Why are there so many more people allergic to peanuts then when I was younger?!
Question: Factory farming tactics. (Look up factory farming - I know this is related to animals but it's a closely related subject)
Long story. Basically, they try to make more money by using rotten peanuts for peanut oil and substandard peanuts in peanut butter. This causes people to develop allergies to normal peanuts and sometimes tree nuts (peanuts grow in the ground and aren't really nuts at all).
Answers: Factory farming tactics. (Look up factory farming - I know this is related to animals but it's a closely related subject)
Long story. Basically, they try to make more money by using rotten peanuts for peanut oil and substandard peanuts in peanut butter. This causes people to develop allergies to normal peanuts and sometimes tree nuts (peanuts grow in the ground and aren't really nuts at all).
I don't think the change is all that drastic. I think people today just make bigger deals of allergies (not that it's necessarily a bad thing) than they used to. It's a topic almost as common as movies. Only not as much enthusiasm.
I don't think that is true percentage wise but population number affected in people is probably more because the population grows very fast.
More allergic people living through the anaphylaxis due to better understanding and treatment?
There was a really interesting article about this in Time a few weeks ago. The main thing I got from it was that there isn't conclusive evidence as to why - here's a link to the article...although not the one I read....can't seem to find that one! In fact it may have been in US News and World Report....
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/...
Just a note from what some of other posters said - the article I read DID claim that it was a lot more kids (percentage/number) than it used to be.
(also not the article...)
http://www.usaweekend.com/07_issues/0704...
im allergic to peanuts and all nuts but especially peanuts!