Ive personally met maybe 3 people who were allergic to peanuts in my whole life, yet, peanut allergy seems to be such a big thing in America. Is it because they eat much more peanuts than us? Or is it something in the way they farm them? Or maybe its just coincidence Ive met so few people with peanut allergy?
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Actually, now that I think about it, none. Even though eating peanuts (and products containing them) is common.
No not a single person, friends family or colleagues.
Two. One a serious allergy to the point she can’t eat out at most restaurants. Another an intolerance (won’t die, will feel very unpleasant).
I know one, out the top of my head. And she’s severly allergic, but not airborne, she can be around peanuts. But cross contamination could kill her
Not people i hang out with often since i like to cook for people and i always ask about allergies and diet preferences.
I have the feeling that the numbers are rising. I don’t know (or just don’t know about it) with “older” people. In schools, there are several classes / classrooms that need to be peanut free because of severe allergies. Something that in the past I only saw in US schools.
I knew someone that had a peanut allergy but not a deadly one. She ate something with peanuts by accident and her lips got very swollen but that was about it.
I don’t remember previously meeting anyone native with it to any degree that it needed voicing. However, my daughter has spontaneous peanut allergy. Classic swelling and red rashes. Other nuts no problem so far. No one in either our families have it. Luckily peanuts are fairly easy to avoid and a marked allergen on most products, so even if it persists she won’t have too much trouble steering clear.
Nope, I don’t think I have every met anyone with that allergy
Not an American. I have never met or heard of anyone with peanut allergies in my country. I’m not saying that they don’t exist, I’m just saying that I have never heard of anyone.
Me & about 5 others I know. I’m the worst one: all kinds of nuts and some seeds send me into ER immediately. Suffered it from
birth in the 70s, in Europe. We exist!
For me the peanut allergy is one of those things that appears only on the internet, never seen one irl
I don’t know anybody who is allergic to peanuts. My wife and some our friends are allergic to certain types of pollen, in other words they’ve got hay fever. But that’s just a nuisance (albeit a bad one) , not a life-or-death issue.
I know 2 people yes. It’s not life threatening for either but it’s not fun and can turn into a life threatening situation at any time (both because it involves the throat and because repeated exposure to an allergen can trigger an anaphylactic shock).
Not a single person ever.
When Da Vinci Code came out (book: 2003), I thought Dan Brown made it up, and I was not alone in thinking so.
Yes, a friend of mine. And on primary school, there was also a kid with a peanut allergy. She always had to check the treats to make sure she could eat them.
I know three people and they are all South Americans, weird that I don’t know any European allergic to it but I’m sure there must be.
Nope. I have only heard announcements about it on flights.
I was a teacher in the United States and we had in my whole time of teaching one person who had documented proof that they had an allergy test done and yes, they were severely allergic. We had probably a half dozen other mothers throughout the course of my teaching who would claim a peanut allergy to get special treatment for their kids, but when we asked for a doctors note, they were unable or unwilling to produce one a simple allergy test would have cleared up any questions. they were most likely just doing it because of a mild allergy or because they wanted to draw attention to themselves and their children.
Just one with a severe allergy, brings his epi-pen everywhere.
I actually know 2 people who both have a severe peanut allergy.
Not that thats a lot since I probably know at least a few hundred people. Also I’ve worked in a restaurant for about 6 years and its incredibly rare. But maybe those people don’t eat out as much idk.
Not one I know. However, peanut and nuts are written as known allergens on a lot of food packaging as “may contain traces of Nuts”, so it’s something frequent enough to warrant a note on food packaging.
I would also say, American eat A LOT of peanut butter so it may reveal nuts allergy a lot more than elsewhere
Only ever knew one person, school friend of my brother – they, tragically, died from anaphylaxis when they were 11-12-ish (and iirc it was from their peanut allergy, but this individual had a very overreactive immune system and was allergic to a LOT of things, it was so sad).
Yes, a family member is allergic. I would think it’s simply because the US eats a LOT of peanuts and peanut-containing foods. If you live in a European country where they don’t really cook with or use peanuts then of course even knowing one might have an allergy wouldn’t necessarily come up.
Nope. I know someone with a deadly pinion nut allergy, and my husband has a light walnut allergy (his mouth and throat swell and burn if he eats them).
I seem to be in the minority but 3 of my friends are. One pretty seriously and two get a reaction but not too bad. I know of a few more people who have it as well. I definitely didn’t think of it as rare!
Edit: UK btw, on mobile so will add flair later
Absolutely none. And I’m over 50. And maybe we do not eat peanut butter but we eat quite a few toasted peanuts.
Never met one in my private circle.
but I work at a hotel and I think we have 3 or 5 *registered* cases per year. For 150 guests per week. Almost exclusively Europeans.
Stuff like lactose and gluten are way more common, but these are also “trendy”. read: after a day or two the guests are fed up with keeping up the drama and just eat normally. No it’s not the quality. Actual allergic people repeatedly ask us where we source our bread, because is really well made. We really try.
Not anyone (Germany).
Though I know people with a sensitivity to walnuts.
Some time ago I read a report of a study that suggested that the less common peanut-containing food is given to young children, the more often peanut allergies occur in older kids and adults. However, that effect might also be caused by natural selection. So I’ll add, I also do not know any single person whose kids, siblings, or young relatives died/nearly died of a peanut allergy.
Norwegian here. My nephew is deadly allergic to several nuts, including peanuts. Everywhere he goes or visits will need to have epipens/adrenaline. Sometimes he might react if someone has touched a peanut and then later touched him. His skin would start to blister. So yea, nothing to do with America for my family at least.
I’d say Norwegians are in contact with peanuts often enough. Through chocolate/desserts, but also just salted peanuts as snacks too
No, only lactose and gluten.
I could find this. One theory for the increased prevalence of food allergies is apparently the increased standards of hygiene and decrease in childhood parasitic infections.
The other theory mentioned is that exposure to possible allergens during childhood decreases likelihood of an allergy developing.
God knows how much of that is true after the several layers of lay interpretation that those studies went through, but it sounds like in societies where children are kept away from possible allergens and general dirtiness, their immune systems do not develop to be as robust, hence they experience more allergies.
I am eating peanuts right now lol. Anyway, not a single person and I live between 3 European countries. I was just talking to my American friend recently who was asking about his peanut allergy and what places do I know who are ‘peanut’ free. I had no idea.
I am allergic to pollen and used to be allergic to fruits and vegetables for about 10 years and it stopped. Pollen still is killing me.
Only ever met one that I know of, a born and raised British person who carries an epipen due to a severe reaction if ingesting peanuts.
I think it’s way more widespread in pop culture than in the actual population, but it’s a real condition and sounds very unpleasant to constantly worry about.
I used to work with couple, because of this there was an EpiPen in the first aid kit.
I know four who get anaphylaxis (including myself), and some with lesser reactions.
I do however suspect most people who know me don’t know that I do.
Not one. Only ever heard of it in books/films/news about America.
I went to school with a guy who had a peanut allergy. He was Irish, had a few other health issues (severe eczema among them). It wasn’t so bad that you couldn’t have peanuts around him but he would swell up if he even touched one. He got bullied and guys would throw peanuts at him because school is a dystopian hell I guess.
I have a friend now who is Malaysian and has a peanut allergy which really sucks for him because Malaysian food has a lot of peanut based things.
My sister’s work colleague has a son who is so severe he has to go to a special peanut free school and he wears a sign when he’s out to say he can’t have any food from anywhere that hasn’t been vetted. This is in New York but neither of the parents are American. America has a lot of peanut foods and also peanut oil which is why it comes up there a lot.
Like all allergies there are degrees of severity. It’s not common, but it happens that the reactions can be extreme for those who have it.
I live in Bulgaria, but I’ve also lived in States. You’re right, peanut allergies seem way more prominent there. This could be boiled down to a multitude of factors.
But what’s funny about here specifically is that we have an extremely large number of nut stores. If I counted how many free standing nut stores are in a 1km radius of me I’d probably hit double digits. But funnily enough, I’ve never met anyone here with a nut allergy.
None with a serious allergy, though I will start sneezing if I eat quite a lot of them. Technically an allergy, but I only mention it in these kinds of questions.
Peanuts allergy to me it’s like caviar, never saw, never ate , just heard people talking about it.
A friend’s stepson is allergic to almost all kinds of *nuts (peanuts, walnuts, etc), also in small doses like hazelnut grains in a ice cream. I’m not aware of anyone else among friends or relatives with *nuts allergy, and they’re quite common here.
Of course I know him, he is me.
Nothing serious, but I get the very unpleasant itchy throat, specially with things that are very concentrated (like peanut butter). I discovered also that it depends on the type of peanut how much reaction I get, so those rounds japanese peanuts are quite safe.
Havent met any. I know a person with soy allergy and one who is allergic to walnut (and horses and cats). Both are not of european decent though (one grew up here, one didn’t)
[American] I don’t know a single person with a peanut allergy, but I’ve certainly heard about it many times. My impression is that it doesn’t come from eating peanuts but from not eating peanuts. That is, children whose parents don’t give them peanuts or peanut butter or anything with peanuts in it leave the child more susceptible to reactions to peanuts later in life because their body wants to reject this new thing. I’m not sure why it works this way with peanuts, but I do know there are a lot of American parents who don’t give their kids peanuts (or don’t vaccinate them and many other strange things), and I’ve always heard this contributes to peanut allergies later.
It’s a little like not ever getting a cold when young, and then getting a cold when you’re an adult. You will have no immunities in your system, so that is going to be one miserable illness. If you get a cold or flu many times as a child, which you normally would do, it has the benefit of building up your resistance to later colds and flus. As a teacher, I got so many illnesses from my students, I hardly ever get colds or flus or any of the other “normal” illnesses anymore.
If this is medically incorrect which it just might be, let me know.
Not a single one. Well, not a single one so far.
I’ve only ever knew people with certain medicine allergies, standard pollen allergies, mite and dust allergies, or kiwi.
It depends on a country. Peanuts are everywhere in US, so lots of allergic reactions. Peanuts are not that popular in Russia to be a problem.
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I’ve met only 1 person, a child, with a peanut allergy. But my bff has a tree nut allergy. She can eat peanuts fine, just other nuts are a problem.
I don´t think I´ve ever met anyone with food allergies. I don´t have any food allergies – that I know of, of course. One day I might try something I´ve never tried before and have an allergic reaction, and even die. Hopefully not! But you get my point.
There were a couple of kids in my class growing up (in the 70s) with peanut allergies. One of my child’s friends (born around 2000).
And weirdly, a friend my age who developed a peanut allergy in his 50s.
🇫🇮 work as a dietary cook in institutitional catering at a central cooking facility serving an area of about 3000 kids. I have maybe 4-6 kids with nut allergy.
but as legume-allergies go (soy, peas, beans, fava beans) is a bit more common with tennish kids.
There was a child in my primary school with a nut allergy so peanut butter etc. was banned from the entire campus. That’s the only one I ever met.
Yes, maybe half a dozen people and they all have the serious type of allergy where they need an EpiPen
>peanut allergy seems to be such a big thing in America.
In Sweden as well. The reason why peanut allergy is taken so seriously is because it’s one of the deadliest allergies. People who are allergic to peanuts can sometimes go into an anaphylactic shock within seconds after exposure.
Even as an American I didn’t know anyone personally who had a peanut or major food allergy until I became a school nurse. Now I see it much more often though full-blown anaphylaxis is rare, and the symptoms for many seem to lessen as they get older.
I’m from India and to be honest I haven’t seen anyone who has peanut allergy
I have a peanut (and tree nut) allergy, but I didn’t know about it until around age 20, because I’d only encountered a few foods containing peanuts as a child and they just happened to not look very appealing to me. I think peanut allergies are pretty common everywhere, we simply don’t have the tradition of feeding every child peanut butter sandwiches.
Nope. The only people I know with allergies are basically all of the people I’ve worked in my adult life with that for some reasons are allergic to pollen (like 90% of them) and the husband of one of my friends that is coeliac (not a maniac of gluten free stuff, the real deal)
I have not met one single person that is allergic to peanuts in real life.
I know only one such person – myself 😅 I don’t encounter peanuts very often though, so it isn’t really an issue. I got a lot of different allergies and that particular one is really unimportant in comparison with pollen allergy.
I only know people with pollen allergies, aka hayfever.
My son is allergic to peanuts (not from u.s.)..it’s not the peanut that causes the allergic reaction but a protein in the nut (it’s not actually a nut but a legume) and chances are if you are allergic to this protein the you will also be allergic to a lot more foods.
It’s a killer condition and has come close to taking his life a couple of times. You can go from being perfectly ok to gasping for air in less than 10 minutes.
I don’t know anyone who has it, or at least not anyone that told me.
My 4yo daughter. Her skin becomes locally red even after just touching a peanut.
I have an intolerance to peanuts so I know one person: me
I have a borderline peanut allergy. I have no idea what it means. Maybe I should avoid peanuts, but I love Snickers.
Never met one here, we know it’s a real thing but it’s also a joke about Americans
Nope, not a single one. It’s likely because eating peanuts (and snacks which contain peanuts) is common.
I have a friend who is allergic to walnuts, but because he’s slightly traumatised by bad reactions as a child, and because lots of nut contexts often contain more than one nut, he just avoids all nuts and peanuts.
I wouldn’t say it’s common, but throughout my life I have met a number of them for sure.
You all have met none?? That’s crazy to me, I could name like ten people who I’m fairly close to (among both friends, relatives and coworkers)
Only one. But I don’t think it’s one of the severe cases (this is from my ignorance on the topic)
She usually goes like “Does this have peanut?” And if the answer is yes, she goes “OK, then I’ll just have the medication along wit it and that’s it”
One of my sons. Peanuts and hazelnuts. Others came back as ok at his most recent testing and was offered a managed reintroduction but he didn’t want to do it so will just continue being nut free (amd obviously carries his epipens!)
I know one person and guess where she lives – USA. Also, I know one person with potato alergy. It’s so sevear that he started suffocating after trying something fried in oil that had previously been used to fry potatoes. It was so scary because you don’t know what’s going on.
There has been a lot of research done on this in the Netherlands. Because we had an increase in this allergy. At first the advice was not to give it to babies but this has been adjusted By giving it, the risk of allergies is much smaller.
I know of 1, but they are also allergic to a load of other things as well, from Gluten (anaphylactic level of allergic) to wasps
I don’t specifically know anyone to be allergic. However I did a shift in a new department once where they had signs up about eating peanuts bc 3 of the staff have an allergy. Only instance I’ve seen of a penaut allergy irl
In my personal life? Not to my knowledge.
When I worked summer jobs in hospitality/food service I very rarely encountered someone with said allergy. Some other allergies yes but not really a peanut allergy.
4 people, 2 are siblings. 1 person who’s like dealthy allergic to peanut even in the air, she hates flying coz has to ask for a nut free plane and even then she wears a rebreather kinda mask thing. 2 that have to actually consume the nut but still have epi pens and quick and bad reactions, and 1 that’s got an epi for emergencies but realistically usually just gets really bad hives and a bit of face swelling that a strong antihistamine usually calms down
One of my students had a peanut allergy, but he could be in the same room with peanuts, just couldn’t interact with them.
My 2 cousins are allergic. They are born and raised in America. None others though.
Just a couple of days ago I have been discussing this with somebody and how you only ever hear about these allergies in the US.
I don’t know anyone that have a peanut allergy. I think that it is very rare in my region actually. Personally I am allergic to hazelnuts. It’s a mild allergy, annoying but not live threatening.
Eh myself kinda?
I developed a bunch of allergies due to IBD in my early 20s, I have a tree nut allergy but I still avoid peanuts because repeat exposures are likely to trigger it and they’ll get more severe each time. I figure if I avoid them then if there’s accidental exposure the reaction might not be so bad. I’m still never more than 20 metres away from my epipens anyway.
I don’t really understand why peanut allergies are so prevalent in children outside the correlation with lack of exposure and overly sanitised environments but in adults allergy acquisition is often tied to autoimmune disease, especially with allergens that you are constantly exposed to during a flare. I was a pastry chef when I developed IBD and the prevailing opinion is that my immune system was going crazy anyway and then I happened to eat something I was making and it decided bam anaphylaxis time and I should be grateful it wasn’t wheat.
Only known one person in my entire life. That was a 13 year old kid we had at an after-school club. When they joined, we had to stop serving the evening meal and snacks and completely remove all access to the kitchen area for the other 24 kids in the group in case of contamination from nut products. They could only have drinks and couldn’t bring food in. For some of those kids, that was the only meal they had all day. This was because we couldn’t guarantee contamination of nuts for every product in the cafe and community centre hall we used as a base, as we only hired it for evening club use.
Nope, don’t know of anyone and have never met anyone who was allergic…
Peanuts? No. Hazelnut? Yes, including myself. But nowhere near as Dangerous as Peanutallergies apparently are
Not that I know of. When I was a small kid I used to be slightly allergic to hazelnuts. Nothing life threatening but my skin would turn red and my face would swell up a bit. But I had tests done when I was a teen and it turned out I’m not allergic anymore. I eat stuff with hazelnuts sometimes and get 0 reaction.
There was always one at school. Not many people but the allergy is deadly for them
1 person in my school of 300 girls. We didn’t even know until our english teacher told us, we were shocked. Keep in mind we have been in this school for 4 and 5 years.
My dad has a peanut allergy, although it is milder than my high school piano teacher’s.
I don’t think I have ever encountered one here.
And I’ve lived here for over twenty heres and work in an area where I meet tons of people. This has never even been a raised issue. I’ve met way more people with seafood allergies but even then nothing deadly.
Totally outta the blue i discovered id a peanut allergy, after it nearly killed me..arrived back at the girlfriends house looking like the elephant man. She got me into AandE (rural ireland) in the nick of time. Had swollen up, red spots, difficulty breathing the works.
Had visited the grandmother that afternoon and had, had a slice of an Irish cake called, a brarin breac. Had brought her for a guinness too, so of course my first fear was the unthinkable. Had to ask the grandmother for her Bairin breac reciepe, feigning interest and loan behold she adds Nutmeg..very lucky Epi pen in car, work, home and all that lark.
I’ve developed it two years ago it seems. (when being around 40)
My lips are becoming numb and the mouth feels weird (like it would turn full itchy any moment).
Have also only being allergic to pollen since around 25+.
I used to have an acquaintance whose kid had peanut allergy. That’s the only person I have ever known about with it.
Don’t know anyone personally, but there is one kid in kindergarten i work in who is. The kindergarten has about 300 kids. If taken as statistic (which it shouldn’t, but just for fun i would) person on average can form relationship with 200-300 people as maximum capacity. So in this case it’s unlikely to know allergic person in my region.
(I had a small allergic like period for sunflower seeds don’t know if it counts as allergy if it passes)
Two kids in the class I am class mistress of have mild peanut allergies.
A cousin of my husband has a severe peanut allergy.
Peanuts give me bad acne and bacne. I would not call it allergy but intolerance. Every time I eat peanuts I take an antiinflamatory drug. I think it is because peanuts have a low/bad omega3/omega6 ratio unlike other nuts. I prefer almonds and pistacchios anyway
Two, both were classmates who ended up growing out of the allergy
None out of 200 or so people. Knew one with gluten allergy
Only met one in my life so far. A boy in my childs class.
I don’t know anyone but I think it’s more common in Gen Z and Gen Alpha
So I’m an American- but I’ll answer the question as too why so many American’s are allergic to peanuts. The US took a delayed introduction approach solid food for several decades. We now know early introduction is much more effective for preventing a peanut allergy from forming. This is why so many kids who grew up in the delayed introduction phase 90s/00s have peanut allergies.
many (well, not many) more with cinnamon allergy, but the peanut one also here and there
I am. Probably as another allergy that has evolved. Like allergy to some trees, can evolve into peanut allergies. Same how hay fever can evolve into allergies for grain.
In fact the allergies can also evolve into autoimmune diseases and worse.
I am a Finn who grew up in North Africa, where allergies were only a thing you saw in movies. When I’d come to Finland, I’d meet kids who could not enjoy so many of our favorite treats because of dairy, honey, nut allergies usually. Also, pet allergies were very surprising. Now, it seems every 2nd or 3rd guest you invite over is allergic to the cat.
Because of this, I’ve always lived with a sort of belief that allergies may be a side-effect of cleanliness and not-so-much exposure to those allergens, and why 1990s Cairo hardly had any allergic kids (but this is not rooted in science so take it was a fistful of salt)
Never met anyone with a nut allergy. It’s not t common in Austria.
I’m from Portugal and I don’t know a single person allergic to any food. Non at all. I read lots of reddit post about situations with allergies but I don’t personally know anyone with them
I technically know one. That’s me.
But it’s a weird thing. I have Ulcerative Colitis, and because of that, during a flare-up, I can’t eat a bunch of things. Nuts included. I won’t die though, but… It’s not a pleasant way to the toilet.
It’s also just raw-nuts. I ate peanut butter without problems.
Now that I’m remission, I am fine though.
I have a peanut allergy, but it’s not very serious. I can even eat a tiny little bit, but I get a headache and I can throw up a lot. If I eat it a lot, I need to go to the hospital.
But I have allergies to several other things too, like nuts, chestnuts, coconut, shrimp and other seafood. Only the shrimp and coconut ones are the most serious, I start to feel sick just with the smell of shrimp…
I know one person personally who‘s allergic to peanuts.
I also sat next to someone with a severe peanut allergy on a plane this year and she politely asked me and the other people around her to not eat any peanuts next to her and she wore a mask throughout the flight to be safe.
So I‘ve met a total of two people with a peanut allergy.
I think it’s because in the US and Canada, the recommendation was to not introduce foods that could cause severe reactions until a baby was older. A bunch of them developed allergies because they weren’t exposed to the potential allergen. The recommendation now is that a baby can eat anything as soon as they can eat food
Personally, I don’t know anyone. Actually, I know it exists only from seeing mandatory warnings (and from the American movies, before the mandatory warnings were a thing).
I’ve never met someone face to face (at school, work or through friends) with food allergies. I know someone who is moderately lactose intolerant and I’ve noticed a lot of people kinda begin to experience lactose intolerance with age. But not food allergies that have ever come up, and I’ve cooked and baked for a lot of people.
But I am also in a lot of Romanian vegan and vegetarian online groups and people do join and ask for alternatives for things because of allergies, also nut allergies. So I guess they’re out there.
I think in Romania it’s also not that common to get tested for allergies unless you’re going through severe symptoms.