Peanuts are high on the list of foods that kids are commonly allergic to these days. And for children who have this allergy, even the smallest exposure to a peanut can result in serious – even life-threatening – anaphylaxis. Experts freely admit that the peanut allergy situation in America is so serious as to be labelled “almost epidemic,” but insist they have no idea what’s causing the problem.
A report by Mount Sinai Hospital’s Jaffe Food Allergy Institute found that between 1997 and 2008, the number of kids with peanut allergies tripled, from just 1-in-250 to about 1-in-70. This is shocking when you consider that even a few decades ago peanut allergies were almost unheard of, and in Eastern countries like India, where children eat large amounts of peanuts, such allergies are extremely uncommon.