Peanut allergies in children have quadrupled in the past 13 years in the US – but why?
Peanut allergies in children have quadrupled in the past 13 years in the US – but why?
The answer, as Dr Daniel Aronov explains in his recent video, lies in children not eating peanuts at an early age.
In the early 2000s, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued recommendations that people should avoid peanuts during pregnancy and while breastfeeding.
This advice was intended to prevent peanut allergies, which can lead to anaphylaxis in extreme cases.
But avoidance of peanuts had the opposite effect, with four times as many children having peanut allergies in 2010 compared with 1997.
The truth came out when a study was published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology in 2008, revealing that Jewish kids in London were more likely to have peanut allergies than Jewish kids in Israel even though they had similar genetic backgrounds.
The researchers discovered that the reason for this difference was a popular peanut snack in Israel called Bamba, which was often consumed by young children.
Last year a pivotal study found that high-risk children had an 81% reduced risk of developing peanut allergy by age ?ve if introduced to peanut butter at between four to 11 months compared with those whose parents were advised to avoid it.
The no-peanuts equals no-allergy myth has well and truly been debunked.
Watch Dr Dan’s video here:
https://youtu.be/bB2qnjEM9rI
