I sometimes fly Southwest Airlines. It was the first major low-fare airline. One of their early differences from full-service airlines was that there was no food service, only drinks and a complementary bag of peanuts. Unfortunately, the peanuts are long gone, now they hand out only pretzels. Same with American Airlines. I dislike pretzels. Peanuts began to lose favor around the turn of the new millennium when pediatricians sounded the alarm about childhood peanut allergies.
To combat the growing incidence of severe peanut allergies in the late 1990s the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) began a campaign to ban peanuts from everyday life. New mothers were advised to wait until their children were three years old before carefully introducing peanuts to their diet. Schools began to remove peanut products from their menus to discouraged parents, and sometimes even ban them, from packing their kids’ lunches with peanut products. Any mother so uninformed as to bring peanut butter cookies to a school party would be run out of town by a grade school parent teacher conference mob armed with torches and pitchforks.
Around the year 2000 peanut allergies began to skyrocket. Sales of EpiPens, used in cases of peanut-induced anaphylactic shock, became a major expense for parents and a growing profit center for the manufacturer. I wrote about EpiPens a decade ago. So, what changed? How did peanuts go from cheap, nutritious food source to become the little death pills that we think of them today? The answer is not what you would expect: pediatricians created the peanut allergy epidemic.
Meanwhile, the more that health officials implored parents to follow the recommendation, the worse peanut allergies got. From 2005 to 2014, the number of children going to the emergency department because of peanut allergies tripled in the U.S. By 2019, a report estimated that 1 in every 18 American children had a peanut allergy. Schools continued to ban peanuts, and regulators met to purge peanuts from childhood snacks as EpiPen sales soared.
The epidemic of peanut allergies is the result of the campaign to restrict peanut exposure. By the way, many experts believe allergies in general are worse today because our lives are too clean. We did not grow up in a one-room hut sleeping next to our farm animals like our ancestors did.
…Lack compared one group of infants who were exposed to peanut butter at 4-11 months of age to another group that had no peanut exposure. He found that early exposure resulted in an 86% reduction in peanut allergies by the time the child reached age 5 compared with children who followed the AAP recommendation.
If you’re skeptical, consider this: there is a peanut puff snack food eaten by babies, toddlers and young children in Israel, where peanut allergies are rare. Even before new research found medical advice is driving peanut allergies it had become something of an accepted belief that peanut allergies among children were overhyped. A nation of mothers did not want anyone to enjoy peanuts on the one in a million chance their little darling was allergic. Thirty years ago, that may have been accurate but peanut allergies are more prevalent now. Unwinding a dangerous food allergy caused by unsupported medical recommendations will not be easy.
The “peanut allergy” scare was a clever marketing campaign to drives sales for epi-pens, and visits to allergy specialists and ERs. I had some personal experience with this as a mother during the 90s and am now sorry I wasn’t more skeptical of the fear-mongering. Later, it became ADHD, OCD, and then the push for gardasil shots. All of these pushes were done through pediatrician offices which were fed all kinds of propaganda from the AAP. I suspect had we not had third-party payers covering pediatric primary care, parents would have done better homework and said no to the sales pitches.
Last time I checked for myself, there was an epi pen shortage. For awhile there was a generic form and then it disappeared. I became allergic to my pain meds over time and had to go on Xolaire monthly shots to prevent rashes. That medicine costs $5000 a month without insurance. You can get a manufacture’s coupon to use with your insurance and I paid $5 a month! What’s up with that? What’s up with the Epi pen shortage? I have not tried to get one in a while. Luckily.
My son, at around age 5 (now 25) developed an allergy to Costco Kirkland brand food. First it was from bagels and lox, then it was cashews. He developed dark circles under his eyes the first time. Then when he ate the cashews he got worse and we had to rush to the ER. The cashews he ate in the allergists office did not bring on an allergic reaction. So we had to have Epi pens and had to avoid Kirkland foods at parties and school events. I had to send a non Kirkland hamburger bun to his school for an end of year barbecue a few yrs later. Just to be safe. Something in the Kirkland plant(s) made him allergic. Luckily he out grew it. Weird, right?
As a physician, I found autoimmune problems more common amongst those living in more prosperous communities. Interestingly, they are rare amongst the Amish children and those in rural communities of the Deep South and Central America.
Peanut allergies in children, I suspect come from an early age lack of exposure to common antigens (dirt) in affluent communities.
But better research will tell.
James H Muchmore, MD
Devon Herrick, did you do any research whatsoever on food allergies? Anaphylaxis? Mortality due to exposure to one’s allergen? I highly doubt you did because of you had you certainly would not be calling the peanut allergy a scare tactic to market EpiPen sales. Peanut allergies are NOT the only life threatening allergy that warrants one to need to carry an EpiPen. There are currently 9 top life threatening food allergens, but one can have a life threatening anaphylactic reaction to any food at any given time. It’s not a scare tactic it is something more than 30 million Americans live with today. I lost my 14 year old son to his peanut allergy. I’ve met many parents who lost their young children to anaphylaxis.
Recommendations have gone back and forth many times introduce early. Don’t introduce early. Now again, introduce early. Should have done this, should have done or not have done. Blame the mother, blame the doctor. What it really need to come down to is finding out where the allergen is coming from? What has changed in our food or what is being done to our food that is changing the genetic modifications that is triggering our bodies to reject it? We all know our food source has been sprayed with so many pesticides. If it kills weeds, bugs, rodents, helps makes vegetation grow 10 times it’s normal size, what do we expect it will be doing to our bodies? What about all the fake sweeteners, preservatives, dyes and on and on and on?
Instead of making us seem like we are the lynchmob moms, (because we are just trying to keep are child alive because we live in fear knowing that the next possible literal crumb could be the one that takes our child’s life) how about doing some research and writing a real article as to why we have a such a high rate of peanut allergies? Find out why there isn’t more research to find the source, to find the cure, to find more therapies, to find out what it’s like to live a day in a food allergy families house, to find out what it’s like to walk in the shoes of a mom, dad or sibling who lost their child or brother or sister. How about it? I’m here if you want to reach out!
I am so sorry to hear you lost your son Georgina. My heart goes out to you and your family.
As a mother to a child with an anaphylactic allergy (to eggs) the fear parents like us live with on a daily basis is something very few understand. We parents have to be on the look out for allergens in hidden places ALL THE TIME, but boo hoo someone can’t eat peanuts on a flight. Show some compassion, empathy or just basic human decency! Keeping our children safe is far more important than your distaste for pretzels.
You are 100% correct Georgina- rather than pointing fingers look for answers!
Hi Georgina, My 21 yo daughther died after the taste of a peanut. I’d love to hear your story and support one another. Please see http://www.kyahraynefoundation.org for more info. Sincerely, Lisa
Wonderful response. Older son now mid-40s began this response at 18 months with full blown anaphylaxis in 1979. Nearly lost him a year later. You asked what’s changed in our food. Read several years back that the US produces pretty much just one strain of peanuts commercially. They tinker with our food supply continually. Did you know that China produces a variety of strains that doesn’t include the US strain and have very low incidents of peanut allergy. Wonder what would happen if the US changed their highly commercialized strain? Stop tinkering genetically. Stop spraying chemicals everywhere. Put health first.
This is a joke. It’s from vcc1n3s.
Geez Kayden, ah yes you did your research and listened to RFK Jr. smh. Vaccines have saved millions of lives and prevented many serious health issues.
Forty plus years of living with a child who displays anaphylaxis to ALL nuts makes your response incredibly insensitive.
I can’t agree with any of you either for or against the article we all just read because of your snide tones, mocking tones, and defensive/condescending/offended tones. Your argumentativeness does not teach anyone or convince anyone of what you intend. It only serves to instigate either anger or anxiety.
Get down off your ivory tower.
This is interesting. my children are in their 20s and 30s and this was not a thing when my oldest were young, so there is something going on. And I do not think is too far fetched to think the industry at the very least took advantage of it . I have also heard there was a common product used in hospitals for newborns that somehow contributed(forget the details). Its insane the amount of chemicals our children are being exposed to, in food and environment, and of course it is causing problems. RFK is the wrong messenger but hes not wrong.