Larry's Musings

My take on Allergen-free Peanuts...

Yesterday evening, I watched a news report that discussed work that's been done to make allergen-free peanuts. Although I think the research is important and valuable, I'm extremely concerned about the way the work has been positioned. Words like "rest easy", "thing of the past", "may soon be history" are associated with this finding, which is dangerous.

For those not familiar with this development, here is the UPI article on it. Here's another article that has even more information.

Looks exciting... So, what's the problem?
It is exciting. However, the research does not cure the allergy, but tries to eliminate the compounds that trigger the allergic reaction. In other words, people who are allergic to peanuts will continue to be allergic to peanuts what aren't treated to remove the allergens.

Here are a few facts that are important to this discussion:

• The vast majority (upwards of 80%) of deaths due to food allergy occur when the person ingests a food they didn't know contained the substance to which they were allergic.
• Unless parents of children with severe food allergies imprison them in their own home, those children will be put in positions where they will be offered food and will have to make their own decisions as to whether the food is safe for them to eat.

Here's a pretty chilling CNN article that shows the tragic ramifications of both of these facts working together. I contend that deaths due to accidental exposure to peanuts will increase, not decrease if the benefits of the allergy-free peanuts are over-hyped.

What do you mean?
Managing food allergies is similar to being a security guard. There are many ways that bad guys can get in to do bad things. Similarly, there are many ways that children can get exposed to their allergens. If you don't remain vigilant with respect to the contents of the food and don't keep an epipen on hand, you're just asking for trouble.

Here are some examples of what I mean:

• A child is given allergy-free peanut butter and believes that he's cured of his allergy.
• A child is at a friend's house who's parents don't take the time to check the ingredients of a cookie they feed him (after he asks what's in it), because they believe peanut allergies have gone away (or that all cookies contain allergen-free peanuts).
• A child (or parent) diligently checks ingredients, but the labeling is confusing to them (it says peanuts, but is it the safe ones)?

And, if you think that you can guarantee that the world's food supply will be rid of peanuts that aren't treated to remove the allergens, you're kidding yourself. The allergens occur naturally in the food, which means that they will always be somewhere where your child will be exposed to it.

Our experience with food allergies
For those who haven't read my posting that describes the food allergies that my son has and what we've had to do to manage it, here's a link to it. The Cliff's Notes version of it is that our son has peanut-type food allergies to many foods, including dairy, beef, and pork. Because those allergies are life threatening and are to so many foods, we're always thinking about it. This means that we always look at the ingredients of foods and we always carry our emergency kit with us (a pack with benedryl, an epipen, and an inhaler). Because we're always on high alert, we're also always prepared.

If our son was only allergic to one food, I think it would be a lot harder to keep him safe in the long-run. We wouldn't be as diligent looking at food, and we'd be more lax about the emergency kit.

So, what do I think of this new development
I think it's a really good thing, but I also don't think that we should change our behavior based on it. In other words, we should go ahead and wherever possible treat peanuts that are in our food supply. This will reduce the number of accidental exposures.

We should not encourage people with peanut allergies to eat products with treated peanuts in them. The treatment of peanuts should be done as a defensive step only. Incorporating peanuts (even treated peanuts) into the diet of an allergic persion is asking for trouble:

• Children will be confused as to whether it's safe to eat peanuts in general or not. Keep in mind, that young children look at things as black-and-white. If they safely ate peanuts once, then they believe they can always eat them. Unless untreated peanuts are removed from the food supply, this confusion will prove to be fatal in many circumstances.
• Any lapse in the treatment process can also prove fatal. Remember in February, when people died from salmonella-tainted peanut butter? Can we really guarantee that similar lapses don't occur in the treatment process (because if it does occur, it could be even more tragic).

I also believe that anything we can learn about what goes on in the body (and what can be done to affect it) with respect to allergies is also a good thing. I'm hoping that we can take what we learned about removing the allergens from peanuts use it in other ways.

• Take the technology and find a way to turn off or remove the allergens inside the body. Again, this isn't a cure for the allergy, but it is a safer way to ensure the allergen does not cause an allergic reaction. Instead of worrying about whether a food was treated, the allergic persion can take control of the situation. They would know when they're safe and know when they aren't.
• Find a way where lay people can treat their food before they eat it. Even if it's not something that a person can bring with them, if a restaraunt (or your microwave oven) could have an "allergen-zapper", you could make it safer by knowing that the food preparation removed the allergens (of course if the "allergen-zapper" isn't working properly, one could still get exposed).

posted by Larry Grey @ 10:02 AM 0 comments