Peanut allergy
Peanut allergy is a very serious, sometimes life threatening condition. It is vital to pay attention to any sensitivity or allergic reaction to peanuts and if it is a severe reaction, take great care to avoid peanuts in the future.
First, it is important to be aware that peanuts are not
nutsl, they are legumes. They are in the plant family Leguminosae,
along with green peas, soya beans, kidney beans, and
lentils. Peanuts may also be called ground nuts, earth nuts and monkey nuts.
The
peanut, as a legume, is not related at all botanically to nuts such as almonds,
brazil nuts or hazel nuts.
The difference between nuts and legumes is that legumes bear pods, which containing seeds, not nuts. In the case of peanuts, the peanuts are the seeds, like peas. This means that you can plant a peanut (before it has been roasted and salted, of course) and given the right soil and climate conditions, it will grow.
The reason why it is so important to establish the difference between peanuts and nuts, such as almonds, walnuts, hazlenuts and brazil nuts, is that someone may be able to eat nuts, but could still have a severe reaction to eating peanuts..
The peanut is a native species of South America and is now also grown in North America, Africa, Europe and India.
It is some of the proteins in the peanut which can cause the allergy, or hypersensetivity, which can be fatal. These are called glycoproteins.
Peanuts have only been available in the UK since the 1940s, at the time of the second world war. As well as being eaten from their shells, they are very popular in peanut butter, used in sandwiches and cooking, and many other foods contain either peanuts or peanut oil, including biscuits, cakes, sweets, ice cream, spreads, vegetarian dishes and prepared foods, particularly Chinese, Indonesian and Thai dishes.
It is not only food which contains peanuts, it can be found in adhesives, linoleum, plastics and creams, including nipple creams used by mothers during breast feeding.
It will be understood that it is very difficult for people sensitive to peanuts to avoid contact with products containing peanuts, but it is essential that they try to do so.
It is not only eating peanuts which can be harmful, nursing babies can be at risk from nipple creams used by their mothers, food prepared in a factory which at other times processes peanuts can be harmful, and even sitting near someone who has recently eaten peanuts can be a risk in severe cases.
Symptoms can be relatively mild, such as tingling of the lips
and mouth, or more severe, skin rash, asthma, abdominal pain, vomiting and
in extreme cases anaphylaxis (pronounced anna-phil-axis), otherwise known
as anaphylactic shock, which can be extremely serious, even fatal.