Food Allergy: Peanut Allergy

A peanut allergy is often lifelong. There are some rare cares whereby young children with a peanut allergy outgrow this condition.

Having a peanut allergy warrants a lot of care and attention. It is a very common food allergy and is one of those that can be fatal, causing severe reactions include anaphylaxis. Coming into contact with traces of protein can also set off a whole series of reactions. Hence, it is important to check that even the utensils used to serve the food have not been used for food containing peanuts.

Raw peanuts or cooked peanuts do not make a difference to allergy sufferers. Peanuts contain a number of allergens that are not destroyed by cooking or roasting.

Some amounts of refined peanut oil are thought to be safe if you have a peanut allergy because the proteins causing the reactions are removed during processing. However, refrain from using or consuming cold-pressed, or unrefined/unprocessed (crude) peanut oil as these contain small amounts of peanut allergens.

If you have a peanut allergy, you may also want to check if you are sensitive to legumes as they contain similar allergens to peanuts. Legumes are foods such as soya, green beans, green peas kidney beans, and lupins. Other types of nuts that you may also need to test include almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts, pine nuts, Brazil nuts and cashew nuts.

If you have a school going kid with a peanut allergy, you should advise teachers and the school as well about your kid’s condition as well. You may consider packing your kid’s own meals to minimise the chance of your kid coming into contact with peanuts. Most definitely, ensure that your kid does not eat any chocolates, cakes or deserts that contain peanuts in them.