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PEANUTS ALLERGY
FOOD ALLERGY TO PEANUTS
Why peanuts can cause allergy?
Peanuts have components with allergenic properties. Among them, for example, chlorogenic acid, caffeic acid, oleic acid, niacin or quercetin.
This determines that, in some people it can cause allergy to peanuts.
Peanut allergy characteristics
When people allergic to peanut components eat this food, they can develop a food allergy whose results can be quite varied: digestive problems, skin reactions, headache, etc.
Other times it can cause extreme reactions that may even lead to anaphylactic shock with very serious consequences.
People who suffer allergic reactions should not eat peanuts, peanut butter or other products containing this vegetable.
Peanuts during pregnancy
Women during pregnancy or breastfeeding, should also refrain from eating peanuts if they have any history of allergy in their family or have had an allergic reaction before pregnancy. Eating this food during these times could sensibilize the fetus or nursing baby against this food, so it would be more prone to food allergies in the future.
It has been shown that in Mediterranean countries where peanuts are introduced into the infants’ menu up to 2 or 3 years of age, food allergies are lower than in countries such as the United States, where this legume is introduced at younger ages through peanut butter, peanut oil or other products that contain it.
According to many experts, peanut contains components that produce a kind of “mark” in young people, which makes them more prone to food allergies, not only when they eat peanuts later, but other foods associated with them such as nuts or legumes.
For this reason, many experts recommend not to eat peanuts during pregnancy and lactation, even knowing that the mother has no history or personal problems of allergy to this food. Other experts do not consider this last point to be necessary, even in many places peanuts are offered to infants to increase milk production. (See “Benefits of peanuts” in the listing below)
Peanuts, in the list of allergenic food
Anyway, peanuts are one of the foods included on the list of foods that can cause allergy.
Therefore, the European Union states that they have to be introduced in the composition of all the products that contain them together with other food with allergenic properties (soy, shellfish, gluten, etc.) (See diet for allergy)
You’d better test them in small amounts if you have never eaten them
People who have never eaten peanuts should try a small amount and see how they react to them before eating them in normal quantity.
Pregnant or nursing women should never eat them if they have never done it before pregnancy.
*Related information: Food allergy and food intolerance / Diet for food allergy
More information about peanut.
