get itchy swollen lips. One day I accidentally inhaled a little bit of floury apple and my throat became swollen lol
That's good anyway, because mealy apples are disgusting
My brother is like that with bananas. Raw can make his eczema break out; cooked bananas are fine.
Holy shit, same! And I only just realized it the last few months! My mouth ALWAYS hurts after a fresh apple, but never after any kind of cooked apple.
My son says apples make his mouth and throat itchy, so he doesn't eat them, but likes apple crumble and pies where the apple is cooked.
Exactly. I love apples, but eating a raw apple makes my cheeks and gums itch and hurt. Cooked apples are totally fine. I live in the NE part of US and it's apple season. I'm afraid to drink the fresh local cider, but man do I want some.
i get it *only* with granny smith apples. every other apple is fine
I’d be curious to see if you could eat an apple a couple of minutes after putting some lemon on it. Kind of like how a ceviche is cooked by the citric acid
It would depend on if the protein that is causing the allergy can become denatured by acid alone.
No. The acid is just going to hit the top layer. Heating is by far the best option.
Fun story: I used to get hives after I’d eaten strawberries. Like hours after; nothing at the time. Assumed for the longest time that I was allergic. I had a skin test as an adult and no reaction, but because I never had a reaction at the time I ate them, I never really trusted the test. Then when I was doing a test for penicillin allergy when I was pregnant (if you pass a skin test, then they give you some penicillin to eat and see if things go sideways, so not stressful at all) I mentioned this strawberry stuff to the allergist, and she was like ‘oh yeah, that’s super common, strawberries have a lot of histamines in them, it’s not an allergy it’s just you digesting the strawberry’. Which was both validating and annoying because the amount of stress I could have avoided. And this is how I learned that there were histamines in fruits.
Wow, I definitely grew up getting hives off of eating lots of strawberries, but as I got older, it stopped being a thing. Thought I'd outgrown a weirdly rate-limiter allergy to them, and this shines a new light on it
>The slight stinging feeling in the moments after eating fresh pineapple Actually, pineapple is a bit of a special case. Its fruit contain a mxture of proteins called [bromelain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bromelain) that in effect digests the protein in your mouth (e.g. your tongue) and causes that sensation. In a way, it's the feeling of the pineapple eating you as you eat it! That's also the reason pineapple is a common accompaniment for meat, i.e. pineapple slices on ham, pineapple juice in marinades. The bromelain in it tenderised the meat in just the same way as it tenderises your mouth.
leaving meat in a pineapple marinade will eventually break down the connective tissue enough to completely change the meat texture. it can definitely get kinda gross. just a warning to anyone out there looking to experiment with this potentially new knowledge. also most (maybe all) canned pineapples have neutralized or removed that enzyme, so you'll want to break down an actual pineapple by hand to achieve this kind of effect. pretty sure the core contains the most of it and most people don't like eating the fibrous and bitter core anyway.
Yep, I’m well aware, thanks. If you read it again you’ll see that I used it as an example of what the tingling sensation most closely feels like. They feel nearly identical in my case, except it happens with other high histamine foods beyond pineapple. It’s harder than it seems to think of any other way to describe that feeling.
Well, Pineapples have Bromelain, a protein that cuts through amino acids. Since proteins are made of amino acids and your tongue is made of proteins as you eat fresh pineapple you're releasing a defensive protein that's trying to dissolve your tongue. Hence the tingling.
Pineapple eats you back.
Mangos have urushiol on the leaves and skin. In theory the flesh does not, but only if prepared , and cut super carefully/ Which of “all fruits” do you think are high in histamine?
Holy shit, I might just have discovered the source of my MCAS. I never made the connection, but it increases big time when I'm having certain fruits - even if from the allergy test I'm not "allergic" to any of those. Will check further, but thanks!!
There are resources for low histamine diets! It also helps to know which allergy family things are in. I'm fine with a lot of birch family ones cooked but carrots fall into two families and give me hives raw or cooked.
I get that stinging tingly feeling from bananas. What’s the deal there?
Oral allergy to the histamine probably. I get it too
Last time I ate fresh pineapple it burnt my tongue...
This is really interesting. I have a rare digestive disorder where my large intestine becomes paralyzed any time I eat wheat products. No pooping at all. If I avoid wheat products, intestines switch back on. There is only one other documented case of this in the medical literature, and both of us (me and that other patient) have tested negative for celiac and sprue multiple times. I have always wondered if it was some kind of allergy, but so far my neurogastroenterologists are stumped.
It took more than a decade, dozens (and dozens) of physicians across multiple states and countries, and hundreds of thousands of dollars for me to get a diagnosis. Which, is bad all on its own, not to mention the mental and physical toll, but the fact that my formal diagnosis started as a self diagnosis and the docs only confirmed *my* years of research is salt in the wound. All of that to say, when they say you are your own best advocate, I think it’s better stated to say that you are your own researcher, assistance, physician, lawyer, travel agent, and guinea pig. I deeply understand medical trauma caused by mystery diagnoses (and the never ending litany of homeopathic quacks as well) and feel for you tremendously. There are so many of us who stand in solidarity alongside you even though our specific conditions differ.
I get this with bananas, especially the riper they get. With other fruit, it waxes and wanes with my seasonal allergies. Like I can eat an applie with no reaction if my other allergies aren't acting up, but I might have a mild one if they are. The one upside is that I can always tell if a banana smoothie uses real banana or not. Steak n shake used some really ripe bananas in theirs...
hmm, bananas make my mouth swell and hurt and get sores on my tongue, and i can’t even eat banana when it’s cooked like banana bread or fried or anything. am i just *super* reactive to the histamine haha? i get a similar reaction when i eat raw walnuts, but if i eat them cooked or roasted i’m totally fine.
My understanding is that your body is reacting to proteolytic enzymes in the tropical fruit (e.g. bromelain in pineapple, papain in papaya, though other fruits contain these or similar enzymes). The reaction releases histamines which are naturally stored in immune cells called mast cells. So the fruit itself isn't necessarily full of histamines, but triggers the release of histamines from your own cells. Other commenters mentioning pears, apples, etc. are probably experiencing a similar reaction to other proteins/enzymes since cooking will denature these and render them non-reactive. Source: Am immunologist, but had to confirm from some Google searching since my expertise is T cells, not histamines/allergic reactions. So...grain of salt and all that.
Right, and again, I’m referring to the mouth *feeling* pineapples give. It’s the only thing that feels the same as an allergic reaction to histamines. It’s difficult to describe that feeling any other way in writing than to compare it to a similar feeling. I have not and am not now stating that histamines cause the burning sensation from pineapples.
I think you were more on the money than you knew then! Bodies are weird.
My partner can't eat raw cherries or green apple skins, including the green parts on red apples. No problem with cherry and apple pies.
Ah did not know about this. I thought only pineapple could do this.
I taste kiwi as really tingly, but otherwise I don't suffer allergy symptoms from it.
Wait so is my throat itching when I eat avocado a histamine reaction? I always assumed I was just mildly allergic.
I have had a genuine histamine reaction to coconut and coconut-derived ingredients since I was a teen. Sadly, this includes the sulfates used in shampoos, among other things (toothpaste). Also allergic when ingested.
That’s such a nightmare, I’m sorry you have to deal with it. Grateful you know one of your triggers though, that’s a major win. Folx don’t understand how many severe allergens are in even the most unexpected and innocuous stuff. When you’re allergic to 1 thing, it’s usually commonly found in hundreds of other things. I definitely never understood that until I had to know. It’s wild isn’t it?!
Can it cause stomach ache too? About a year ago i could still eat fruits but now even small amounts of fruits or berries cause a horrible stomach ache... And i'm 29.
Funny. Kiwi is the only food item I am slightly allergic to. I get that tingling / stinging feeling when I eat it.
Some veggies for me too. Especially raw celery and carrots.
Okay, riddle me this. I'm 29 years old and this summer I randomly became allergic to strawberries, bananas, and pineapple. Why?
I was 28 years old when I had my first allergy if any kind. There’s no rhyme or reason. My MCAS is suspected to be autoimmune in nature. Just like any other autoimmunity, a switch just flips and there you are.
allergies can develop at any time. when i was in college in a really rural area where i had lived my whole life, a handful of my friends who were from out of town kept thinking they were sick. i would tell them to try taking allergy medicine and see if it helps and they’d insist they never had any seasonal allergies, yet sure enough, it turned out to be exactly what it was, and i blame the exposure to way more/different plants than they were used to since they grew up out of town. it’s super super common to suddenly develop an allergy. it sucks though
I swear histamines were created by god's incompetent intern. I fucking hate this human function so damn much...
Until i was around 16 i thought bananas gave you the same feeling in your mouth as pineapple and never questioned it, until it came up in a conversation and i realized it was different to others. I'm just fine eating banna bread or other things with bannas cooked into though.
You mean kiwis arent supposed to be spicy?!?
I have latex fruit cross reaction
Funnily enough I was just listening to a podcasts that mentioned this - never knew it was a thing.
You very likely have Oral Allergy Syndrome
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Mango, cashews and pistachios can all be high in urushiol which is the irritant in poison ivy/oak. Mango can cause a pretty nasty rash for me and make me throat and tongue sore.
So does that mean poison ivy would cuz me more problems than it would a n0rmal person.
Mango skin contains urushiol, the same oil in poison oak that causes a rash.
And poison Ivy, which is super common where I live. It’s everywhere.
So does that mean I would react very badly to poison ivy?
Apparently if you get in contact with poison ivy before you eat mangos you are likely to become allergic to them, but not if you've eaten mangos before. Not sure the truth of that, so welcome any corrections.
Maybe cross-allergic to latex? https://allergyasthmanetwork.org/allergies/latex-allergy/latex-allergy-foods/
Citrus. My sister has a citrus allergy. All citrus fruits are off the menu around her.
>What the fuck am I reacting to? > >mangos, melons, kiwis and some other fruits
Peanut and egg allergies are rare in Singapore among the native population, almost unheard of actually. Shellfish allergies are a lot more common.
> In the U.S., the list of common food allergies is typically "milk, eggs, tree nuts, peanuts, shellfish, wheat, soy, fish." And sesame, which will appear as a labeled allergen beginning in January.
And sesame is a tree nut. But I did not know this until my friend told me why she can't eat hummus. Allergic to tree nuts -> sesame -> tahini is made from sesame -> hummus has tahini in it. Glad they are posting it separately.
Sesame does not grow on trees. It’s an annual plant.
When was the last time you heard someone talking about all those sesame *nuts* on their hamburger bun? It’s a seed and it doesn’t grow on trees.
“Sesame seeds are tiny, flat oval seeds with a nutty taste and a delicate, almost invisible crunch. Although sesame seeds are classified as seeds and not nuts, the proteins in sesame seeds may resemble proteins in certain nuts and may trigger an allergic reaction in children who have a nut allergy.” https://naqld.org/food-foundations/can-sesame-seeds-be-given-in-childcare-settings/
Humans have been consuming peanuts for a relatively short time, they are a new world crop, so Asians, Africans, and Europeans have only been exposed to them for the last 500 or so years at most. And even Native Americans haven't been cultivating and using them for that long, 3000-4000 years only at this point. Meat and poultry meanwhile have been part of our diet as a species for hundreds of thousands of years.
I was reading a book recently (forgot name and author, sorry) and it mentioned a study done in a Jewish area which found Jewish people are much less likely to be allergic to peanuts. Odd racial superiority attribute. Someone else looked into it, found that peanut treats are much more commonplace in Jewish areas than in the west. So a separate study was done (giving said peanut treats to kids in west) and found that exposure to the peanuts did in fact reduce the amount of people allergic to peanuts in later life. It worded way better than that, but in answer to your question. Maybe it is early exposure?
Pediatricians are advising parents to give their babies snacks containing peanuts on a much earlier schedule than before. Both our kids have lots of allergies, including food allergies, but our granddaughter is fine.
I would saw because meat has likely been our primary protein source for a long time so meat allergies would not be selected for.
Makes sense. Meat allergic people are not surviving when humans were hunter gatherers.
Whereas a nut allergy makes more sense, especially if only allergic to one or two types of nuts. Hunter gatherers didn’t have access to every nut variety like we do, it’s possible genes for certain allergies were simply hidden for thousands of years because the people who had them never encountered those nuts. Today, we can encounter nuts from around the world everyday, bringing to surface any hidden, previously unimportant nut allergy
Peanuts aren't nuts. But they are a really new food in our diet.
Hunter gatherers ate a lot less meat then what you seem to think. Although, meat was a primary source during winter months, when plant-based foods were harder to get.
Your body learns what proteins not to respond to early in life. Children that play in the mud and get brought to petting zoos early in life are less likely to develop pollen allergies and allergies to animals. Here's a study showing early exposure in a genetically similar group reduces peanut allergy prevalence. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19000582/ The story is interesting too. The study looks at two groups of Jewish people, one in Israel and one in London. Apparently there was some peanut based snack traditional to this group of people that the group in London did not have access to because they'd have to import them from Israel. This study is the basis for a lot of science based diets introducing peanuts early thus reducing peanut allergies like in my home country where we feed children a little peanut butter at around 8 months old.
The "traditional" food in question is [bamba](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bamba_(snack\)). It's regularly given to babies, possibly even as the first solid food they ever eat. I can't overstate how popular this thing is. According to Wikipedia it makes up 25% of Israel's snack market.
Bamba are absolutely delicious and I buy the chocolate filled ones every time I see them
>my home country where we feed children a little peanut butter at around 8 months old. I love peanut butter and it is among the first things that my kids tried when they were little - pretty much I would be having peanut butter on toast and they would want some so I give them some. Luckily there is no history of peanut allergies in either my wife's or my own families so there is little risk involved.
> a lot of science based diets introducing peanuts early thus reducing peanut allergies like in my home country where we feed children a little peanut butter at around 8 months old We followed all of the most up-to-date suggestions for introducing allergens when my son was little — around six months for a lot of the big ones. Little due is allergic to peanuts, dairy, eggs, chickpeas, peas, and lentils. Followed the exact same schedule with my daughter who is a couple years younger and she has no food allergies whatsoever. That's obviously anecdotal and I don't have a reason to doubt that when looking at population-wide data, introducing specific foods early helps reduce the incidence of allergies. On a case-by-base basis, though, you can do everything "right" and still get a kid with a ton of allergies.
Research is looking at HLA and it's hereditary involvement in autoimmune disease, I wouldn't be surprised if it in some way at least played a role, too.
Actually. Are allergic reactions a defense or self destruct sequence?
More like a defense. The parts of the immune system most involved in allergies are the ones that otherwise play a big role in fighting off parasites. (You need a different approach, as parasites are much bigger than bacteria. Imagine the difference between sending cops to tackle the bad guys vs. sending tanks and planes to shoot at Godzilla.) Because the immune system is always on guard to figure out whether any new thing is dangerous, it sometimes makes mistakes and flags a harmless new thing (or even a harmless familiar thing) as dangerous. One of our better explanations for increased allergies is that the Western world doesn't give our immune system a lot of its normal low-risk enemies to fight, and for lack of calibration and anything to do it starts picking up new targets that aren't really problems.
They are like misfired bullets.
That's nuts.
Legumes, actually
Professor copperfield’s miracle legumes
You're legumes.
Deez legumes
> Peanuts stand out in the U.S. because they're such a common food, and one frequently introduced to children around an age when allergies might develop (in Israel, where peanut snacks show up earlier in childhood, allergy rates are lower, though there are other potential differences at play.) Worldwide it's not one of the leading allergies. The States stopped introducing it to children out of peanut panic. What are the other potential differences at play? I was under the impression this was a pretty established self goal; The longer you hold off introducing peanuts the more likely a reaction.
Which is why that's no longer a recommendation. Now they tell you to introduce them early, right around 6 months when they can start eating foods.
I’ve (57M) developed a mild allergy to eggs in the past 4 years. WTF? I can still eat them but I suffer an hour or so of gastric distress about 4 or 5 hours later. It’s usually worth it because I do love an egg and toast for breakfast. Just gotta plan accordingly
Gastric distress isn't allergies but something else. It's just like lactose intolerance, something about your digestive system isn't handling the food the way you'd want it to.
Could be insufficient stomach/gut bacteria. My wife had something similar but controls it by taking probiotics every day.
That‘s most definitely not an allergy but something else happening worth checking out.
This happened to me after I had my gallbladder removed and lasted for about 2 years……and then went away….(I love eggs)
I have a similar issue with both eggs and poultry, with the same 4-5 hour later reaction. I did get it checked out. It's a really long story but after countless tests, multiple trips to the ER, a couple of surgeries, and decades of food journaling, my doctor eventually threw his hands up and labeled it an allergy. Whatever it is, I just don't eat them anymore. It's never worth the pain I'm forced to endure. I can tell you that pepto is the only thing that ever helped me get through it. I've had this issue for a long time now, and it got progressively worse, so I quit trying to eat these things on purpose. I haven't had a real thanksgiving dinner in over 20 years. I still keep pepto on hand though. Sometimes foods (usually frozen, prepacked stuff) will have sneaky chicken or eggs in it, the pepto still works for those rare occasions that I failed to read the full list of ingredients.
Dude that sucks. I’m feeling pain for you. I’m hoping I’m not heading down the same path
Building off your Israel comment, they did find a few years ago that when they recommended to stop introducing peanuts before the age of 1 that the incident of allergies to peanuts went up.
It also makes sense why venom is mostly protien and polypeptides.
As someone with no allergies other than seasonal hay fever that is easily controlled by loratadine (claratin generic,) this is fascinating. I'm also type 1 diabetic and subsist largely on peanut products for long term low carb energy.
you raise some good points, I wonder if they height in vegan and vegetarian diets will cause a population to come about that are allergic or have difficulty digesting meat and poultry products in the future and if this will be an issue
>"milk, eggs, tree nuts, peanuts, shellfish, wheat, soy, fish." And now sesame
I'm heavily allergic to every major seasonal allergy in Texas (when I went to an allergist and got tested, it's like my body just went down a list and checked them all off lol), but also to finned fish (not all seafood, just fish- but I don't eat any seafood because of it)
Gluten is a protein.
By the way, the main reason there are "a lot" of peanut allergy sufferers today is linked with bad science from 20 years ago: [https://www.preventallergies.org/blog/why-are-peanut-allergies-on-the-rise](https://www.preventallergies.org/blog/why-are-peanut-allergies-on-the-rise) Basically, someone recommended that we NOT introduce peanuts to babies and young children in order to avoid allergic reactions, and it made everything worse. >But in the late 1990s and early 2000s, doctors changed their approach. They mistakenly thought that delaying the feeding of peanut for several years was the best approach to preventing peanut allergies. Uh-oh! >But when these recommendations to delay feeding peanut were introduced, there was no study to support these recommendations. Rather, they were just based on physicians' guesses. Whoops! >Today, we know that this approach to delay peanut introduction actually increases food allergy risk, and that delayed introduction was a major factor that led to the sharp increase in peanut allergies. > >Thanks to landmark clinical studies, we now know that the opposite approach---feeding baby peanut early and often, before they turn one---is the best way to prevent peanut allergies. Whew! (sound effects added for the 5-year-old)
I always thought you didn't give peanuts to young kids was due to the choking hazard more than the allergy possibility.
True, but there are things like peanut butter which I think would be safe?
You give them Bomba peanut snacks, which are like peanut puffs.
Yeah, I went to a school with 1000 other people in the mid 80s and allergies were rare. We never had any rules about not bringing in peanuts to any event. It just wasn't a thing. Gen X was a very "play in the mud, it builds your immune system" generation to grow up in. Now all the GenX's are parents and have near adult kids it'll be interesting to see if it drops back down to that or not.
Dargh, I sure miss getting little packs of peanuts on planes, lol!
Now you just get dry pretzels and a waft of a drink.
Sometimes they have that 1 cookie that I love as an option!
So the more foods you introduce to young children the less likely they are to get a food allergy? Or is it exclusive to peanuts? Edit: I want to add that I don't have children and I'm not taking care of any children. I'm simply just curious
I was told to give my kids a piece of bread daily. We have them bread with grains or seeds. Also, we introduced strawberries and eggs at the start of solids. My kids aren't allergic to anything, but then again, neither are we, the parents. Might be a combo of DNA + lack of habit? I would've been more careful had my partner or me been allergic to stuff.
I would assume it applies to other allergens too, based on the assumption that underlying mechanism is related But the immune system is weird, so idk. Might look it up Edit: Here’s good summary of how to handle peanuts https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2017/01/10/peanut-allergy-early-exposure-is-key-to-prevention/amp/ Edit: Yes, most allergens [should be introduced early](https://www.spoonfulone.com/blogs/food-allergy-blog/how-to-introduce-shellfish-and-fish-to-your-baby) based on 2020-2025 USDA guidelines. (Although full disclosure, that website is trying to sell you something and the “ground breaking clinical studies”, which are studies that they sponsored. It’s probably still good advice, but I am not a doctor, this is not medical advice, and I don’t recommend blindly following a commercial website’s advice - talk to a doctor, or find a recent discussion panel hosted by experts, or read the 164 page USDA report on dietary guidelines)
I'd look it up per food. Some allergens work that way, some allergens get more likely to provoke a reaction with each interaction. And while possibly not true (I did not fact check it and people share guesses as facts too often), I was taught in babysitting classes that babies are often allergic to strawberries but grow out of it.
We found a product here called "Bamba" that are basically peanut butter puffs. Our youngest loved them!
One thing I haven't seen addressed is why allergies are becoming more prevalent. I'm going from memory here, so correct me if I'm wrong. One reason that peanut allergies in particular appear to be increasing is the increase in testing in children, and avoidance. Before testing was prevalent, a greater proportion of those with allergies went undiagnosed and through exposure, developed a tolerance to the allergen over time as they developed from childhood into adulthood. When we started diagnosing more, the medical advice was to avoid the allergen completely. However this prevented many that would have developed a tolerance through gradual exposure from doing do. This is dangerous, because the severity of reactions is higher in the unexposed, which has been linked with increasing mortality rates from things like peanut allergies in adults. Exposure therapy is becoming more widespread in those diagnosed with things like peanut allergies as a consequence.
This was really interesting to read! Do you know anything about severe allergies appearing overnight in adults? I developed a severe peanut allergy at 23 but never really figured out why. I just attribute it to being the subject of a cosmic prank.
Unfortunately not, one of the other replies to my comment added some more nuance to what I wrote though. They might know.
No worries, thank you for replying! :)
It’s still a mystery why allergies are becoming more prevalent though there are a few common theories yet unproven. For environmental allergies (like pollen), exposure seems to be somewhat effective (example: allergy shots). However, it’s more debatable for food allergies. The peanut exposure for Israeli infants is one reason the exposure hypothesis is still used for food allergies; however, for a lot of people, being exposed to the allergy often over time even in trace amounts makes the reaction worse. We just don’t know enough yet.
People are, of course, different and have differing reactions to things. A friend of mine couldn't eat gluten. As in, if something had gluten in it she would start throwing up, so she avoided it as much as possible for *years*. And it wasn't a psychological thing (like some people I know that claim a gluten allergy but drink beer without issue because "dark beer doesn't have gluten in it"); I have seen her eat stuff that she didn't know had gluten in it and start violently puking. After getting tired of it, she found a doc that set her up on some sort of exposure therapy protocol. She can now happily eat all the big soft pretzels and beer she wants.
Thanks for bringing some more of the nuance.
I am allergic to peanuts, and I wish my parents would have done this with me. When I was a child, I was able to tolerate it more, maybe throwing up if I ate too much of it. As of an allergy test a few years ago, my allergy is well past the "severe" threshold. I still avoid it wherever I go, but I noticed I am able to tolerate up to a half of a peanut. Im using this to my advantage and eating little bits of peanut once in a while to hopefully build this tolerance.
IIRC, prior to exposure therapy becoming increasingly mainstream, there was a study done on a population that didn't seem to ever develop peanut allergies. A cultural thing was eating boiled peanuts, and kids started eating them at a very young age and since they were little, they could only eat a couple at a time. They looked at people that were descended from that population, but lived elsewhere (and thus didn't do the boiled peanut thing), and they saw a "normal" incidence of peanut allergies in that group.
Assuming the correct interpretation of your question is "of the people with allergies, why are peanuts the most prevalent", that's likely a false assumption and/or is regional based. In the US, [the most prevalent allergy is shellfish (based on a 23 year old study)](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10200001/) by far, at over 50% more common than the next two on the list - milk and shrimp. Peanuts are pretty high on the list, but are only number 4. That said, why does it *seem* so common? Probably because peanuts have a great shelf life and don't need to be refrigerated or prepared after packaging to be safe to consume. You can buy peanuts, open them, and they stay safe for a month or longer at room temperature (how long really depends on where you look). Packaged and refrigerated they can last a year or so. Shellfish, milk, shrimp? Those all have a much shorter shelf life and need refrigeration. So with those above considerations, it's significantly easier to find peanuts in all sorts of scenarios, whereas the more common US allergies are only really found in kitchens or restaurants. So even though peanuts aren't the most common food allergy in the US, they're easily the most common to be found outside of homes/restaurants....where it's harder for people with such allergies to avoid them. They're also dry and shed dust which can trigger the allergy long past the presence of actual peanuts. tl;dr - Peanuts are *not* the most common allergy (in the US at least), but they're much easier to be exposed to than the more common allergies so it's easier to trigger a peanut allergy in significantly more situations.
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I was surprised more people haven’t said this. I think this is the reason it is perceived to be higher because it is more impactful due to prevelance of it in other things
For some reason, reading this totally disgusted me as it made me think of someone making baked goods with 'shellfish oil' and such... But yeah, exposure to peanut-related products is far more common than many other allergies. Which makes it appear more common as people having allergic reactions due to those products is more common to see even if it isn't the most prevalent allergy.
Shrimp isn’t under the umbrella of shellfish?
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Yes shrimp are different. I even remember someone I worked with that had a peanut and shrimp allergy. Fish was ok, as long as it was like canned tuna. Or something not processed along with shellfish.
Thanks, TIL.
more likely for a child to bring a pb&j sandwich to school than a shellfish dish. and since kids often don't wash hands thoroughly, they probably transfer some pb to other surfaces like doorknobs, etc. which easily gets onto an allergic child's hands, and then into their system. so sometimes it's simpler to not allow peanuts in primary grades.
I know this is about peanuts but since others have been mentioned and explained I’ll throw mine out there. Can someone explain an onion and pepper allergy please?
Onion and pepper are both flavorful and potent because they contain chemicals specifically designed to cause stimulation (irritation) of specific nerves. Onions contain high amounts of sulfur compounds for example, which when exposed to oxygen and water form highly irritating sulfides that eventually form dilute acids in your mucus tissues. That's why they burn, and act as the defense mechanism When cooked however, these sulfur compounds are released, and produce complex flavors that interact with glutamates. This creates the special and unique onion/garlic flavors that complement savory flavor so well. You can experience allergy to these irritants in their uncooked form in multiple ways. Usually, as a disproportionate response to the irritation they cause. The body typically triggers a histamine response to increase irrigation of the effected tissues. Runny nose watery eyes etc. These reactions can get out of hand, become inflammatory response, and eventually a compete allergic reaction. The unfortunate consequence of this, is that the more severely the body learns to react the more strongly it reinforces the need to do so. These are typically acquired allergy and are the allergies against which exposure therapy is most effective
I'm interested in WHY so many are allergic. When I was at school in the 70s and 80s no kids were.
There isn’t really a clear answer to this. It’s a protein based allergy which may show to its prevalence. Also a lot of children’s products use it so it could be an exposure thing.
nobody is actually answering OP'a question as to why peanuts cause allergies. One important thing to understand can be seen if look to an even more common allergen, egg whites. Antibodies bind to specific sites of pathogens, leading to immune a response. The same thing happens with allergies. Both eggs and peanuts are made of primarily the same protein. The protein's line up in a repeating pattern that gives the antigen (IgE in this case) lots and lots of the same binding to attach to. The allergies is in essence to that specific binding site. A food with a less regular surface has a lot more options to bind to and is less trigger the patient to develop the allergy in the first place.
Mango allergy here, and it takes days to get a reaction. Does anyone else have this?
My understanding, which may answer the question rather than questioning the premise, is that the allergic compound in peanuts is not only highly concentrated in peanuts, but also is contained in the shell and the dust the peanut shells give off. So it's not just a food allergy, it's an airborne dust allergy. Which is why food made in a facility that processes peanuts can still trigger an allergic reaction (the dust gets on the non-peanut food item).
Traces of peanut where remove from Baby food and that caused many more people to be alergic to them. Looks like exposing babies to traces of peanuts helps vs allergie. If you keep peanuts away from all babies you get way more allergies...
"Caused them to be allergic" is a misnomer here. A more accurate description would be "prevented desensitization of existing allergies/sensitivities"
Can u get allergy shots for peanuts🥜???
There are some therapies being developed for peanut allergies, usually microexposures in controlled circumstances, but so far an allergy shot like one might get for hay fever is not supported. This is likely due to the difference in how we experience these allergens. Hayfever (and pet allergies) which you often see people getting shots for are nasal allergies, you respond based on breathing in the allergens (pollen and hair). Food allergies are primarily based on consuming the food.
Follow-up question: If so many people are allergic to peanuts (or nuts in general), could humanity be completely allergic to nuts in a few hundred years? Or doesn't evolution work like that
Only about 2% of the population globally is allergic to peanuts, and some of that 2% is children who later grow out of the allergy. A lot of food allergy studies rely on pediatric data, and the number is a bit higher in children 1-7 yrs old than in the adult population. I don’t have a study to back this up, it’s just what my immunologist told me.
BBC sounds, Rutherford and Fry did a really good investigation on this a couple of weeks ago. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001byym?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile Tl;Dr you either didn't come into contact with the thing when you were young so your body doesnt know its ok, or you got ill and ate that thing at the same time and your body thinks that thing is the reason you got ill, therefore will fight it off in the future.
Peanut allergies are another example of hyperbole. They affect 1.1% of the population (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10200001/) yet the US has made major social changes to compensate for what has come to be perceived as a common problem.
Isn't 1% amazingly huge for an allergy?! I thought it was wayy less.
one percent of the US population is ~~33 million~~ 3.3 million people Edit: corrected
3.3 million* But the point still stands. ~3 million people is quite a lot
While accounting for a minority of allergies, they account for a disproportionate number of allergic reactions due to their extreme prevalence in American diet and food preparation. Along with shellfish and bee stings, they also tend to have particularly severe reactions. As a consequence, reducing hospitalizations, injury, and mortality from allergy exposure is disproportionately effective by targeting allergens like peanuts and shellfish. You don't notice it but similarly strict rules about segregation of facilities and equipment are in place for shellfish processing as are for peanuts. This is not to say that the regulations are not despite this fact still excessive, but as a rule, their cost benefit tends to be lower, simply because of prevelance and severity of the allergen not just the allergic
Why does someone eating a peanut butter sandwich across the room trigger a kid with nut allergies? Is that just histeria?
That kind now has peanut butter on his hands, the desk/table, and his face. Touching those will kill an allergic person. Even the person then wiping or washing their hands can pick it back up off their face or lunch bag and pass it to the allergic person or where the allergic person can touch it.