British, American, and Israeli Study Draws a Nutty Conclusion
The study, which included universities in London, New Orleans, Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Jerusalem, started off with a simple enough question: Why is it that despite guidelines recommending that peanuts be avoided during infancy in the UK, Australia, and other countries, that incidences of peanut allergy continue to rise in these countries?
The researchers attempted to answer this question by comparing the prevalence of peanut allergy in a country where peanuts are avoided for infants (the UK) with the prevalence of peanut allergy in a country where peanuts are introduced earlier and consumed more frequently (Israel). When controlling for variables such as genetic background, social class, etc., the researchers found that in their sample of 10,000 children, kids in the UK were 10 times as likely to develop a peanut allergy.
While an observational study can determine only a correlation and not necessarily causation, the results of the study, available online in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, suggest that early exposure to peanuts may have something to do with these discrepancies.
Israeli infants eat peanut on average 8 times a month, while British infants eat peanut 0 times a month (approximately 7 grams of peanut protein per month for Israeli infants and 0 grams for British infants). One of the cultural reasons for this is a popular Israeli peanut flavored snack food called Bamba that is a common first solid food for Israeli babies.
The study concludes that “These findings raise the question of whether early introduction of peanut during infancy, rather than avoidance, will prevent the development of peanut allergy.” The idea that early exposure to foods may help prevent allergies to them even among infants with a family history of allergies, has been gaining the attention of policy makers in the UK.
Britain’s National Health Service (NHS) is currently funding a further investigation of the issue that will focus on British children at high risk for allergy. Half of the group will be introduced to peanuts at an earlier age and half will avoid peanuts. Researchers will measure the rate of allergy in both groups and have results ready in 2014, when the children turn 5.
The results could change the way doctors and parents look at food allergies. Until then… Bamba anyone??
For more information on the study and its implications, see TIME Magazine‘s article on the topic.
6 comments:
Bamba is the first food they feed to babies? hahah
[Reply]
Haha. i like this. who would of ever thought they would give there child peanuts and bamba.
[Reply]
Most allergies can be treated by corticosteroids and also some antihistamine blockers.-*.
[Reply]
Epi Pen Reply:
February 3rd, 2011 at 6:49 pm
@Elliot Russell, Food allergies Are a real and dangerous thing. Giving a kid a food that causes hives and then treating it with benadryl, can kill them in the long run.
Israel has very low instances of peanut allergies, but very high rate of sesame allergies, which is much lower in the UK and US.
[Reply]
to treat my allergies, i just take in some antihistamines like claritin’,;
[Reply]
allergies can be a menacing sickness specially if you get stuffy nose and rashes all overy your body each day :;~
[Reply]
Leave a reply