Research involving 600 infants aged between four and 11 months who were at high risk of developing peanut allergies found that a regular diet of at least 6g of peanut protein per week appeared to protect against the development of the immune reaction.
The children, who already suffered from eczema or egg allergy and so were prone to developing a peanut allergy, were split into two groups.
One followed existing advice and avoided peanut protein, while rest of the children were fed a regular diet of peanut protein.
By the age of five, some 17 per cent of the children in the avoidance groups had developed peanut allergy, compared with 3 per cent in the exposure group, says the study published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
Professor Gideon Lack, of King’s College London, said: “For decades, allergists have been recommending that young infants avoid consuming allergenic foods such as peanut to prevent food allergies.
“Our findings suggest that this advice was incorrect and may have contributed to the rise of peanut and other food allergies.”
Peanut allergies, which have doubled over the past few decades and affect about one per cent of the population, can cause hives, abdominal pain and severe anaphylaxis, which can kill if left untreated.
Professor Lack added: “This is an important clinical development and contravenes previous guidelines
“While these were withdrawn in 2008 in the UK and US, our study suggests that new guidelines may be needed to reduce the rate of peanut allergy in our children.
“The study also excluded infants showing early strong signs of having already developed peanut allergy; the safety and effectiveness of early peanut consumption in this group remains unknown and requires further study.
“Parents of infants and young children with eczema and, or egg allergy should consult with an allergist, paediatrician, or their general practitioner prior to feeding them peanut products.”
The co-investigator of the study, Dr George Du Toit, a consultant in paediatric allergy at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and an honorary senior lecturer at King’s College London, said: “ [We] will continue to monitor those children who consumed peanut to see if they remain protected against allergy even if they stop consuming peanut for 12 months.”
The shell of a peanut (not actually a nut) is a pod, and, like other legumes, each pod may contain more than one seed. Although the cultivar common in the United States has two seeds, different peanut varieties will have anywhere from one to four. Nutritious and versatile, peanuts are a vital staple in the diets of people around the world.
Although today ubiquitous across the globe, the peanut (Arachis hypogaea) was native only to South America, and it is believed to come from the foothills of the Andes in Bolivia and Peru. Ancient, anthropologists have found evidence of peanut cultivation dating back at least 7,600 years.
Tasty and hardy, the plant quickly spread. It reached Mexico by the 1st century AD, and soon after European explorers reached the New World, sailors were transporting it to China and Africa, where it became popular by the 1500s.
Shortly after, as North America was being colonized, Africans in bondage, brought to work in plantations in Virginia as part of the slave trade, brought peanuts with them. By the early part of the 19th century, peanuts were being grown commercially for use not only as a food, but also for oil, and even as a substitute for cocoa. During the last part of the century, “hot roasted peanuts” were sold by P.T. Barnum as the circus criss-crossed the country, contributing even more to their popularity.
Innovations in the 20th century made growing and harvesting peanuts much easier, which by this point were being consumed as nuts, oil and peanut butter. Even more farmers began to grow peanuts at this time as a boll weevil infestation was ruining cotton crops.
Today, peanuts are cultivated around the world, with China and India producing the most. Hardy and easy to grow, peanuts pack a lot of nutrition into a small package. In fact, a quarter cup of peanuts provides significant amounts of vitamins B3, B1, E, biotin, folate, copper, manganese, molybdenum and phosphorous. It also provides nearly one-fifth of a person’s daily protein needs.
Building on this firm foundation, pediatricians working in Africa have developed a therapeutic food made from a combination of peanuts, oil, sugar, powdered milk, vitamins and minerals to use to combat severe acute malnutrition (SAM). Called high-energy RUTF (ready-to-use food) paste, the treatment is cost-effective, resistant to spoilage and is believed to have saved thousands of children over the past decade.
Indiscriminately feeding peanut butter to children may shock American parents who have been warned of the risk of food allergies, but it is consistent with recent research that indicates that this fear, and its concomitant late introduction of peanuts, may have contributed to the massive increases in peanut allergies seen in recent decades.
In 2000, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that children not be introduced to peanuts until age 2, although by 2008 it was becoming clear that these measures in no way were preventing the development of food allergies.
More recently, the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology in January 2013 issued recommendations that counter the old guidelines, and encourage the introduction of peanut butter (along with fish and eggs) between the ages of 4 and 6 months, in order to help train the child’s body to accept the food.
Nonetheless, peanut allergies remain a concern, and a recent study confirmed that, in particular, dry roasted peanuts cause the most severe allergic reactions. This is because: “dry roasting causes a chemical modification of peanut proteins that appears to activate the immune system.”
In addition to allergies, when peanuts are improperly stored, certain types of mold will grow on them and produce aflatoxin, a type of carcinogen that has caused liver cancer in laboratory animals. However, a study by Consumers Union revealed that although the toxin was found in some butters – ironically, the highest in those butters fresh ground in health food stores – the large brands had the lowest amounts (Skippy, Jif and Peter Pan).
Furthermore, peanuts can also carry salmonella – a potentially deadly bacteria. During 2008-2009, a salmonella outbreak traced to tainted peanut butter was linked to 9 deaths and made hundreds ill across the country. During a subsequent investigation, it was revealed that the company at the center of the outbreak, The Peanut Corporation of America, knew the peanut butter was contaminated before it was shipped.
Six years later, a federal jury in Georgia convicted its owner, Stewart Parnell, of fraud, conspiracy and other charges. His brother, Michael, was also convicted of several charges, and the plant’s “quality control” manager, Mary Wilkerson, was convicted for obstruction of justice. This was the first time the chief executive officer of a corporation was tried before a jury for knowingly selling food tainted with the bacteria.
Luckily, most health experts believe that, in moderate amounts, peanut butter is safe to consume. Accordingly, peanut butter revenues in the United States have increased over the last few years, to reach $1.5 billion in 2013.
Pregnancy is a time filled with dos and don'ts. Do take folic acid. Don't smoke. Do get daily exercise. Don't take super-hot baths.
When it comes to your diet, you face a laundry list of advice. Until recently, that advice included a caution about potentially allergy-inducing foods. In 2000, the American Academy of Pediatrics advised allergy-prone moms to avoid peanuts and tree nuts during pregnancy to help prevent their babies from getting allergies. They extended the warning to breastfeeding, adding cow's milk, eggs, and fish to the list.
But times have changed, and so has the thinking about allergy prevention. "The incidence of food allergies, particularly peanuts, has increased since those recommendations," says Frank R. Greer, MD, professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin. "The idea of avoiding peanuts was based on deduction, but it seems like that wasn't a good idea."
Published medical studies find no evidence that avoiding foods like milk and eggs during pregnancy has any effect on a baby's allergy risk, and little evidence that shunning peanuts helps.
"Mothers don't need to avoid any of these allergic foods. If anything, they might be beneficial," Greer says. One recent study found that non-allergic mothers who ate peanuts or tree nuts five times a week or more were less likely to have a baby with a nut allergy. The new thinking is that introducing foods early might help an infant build a tolerance to them, lowering the risk of allergies.
Still, if you've got a strong family or personal history of allergies (at least one immediate relative, such as a parent or sibling, with an allergy), your infant is likely high-risk. Talk to your OB/GYN or allergist before you dip into the peanut brittle. There's enough uncertainty in the research to justify caution, at least when it comes to nuts.
What else can you do during pregnancy to cut your child's risk of getting food allergies? Studies show some evidence that taking probiotics ("good" bacteria such as those found in yogurt) late in pregnancy and while breastfeeding may lessen allergies in your baby. The research isn't solid enough to recommend that every pregnant woman take probiotics, but there's probably no harm in trying a supplement if your doctor says it's OK.
Expert Tip
"I ate a well-rounded, balanced diet including cow's milk, eggs, and nuts during my pregnancy. Thankfully, my children are allergy-free. However, I don't have a 'high risk' family history of allergies that could increase my children's risk." -- Nivin C.S. Todd, MD
Roasted peanuts are more likely to trigger an allergic reaction than raw peanuts, according to a new study.
An Oxford University research team says chemical changes caused by dry roasting processes may prime the body’s immune system, sparking future allergic reactions, BBC News reported.
The study, published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, exposed mice to peanut proteins through the skin and stomach.
The mice exposed to dry roasted samples had a much stronger immune response than mice given the raw versions. An immune response is triggered when the body is fighting something foreign.
Researchers believe the high temperatures used to roast the nuts may be responsible for the chemical changes that prompt allergic reactions.
“This is the first time, to our knowledge, that a potential trigger for peanut allergy has been directly shown,” Professor Quentin Sattentau, lead researcher said, according to BBC News.
The scientists say more research is needed to determine if humans react the same way.
“However our research is at an early stage and we think that it would be premature to avoid roasted peanuts and their products until further work has been carried out to confirm this result,” Sattentau said
The peanut or groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) is a species in the family Fabaceae(commonly known as the bean, pea or legume family). The peanut was probably first domesticated and cultivated in the valleys of Paraguay.[2] It is an annual herbaceousplant growing 30 to 50 cm (1.0 to 1.6 ft) tall. The leaves are opposite, pinnate with four leaflets (two opposite pairs; no terminal leaflet); each leaflet is 1 to 7 cm (⅜ to 2¾ in) long and 1 to 3 cm (⅜ to 1 inch) across.
The flowers are a typical peaflower in shape, 2 to 4 cm (0.8 to 1.6 in) (¾ to 1½ in) across, yellow with reddish veining. The specific name, hypogaea means "under the earth"; after pollination, the flower stalk elongates, causing it to bend until the ovary touches the ground. Continued stalk growth then pushes the ovary underground where the mature fruit develops into a legume pod, the peanut – a classical example of geocarpy. Pods are 3 to 7 cm (1.2 to 2.8 in) long, containing 1 to 4 seeds.[3]
Because, in botanical terms, "nut" specifically refers to indehiscent fruit, the peanut is not technically a nut,[4] but rather a legume. Peanuts are often served in a similar manner to true nuts in many western cuisines, and are often referred to as a nut in common English
| Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz) | |
|---|---|
| Energy | 2,385 kJ (570 kcal) |
Carbohydrates
|
21 g
|
| Sugars | 0.0 g |
| Dietary fiber | 9 g |
Fat
|
48 g
|
| Saturated | 7 g |
| Monounsaturated | 24 g |
| Polyunsaturated | 16 g |
Protein
|
25 g
|
| Tryptophan | 0.2445 g |
| Threonine | 0.859 g |
| Isoleucine | 0.882 g |
| Leucine | 1.627 g |
| Lysine | 0.901 g |
| Methionine | 0.308 g |
| Cystine | 0.322 g |
| Phenylalanine | 1.300 g |
| Tyrosine | 1.020 g |
| Valine | 1.052 g |
| Arginine | 3.001 g |
| Histidine | 0.634 g |
| Alanine | 0.997 g |
| Aspartic acid | 3.060 g |
| Glutamic acid | 5.243 g |
| Glycine | 1.512 g |
| Proline | 1.107 g |
| Serine | 1.236 g |
| Vitamins | |
| Thiamine (B1) |
(52%)
0.6 mg |
| Riboflavin (B2) |
(25%)
0.3 mg |
| Niacin (B3) |
(86%)
12.9 mg |
Pantothenic acid (B5)
|
(36%)
1.8 mg |
| Vitamin B6 |
(23%)
0.3 mg |
| Folate (B9) |
(62%)
246 μg |
| Vitamin C |
(0%)
0.0 mg |
| Vitamin E |
(44%)
6.6 mg |
| Trace metals | |
| Calcium |
(6%)
62 mg |
| Iron |
(15%)
2 mg |
| Magnesium |
(52%)
184 mg |
| Manganese |
(95%)
2.0 mg |
| Phosphorus |
(48%)
336 mg |
| Potassium |
(7%)
332 mg |
| Zinc |
(35%)
3.3 mg |
| Other constituents | |
| Water | 4.26 g |
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