cross-contamination at processing plants. Scientists have also shown that peanut oil can be refined to the point that the reactive proteins are removed, resulting in FDA approval to take that refined oil off the âallergenâ list (this is also true of some soy oils)âgreat news for farmers. But complicating matters is the reality that this process has a higher price point than cold-pressed, expeller-pressed, or extruded peanut oil.
One study funded in part by the SAC looked at the degree to which peanut proteins are passed from mother to child via breast milk. For many years, parents have been advised to avoid exposing their children to peanuts until the age of two. Did breast-feeding mothers need to abstain from peanuts as well? Then, in October 2009,
Pediatrics
published a study demonstrating a correlation between early consumption of peanutsand a
low
incidence of peanut allergy. The American Academy of Pediatrics has changed their official stance and recommends that peanuts be administered to children whenever parents judge developmentally appropriate.
Peanut farmers arenât rejoicing just yet. Itâs one thing to get a vote of confidence at the organizational level. Itâs another thing to get thousands of local doctors, used to telling new mothers one thing, to start telling them another.
I call up Ryan Lepicier, the NPB director of communications, who works to reconcile the advice of the scientific community with ingrained local policies. He reaches out to schools struggling to formulate their peanut- and other allergen-related protocols. Each time, he says, he must first figure out who is driving the decisions. The principal? The dietician? The school board? The parents? Lepicier sees the decision to ban some foods outrightâa policy, he is quick to note, not endorsed by such groups as the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Networkâas part of a slippery slope in which lobbying and political correctness trump common sense.
âItâs like the association of nurses,â he recalls, âwho didnât want to implement programs fighting obesity because students would be âsingled out.â Or schools that didnât serve grapes because the janitors didnât want to clean them up off the floor.â
The National Peanut Board has an undeniable financial stake in avoiding peanut bans. But Lepicier hopes that as Americans learn more from international allergy studies, the NPB will no longer have to be its own best advocate. In 2008, a team headed by Dr. Gideon Lack announced that in a study looking at ten thousand Jewish children (i.e., a cohort with genetic similarity), those who had been raised in London wereabout ten times more likely to have peanut sensitivity than those raised in Tel Aviv. Lack theorized that one contributing factor could be the predominance of Israeli children exposed to peanuts via a popular peanut-based treat, Bamba.
First debuted in the mid-1960s, Bamba is corn that is puffed, enriched with vitamins, and sprayed with Argentinean peanut butter before it cools. Picture a peanut-based equivalent of a Cheez Doodle. An even sweeter âstrawberryâ version is also available, dyed red with beetroot. Itâs a ubiquitous treat in Israel, often fed to toddlers as their first finger food.
Lack theorized that tykes chewing on Bamba were somehow inoculating themselves against peanut allergy. In contrast, the widespread Western timeline of âprotectingâ children under age three from peanut exposure might be contributing to peanut allergy, instead of preventing it. With grant support from several groups including the NPB and the National Institutes of Health, Lack has launched the LEAP (Learning Early About Peanut Allergy) Study, an ambitious seven-year study that has enrolled 640 children, all between the ages of four months and ten months, considered at high risk for peanut allergy because of diagnosed eczema or egg allergy. Half of these
One study funded in part by the SAC looked at the degree to which peanut proteins are passed from mother to child via breast milk. For many years, parents have been advised to avoid exposing their children to peanuts until the age of two. Did breast-feeding mothers need to abstain from peanuts as well? Then, in October 2009,
Pediatrics
published a study demonstrating a correlation between early consumption of peanutsand a
low
incidence of peanut allergy. The American Academy of Pediatrics has changed their official stance and recommends that peanuts be administered to children whenever parents judge developmentally appropriate.
Peanut farmers arenât rejoicing just yet. Itâs one thing to get a vote of confidence at the organizational level. Itâs another thing to get thousands of local doctors, used to telling new mothers one thing, to start telling them another.
I call up Ryan Lepicier, the NPB director of communications, who works to reconcile the advice of the scientific community with ingrained local policies. He reaches out to schools struggling to formulate their peanut- and other allergen-related protocols. Each time, he says, he must first figure out who is driving the decisions. The principal? The dietician? The school board? The parents? Lepicier sees the decision to ban some foods outrightâa policy, he is quick to note, not endorsed by such groups as the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Networkâas part of a slippery slope in which lobbying and political correctness trump common sense.
âItâs like the association of nurses,â he recalls, âwho didnât want to implement programs fighting obesity because students would be âsingled out.â Or schools that didnât serve grapes because the janitors didnât want to clean them up off the floor.â
The National Peanut Board has an undeniable financial stake in avoiding peanut bans. But Lepicier hopes that as Americans learn more from international allergy studies, the NPB will no longer have to be its own best advocate. In 2008, a team headed by Dr. Gideon Lack announced that in a study looking at ten thousand Jewish children (i.e., a cohort with genetic similarity), those who had been raised in London wereabout ten times more likely to have peanut sensitivity than those raised in Tel Aviv. Lack theorized that one contributing factor could be the predominance of Israeli children exposed to peanuts via a popular peanut-based treat, Bamba.
First debuted in the mid-1960s, Bamba is corn that is puffed, enriched with vitamins, and sprayed with Argentinean peanut butter before it cools. Picture a peanut-based equivalent of a Cheez Doodle. An even sweeter âstrawberryâ version is also available, dyed red with beetroot. Itâs a ubiquitous treat in Israel, often fed to toddlers as their first finger food.
Lack theorized that tykes chewing on Bamba were somehow inoculating themselves against peanut allergy. In contrast, the widespread Western timeline of âprotectingâ children under age three from peanut exposure might be contributing to peanut allergy, instead of preventing it. With grant support from several groups including the NPB and the National Institutes of Health, Lack has launched the LEAP (Learning Early About Peanut Allergy) Study, an ambitious seven-year study that has enrolled 640 children, all between the ages of four months and ten months, considered at high risk for peanut allergy because of diagnosed eczema or egg allergy. Half of these
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