Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Nut allergies -- a Yuppie invention
Los Angeles Times ^ | 01/09/2009 | Joel Stein

Posted on 01/10/2009 9:19:49 AM PST by Responsibility2nd

Your kid doesn't have an allergy to nuts. Your kid has a parent who needs to feel special. Your kid also spends recess running and screaming, "No! Stop! Don't rub my head with peanut butter!"

Yes, a tiny number of kids have severe peanut allergies that cause anaphylactic shock, and all their teachers should be warned, handed EpiPens and given a really expensive gift at Christmas. But unless you're a character on "Heroes," genes don't mutate fast enough to have caused an 18% increase in childhood food allergies between 1997 and 2007. And genes certainly don't cause 25% of parents to believe that their kids have food allergies, when 4% do. Yuppiedom does.

~snip~

Parents may think they are doing their kids a favor by testing them and being hyper-vigilant about monitoring what they eat, but it's not cool to freak kids out. Only 20% of kids who get a positive allergy test result need treatment. And a 2003 study showed that kids who were told they were allergic to peanuts had more anxiety and felt more physically restricted than if they had diabetes. "It's anxiety-producing to imagine that having a snack in kindergarten could be deadly," Christakis said. Remember, this is a demographic so easily panicked that, equipped with only circles and dots, it invented an inoculation to cooties.

~snip some more~

So bring back nuts to schools. If parents need to panic about a food, at least go with seafood allergies. Those fish sticks are disgusting.

(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: allergy; food; genx; nutallergies; nuts
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100 ... 161 next last
To: saleman
A hint regarding bees, learn to talk to them. I'm serious. Bees are social animals and communicating among themselves. You can get their attention and they will stay to listen.

I never get stuck by bees ~ NEVER ~

61 posted on 01/10/2009 10:48:52 AM PST by muawiyah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 57 | View Replies]

To: Responsibility2nd

My child has had to be helicoptered from the local ER to ICU at Children’s hospital. This is after they had stabilized him enough - initially they were thinking they needed to bring a pediatric ICU team to the hospital as he was too unstable to move.
Not all nut allergies are figments of the imagination.
BTW - I never asked anything of the school other than to provide a table in the lunch room where no nuts were allowed.


62 posted on 01/10/2009 10:49:22 AM PST by Mom MD (Jesus is the Light of the world!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: o_zarkman44
I was diagnosed with a nut allergy in my 30”s

I wonder since you always hear about the allergy being to peanuts if that includes all nuts, such as walnuts, pecans etc?

63 posted on 01/10/2009 10:49:39 AM PST by mupcat
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 44 | View Replies]

To: Responsibility2nd

Since getting a lot of immunizations all at once, in basic training, I react to nuts.


64 posted on 01/10/2009 10:50:47 AM PST by Grizzled Bear ("Does not play well with others.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Responsibility2nd

Tell that to the parents of the local grade schooler who died when she ate at a restaurant that prepared her meal with peanut oil.


65 posted on 01/10/2009 10:53:27 AM PST by Carley
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: muawiyah

Real simple I am honest to goodness allergic to everything I have been tested for. Animals - cats, dogs, rabbits, etc.
All pollens, trees, grasses, molds, flowers - so the wheat intolerance was not a surprise! Spring is hell, summer is hell, fall is hell - winter inside with the mold and dry heat is hell!

Here’s the funny part - I have three degree - horticuture - landscaping - landscape design!!!! HA -HA -HA!!! (no, really I do!)

Oh wait, I am not allergic to two things peanuts and cockroaches...No seriously! In all the allergy testing the only thing I came up NOT POSITIVE for was roaches! So I am going to move to a sterile environment and raises Hissing Cockroaches as pets! Anyone want to buy a roach????

On the bright side, when I got rid of wheat - my other allergies went away. It’s that whole auto-immune thingy!

Oh yeah - the apple pear peach thing - have been taking the skin off since I was little because it would make my mouth itch. Mom would call me a liar - just like she did with the milk. THANKS MOM!


66 posted on 01/10/2009 10:55:21 AM PST by HomeschoolMomma (No thanks...I already have a Messiah!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 56 | View Replies]

To: HomeschoolMomma
The earliest Christian missionaries into Lappland were Orthodox. For the most part they failed miserably ~ communion wafers, and even wine, were luxury imports in those days.

However, several Orthodox missionaries allowed the native to incorporate the use of amanita muscaria as an alternative to traditional communion.

They got to use drums in service as well.

I think it did attract some in Finland to Orthodoxy but it attracted even more people throughout the Sapma/Sapmai to a homegrown "variant" of Christianity that used drums, trumpets, amanita, and spirit visions.

By the mid 1700s probably the greater part of the native population in the far North had been shipped to America and the old religion was on its way out in Scandinavia. The "variant" Christianity thrived to a degree in America, but the Lutherans followed up with their own American missionary work among all the Scandinavian emigrants and slave laborers and pretty well brought the greater part into Lutheranism.

I haven't asked but I'd just bet the Lutherans make an exception for Celiac.

Another religion that's not very popular among Celiacs is Jainism, and Vegetarian Buddhism. Definitely can't get enough to eat you join those groups.

67 posted on 01/10/2009 10:58:23 AM PST by muawiyah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: muawiyah
A hint regarding bees, learn to talk to them. I'm serious. Bees are social animals and communicating among themselves. You can get their attention and they will stay to listen.

Bears are the same way. Especially grizzly bears and Kodiak bears.

It's true. Ask that guy in Alaska.

Oh, wait... he's dead.

68 posted on 01/10/2009 11:05:47 AM PST by Flycatcher (Strong copy for a strong America)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 61 | View Replies]

To: HomeschoolMomma
The apple thing also applies to the very small birch trees that grow in the Far North. They usually don't get more than 6 inches high. Animals graze on them. However, they are very high in cyanide and it's enough to damage a human being.

There is, fortunately, a chemical in birchbark that can give certain sensitive people the same effect as ipicac. That chemical is also in apple, pear and peach skins.

So, if you are starving to death in the arctic and decide to eat those little bushy things (dwarf birch) you are going to die UNLESS, lo and behold, you're of Lappland descent, and then you'll just upchuck!

I always peel my apples, pears and peaches. My reaction to peach skin is entirely too dramatic for retelling.

69 posted on 01/10/2009 11:06:01 AM PST by muawiyah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 66 | View Replies]

To: This Just In

George Washington Carver is turning over in his grave. Speaking of peanut farmers...what does Jimmy Carter have to say about this issue?


70 posted on 01/10/2009 11:07:47 AM PST by Notasoccermom (.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: HomeschoolMomma
NOTE: regarding the allergy clusters around Celiac, findings with children who are both autistic and have Celiac revealed that much of their autistic condition derived from HOLES in their intestinal walls caused by the ILGE antibodies.

Once they got their diets stabilized, much of their autism went away.

They also lost a lot of their other allergies.

71 posted on 01/10/2009 11:08:33 AM PST by muawiyah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 66 | View Replies]

To: Responsibility2nd

Yep! Thank goodness for that antihistamine they call “freerepublic”!


72 posted on 01/10/2009 11:08:38 AM PST by mamelukesabre (Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum (If you want peace prepare for war))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: Flycatcher

Bears like to trick people into getting too close. It’s such a hassle to have to walk over and maul them you know!


73 posted on 01/10/2009 11:10:19 AM PST by muawiyah
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 68 | View Replies]

To: muawiyah

You must eat a lot of chicken too! You cannot be a vegetarian or a vegan and be a celiac! You would die of hunger. Gotta love Chick-fil-A!!!! Their grilled chicken and fruit salad - yum - eat it at least twice a week!(with fries cooked in peanut oil!)

I had my someone accuse my teen daughter of being anorexic (she is a ballerina) because of her size/weight/delay. All of that was because she was an undiagnosed celiac! We had issues with my son (before I knew anything about celiac) - His gastroeneterologist took one look at my daughter and said we needed to test her. He was right! Undiagnosed celiacs are literally starving themselves to death - even if they eat a full meal!!!


74 posted on 01/10/2009 11:14:22 AM PST by HomeschoolMomma (No thanks...I already have a Messiah!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 67 | View Replies]

To: Responsibility2nd

Bump the best article of the day.


75 posted on 01/10/2009 11:15:30 AM PST by Poser (Willing to fight for oil)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: mupcat

yes. Peanuts, although not a nut but a soybean relative, have a common chemical I think called ergonine or something like that. There are varying levels with peanuts and walnuts being the highest and progressing downward. Still I have to avoid things like trout almondine, or walnuts on salads. Even rice has a minute amount of the substance, but I have not given up my rice completely.


76 posted on 01/10/2009 11:24:31 AM PST by o_zarkman44 (Since when is paying more, but getting less, considered Patriotic?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: muawiyah
My seven year old daughter has a perceived peanut allergy, based on one experience where she ate a candy bar, then threw up. She refuses all peanut products.
We have explained the idea of coincidence to her and tested this theory by slipping peanut products into her diet with no ill effects. We believe this is self-induced.

Since there are no ill effects, we don't plan a trip to the doctor for tests.
I'll check this thread later when I get home.

77 posted on 01/10/2009 11:25:53 AM PST by catbertz
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 67 | View Replies]

To: saleman

Actually I do avoid the foods high in chocolate, they just don’t appeal to me. You know that ‘killer’ chocolate dessert for 5 or 6 people some resturants serve? You want to order that with me, ‘cuz usually I only have my token bite.

OTOH, milk chocolate, most candy bars are just fine. Even home made chocolate cake. I can’t figure out just what it is, and I don’t really care, I know what to avoid.

And yes, all bees should be killed, forests paved over and we can then live happily forever!


78 posted on 01/10/2009 11:31:09 AM PST by Balding_Eagle
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 57 | View Replies]

To: yefragetuwrabrumuy

Thats very interesting. And it solves a minor mystery for me.

I have a very skinny lab(dog) that eats ravenously and seemingly indescriminately. She is skinny and no there are no parasites present. Been tested for worms, etc. And thenn treated for it anyway even though tests came back negative.

She LOVES veggies, raw or cooked. She eats paper, wood, and plastic too! Sometimes metal and rocks. I’ve caught her grazing in the yard like a sheep! Not grass, she hates that. She likes the weeds only, tail wagging the whole time. And no, she doesn’t throw up after. She ate all my tulip and iris bulbs too..lily bulbs as well. And the rhubarb. I saved the peony roots from her, but only barely. She won’t eat ferns or fern roots/bulbs.

But when I give her celery she won’t eat it. If I give her left over soup with celery in it, she leaves the celery chunks laying on the floor and licks the bowl squeaky clean. She will eat celery LEAVES though. If I’m chopping celery for soup and I throw the leaves down for her, she likes those.

She also doesn’t like onions or cabbage. But she LOVES spinach and lettuce. LEAVES, that is. The “stemmy” and “stalky” parts of it she won’t eat. Only the fragile leafy parts.


79 posted on 01/10/2009 11:34:30 AM PST by mamelukesabre (Si Vis Pacem Para Bellum (If you want peace prepare for war))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 49 | View Replies]

To: mupcat

I also forgot to mention chocolate as having the same substance, but was reminded by another post on this thread.

Strange that I hadn’t heard that the intolerance is possibly genetic from a certain ethnic location, Lapland. Also includes Norway (My heritage). This may be something derived from a study since I was diagnosed. I haven’t done any follow ups since I changed my diet almost 20 years ago, knowing what to avoid.


80 posted on 01/10/2009 11:36:02 AM PST by o_zarkman44 (Since when is paying more, but getting less, considered Patriotic?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100 ... 161 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson