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 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](https://www.bbc.com/news/health-46302780). 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.
2. One person I knew at school, and one friend I’ve made recently
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.
The topic only comes up when there’s peanut involved. Just like you only know, whether someone’s got a tattoo on their bum, if they get naked facing away from you. So many things have to align for them to lift the veil on that tattoo if it exists at all. For eg go skinny dipping or be forced to get a buttox injection(the only available option, which is painful to some but will save a lot of trouble) in front of you. Just like that you might have known a lot of’em with the allergy. It’s just that you haven’t been in a situation for them to expose themselves in front of you. Some people just nicely avoid eating the peanut dishes at the table and have something else without inviting any unwanted attention. Maybe Americans eat more peanut, so more often are forced to refuse the item(ie get the buttox shot) and expose their peanut allergy tattoo.🤭