The Origins of Peanut Allergy(stephenskolnick.substack.com)
8 pointsby bobbiechen5 hours ago3 comments
  • simon_voidan hour ago
    Growing up in Germany nowadays Peanut Butter is an option, but way more popular is Nutella. But that contains peanuts too! 13% according to the Nutella website and some of the peanuts are sourced from the USA. So given the peanut fungi hypothesis, why would peanut butter (rarely) cause the allergy and not Nutella? (higher peanut concentration?)

    (german) source: https://www.nutella.com/de/de/entdecke-nutella/faqs#haseln%C...

    • pagoto29 minutes ago
      Isn’t it hazelnut in Nutella ? These are way more common in Europe (as walnuts are). Usually in France, traces of peanuts are reported in the composition of product, but only because production lines in the same factory might deal with peanuts.
  • lmz3 hours ago
    It makes an argument for why the allergies started in 1980, but not why it persists until today.
    • pridy3 hours ago
      I think he means that the added ingredients cause that immune reaction in some particular combination with that food and fungi; That is still applicable today, isn't it? Hence proposed solution, if the assumption is right, make your own at home (with good peanuts) and of course without added ingredients as they do in factory;
      • tancop2 hours ago
        What added ingredients? Most of the time it's salt, sugar and palm oil. All of them are natural and used in just about every industrial food. Sugars and fat are already present in peanuts.

        Could be salt killing bacteria that normally compete with the fungus but I don't think the concentration is enough for that. Maybe it's a specific type of fatty acid found in palm oil or a solvent left over from the extraction process.

      • Smoosh2 hours ago
        If it is “added ingredients”, couldn’t some PB without be sourced? Mine at home says “peanuts (90%), sugar, fractionated palm oil, salt”. I know that some can be purchased which are pure peanut, with no additives.
        • simon_void2 hours ago
          it's not like aflatoxin would show up in "added ingredients". It's not meant to be there. (If you haven't read the text, the author's thesis is that it that a few fungi infected peanuts make it through quality control.)
  • fithisux2 hours ago
    Very plausible mechanism. I suspect what started in 1980 continues till this day. In a money-centric system people try to even the odds at all costs.