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Comment by droopyEyelids | Hacker News Reader

We're stuck in a vicious cycle with allergies - first peanuts, now sesame, and possibly eggs in the future.

When kids are exposed to the above early and often, they're much less likely to develop allergies. However, to protect the allergic, peanuts and now sesame are removed from childcare facilities, school lunches, etc. This exposes fewer children, which increases the percent that develop the allergy, requiring the allergen to be removed from more products & places people eat!

Who knows if it applies to these buns, but it's an interesting situation we're stuck with.

https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2017/01/10/peanut-allergy-earl...

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I'm not totally sure if it works like that. I grew up in Korea, where peanuts are consumed but not much: I never even heard of peanut butter growing up. Interestingly, peanut allergies are also rare: again, I don't think I heard about it growing up.

Move to the US, where peanuts and peanut butter are everywhere, and suddenly I'm responsible for checking whether my kids' snacks contain peanuts because someone in the class might be allergic to it!

The study linked above says that exposing kids to peanuts lowers the chance of them developing peanut allergy — and people (including the authors of that article) tend to make the faulty assumption that this means peanut allergy is caused by not being exposed to peanuts early enough.

As you’ve highlighted this would imply that cultures where there are no peanuts would be filled with peanut allergies — but that’s not the case.

I suspect that there’s a cross reactivity going on. Infants are exposed to an allergen and their immune system develops a good response for it. That response also applies to peanuts, unnecessarily. Had they been exposed to both peanuts and the true allergen then their immune system would’ve learned to discriminate.

A similar example — some US citizens are exposed to poison Ivy. They develop a stronger and stronger response after multiple exposures. Later (as a consequence) they are also allergic to Mango because Mango has some kind of similarity to Poison Ivy, from the immune system’s point of view. The Mango allergy could be reduced if they had been also exposed to mango… but mango isn’t the problem — Poison Ivy is!

If it's in the US only, it may actually be some toxic pesticide we are putting on peanuts specifically. Then of course it's not worth "trying" organic peanuts because you think it's the peanuts.

Peanuts, by the way, (if not organic) have the highest concentration of pesticide saturation.

Here is more information: https://www.crigenetics.com/blog/dirty-truth-peanut-allergie...

> However, to protect the allergic, peanuts and now sesame are removed from childcare facilities, school lunches, etc.

The solution is for people to expose their kids to that stuff at home. That way the kids get the exposure without endangering the population.

I have no evidence for any of it, but my pet theory is that the increase in food allergies (especially adult onset) is at least somewhat environmental. That we're exposed to so many toxic products/pollutants, and our bodies so filled with microplastics, that our gut epithelium becomes compromised, we have increased inflammation, and our immune systems are increasingly on high alert causing them to overreact to things that aren't really threats.

I suspect most people with food allergies actually just have an eating disorder, or anxiety/hypochondria issues. I wouldn't rule out sociogenic "food allergies" either. Look at the gluten-free fad that took off for a while.

I meant the type of allergy that often results in anaphylaxis. We can be sure that if someone's throat is swelling shut it isn't simply a case of hypochondriasis or someone following the latest food fads. Anxiety can cause shortness of breath or palpitations, but they're going to present very differently in the ER compared to someone experiencing a severe allergic reaction.

Even if someone managed to have a somatic illness that actually did cause their throat to swell and close up when exposed to certain allergens (the mind is a powerful thing after all) I don't think it'd make any meaningful difference in the event that it occurred. It would still be a life threatening medical emergency. It might however mean that with help it could be possible for them to stop having the reaction, but I'm not even sure they'd work if their immune system genuinely saw the food as a threat and learned to treat it as such.

This is an absolutely ridiculous claim, it's very clear that you have never met anyone with an allergy (or cared to ask someone about their experience if you have)

Actually I have them in my family (epi pen and all), but I've met many more people with false allergies that use them to justify disordered eating habits or something else (hilariously, I've seen someone use their allergies to try and micromanage what everyone else around them can eat, down to how their spouse's coffee is brewed).

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/eating-disorders-the...

https://www.livescience.com/64423-food-allergies-overestimat...

https://www.aafp.org/pubs/afp/issues/2008/0615/p1678.html

https://www.verywellhealth.com/fake-food-allergies-1323997

https://www.cosmopolitan.com/food-cocktails/a5402/food-aller...

There's a lot of study of allergy differences between rural and urban kids. The explanation given is often that rural kids have a much wider exposure to allergens and pathogens. This is an interesting alternative explanation.

Some pediatricians now recommend exposure to common allergens and products that cause allergic reactions very early. Even if the "lack of exposure as the direct cause" theory doesn't play out, which I'm not sure it will, early exposure allows you to find out if your child has a serious adverse reaction before they reach school age and have one in school.

parents can do this.

of course, there are a whole lot reasons why parents don't.

what is that old joke--we need a license to drive a car but not to make a baby.

Looks like you added an extra g to that url. Corrected version: https://directorsblog.nih.gov/2017/01/10/peanut-allergy-earl...

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