Allergic to Peanuts? Have Some… Peanuts
March 1st, 2010 Print
An interesting study, that was published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, compared the rate of peanut allergies of Jewish children from the United Kingdom and Israel. The astonishing result was that the UK kids were ten times as likely to have a peanut allergy than the children from Israel.
The scientist who conducted the study, Gideon Lack of King’s College London, suggests that it may be the early exposure to Bamba, a very popular peanut-flavored snack in Israel, that desensitizes children to peanuts even in instances where the family has a history of food allergies.
The theory has triggered further research by doctors who fed, in a controlled environment and under close medical supervision, tiny doses of peanuts to children who are allergic to them. After short periods of time the children were able to eat small amounts of peanuts without suffering any reaction at all.
Don’t try this at home just yet but if this research is found to be true with other commonly allergic foods it can open a new world to those with food allergies.
(On the subject of Bamba, Osem recently introduced a new hazelnut flavored Bamba which is a huge hit. Just beware that it is much pricier than the regular flavor.)
