Cracking the Threat of Nut Allergies
Nut allergies are serious business. Millions of Americans have them. Not only can reactions be life-threatening, but it’s tough even knowing which foods contain nuts these days. Even if you’re not allergic, it’s good to know the basics to keep dinner guests, kids and your co-workers safe.
Peanuts vs. Tree Nuts
Peanuts are actually not nuts at all — they’re a type of legume, so they’re more like a bean than a nut. This is why some people may be allergic to peanuts and not tree nuts such as walnuts, almonds, pistachios, cashews and pecans.
Aside from steering clear of nuts and nut butters, those with allergies need to be mindful of a variety of other foods. Peanuts are commonly found in many Asian foods, candies, chili, soups, baked goods, marzipan and other sweets. You’ll find tree nuts in barbecue sauces, cereals, crackers, salad dressing and ice cream. You should also avoid natural extracts, such as pure almond extract, because they too may trigger an allergic reaction.
Allergic reactions can be a mild as a rash or a life-threatening medical emergency called anaphylaxis. Levels of sensitivity also vary; for some people, as little as 1/100th of a peanut or the aroma of peanuts can cause a reaction, but for others, it might be a slight reaction. Keep that in mind if you have a dinner guest or family member with allergies — you may think you’re keeping dangerous foods separate, but be sure to warn them just in case.
What To Look For
Americans have become much more vigilant to food allergies in recent years. Thanks to the Food Allergen Labeling and Consumer Protection Act, all food labels must include a disclaimer stating clearly if a food contains peanuts and tree nuts (or other common allergens such as wheat, milk and soy). Labels must also indicate if a food was processed in a facility that also processes potential allergens. All this labeling helps take the guesswork out of what foods are safe to eat if you have a food allergy. As you can see from this WebMD chart, it’s not always obvious what foods may contain nuts.
Nut-Free Environments
If you or a loved one has a food allergy, you probably run a tight ship at home, but there’s still a whole wide world out there. Some schools and workplaces are banning nuts outright to help. It may seem inconvenient to some, but it’s better safe than sorry for others. (Note that only about 150 people die each year from nut-allergy complications in America.) If your office decides to become nut-free, it’s for a good reason. Try to be as understanding as possible — and just enjoy your PB&J at home (or make them with soy nut butter instead).
Risks of Cross Contamination
Aside from foods that contain nuts (or are processed around nuts), it’s also important to avoid cross-contamination when cooking or eating nuts when you are around someone who is sensitive. Here are a few simple rules I always keep in mind:
- Wash hands thoroughly after cooking with or handling nut products
- Clean utensils well between uses — for example, don’t dip the same knife in the peanut butter and jelly jars.
- When dining out, make sure to ask your server about sauces, desserts and other foods that may contain or be served with nuts
Replacing the Nutrients from Nuts
We love nuts because they’re great sources of vegetarian protein, fiber and healthy fats. That doesn’t mean those with nut allergies should go without — you can get that stuff from other foods. Soy products of all kinds, including tofu, edamame, soy crisps and tempeh, are great plant sources of protein. Whole grains such as brown rice, oats and whole wheat also contain some protein and fiber. Healthy fats from olive oil and flax seed can provide the same heart-healthy unsaturated fats found in nuts. Walnuts are well-known for their omega-3 fat content, but flax is a great source of this nutrient.
Nut-Free Snacks
Nuts are a common snack food, but it’s a good idea to have other snack alternatives for play dates or guests. Here are a few healthy and delicious ones:
- Fresh fruit cut up for on-the-go or frozen for a cool treat
- Dried fruit or fruit leathers
- Vegetable strips with hummus or light salad dressing
- Whole-grain crackers with low-fat cheese or sunflower seed butter
- Trail mix with dried fruit, puffed rice and seeds
- Smoothies
- Soy products — soy nut butter, dried soy nuts
- Hard boiled eggs
For more information on food allergies, visit the FDA website or the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Alliance.
As a vegetarian and a parent of a vegetarian, I can’t live a healthy lifestyle without out nuts.
Banning for the safety of one harms others.
Thank you for getting the information out there. I’m allergic to peanuts and tree nuts!
You wrote that a choice you make to eat healthy should be considered before the non-choice of a person allergic to nuts (who can actually DIE from nuts)should be. Wow. vegetarian (healthy) vs. nut allergy (death)… hmmm, it’s a no-brainer.
As a parent of a child who experiences anaphylaxis to tree nuts, educating others on the risks is very important. We don’t ask that you give up a healthy lifestyle for others, just increase your awareness and sensitivity for another’s life.
I completely agree with Clarissa, as a person with a nut allergy. I’m sorry that vegetarians may suffer, but still, they’re not going to die.
vegetarianism is a lifestyle/dietary choice, peanut allergies are an autoimmune disorder and can result in anaphalaxis and death.
Just want to add one comment to this informative article: even though someone is not alergic to tree-nuts but is allergic to peanuts, take care when purchasing packaged, shelled tree nuts, as they might have been prepared and packaged in a facility that also handles peanuts – part of the cross contamination issue. discussion.) I usually purchase whole nuts, wash them thoroughly and crack them myself at home, to use for snacks or in baking.
I became alergic to nuts (walnuts) first about 8 years ago, then all other nuts within a few years. Since then my immune system has suffered, taken a real hit. I have been dx with three autoimmune deaseases, and was even tested for MS. (neg) I have been able to make changes in my life, sleeping, eating healthy choices, some exercise, don’t push my self, lower stress, off meds, and I am starting to eat nuts again. Peanut butter, also almonds. OH! how I’ve missed them. I have not tried walnuts, a little worried about those. PB & J here I come!
I have been violently allergic to tree nuts my entire life. I ate one pistachio a few years ago and the reaction was so severe I nearly wound up in the ER.
For a vegetarian to be angry that workplaces and schools are making efforts to keep those with nut allergies safe, is immensely selfish.
Sure, vegetarians should eat nuts for sources of nutrients that they can’t get from meat. However, Vegetarianism is a choice, while those with allergies are born with a dangerous repellance to a substance.
If I even smell nuts, I get extremely nauseous and dizzy. I know I’m not the only one with legume/tree nut allergies who has experienced this. My friend is a vegan and was eating pistachio chips in class one day, and I had to politely ask her to put the bag away because I was going to be sick. She apologized and ate some fruit instead. It’s not that huge of a sacrifice for a vegetarian to keep the nuts and peanuts at home for others’ safety.
In essence. Katherine, just shut up.
Vegetarians seem to be getting a bad rap here. My husband is deathly allergic to tree nuts & oils, all sesame products (so no hummus for him, thanks, or many Asian dishes that may contain sesame oil.) One poppy seed can land him in the ER.
We used to be strict vegetarians for at least 10 years & still prefer to eat a mostly vegetarian diet. Sesame allergies are quite common, too. We need to be vigilant, especially at ethnic restaurants where there is sometimes a language barrier.
Although I think nuts are yummy & very beneficial to health, I substitute other ingredients in our recipes. For example, sunflower seeds work great in place of pine nuts in pesto (& sunbutter for peanut butter for those with peanut allergies). Life does go on, if one is careful & creative.
Those with nut allergies also need to be watchful of foods prepared with coconut oil which is prevalent everywhere, but not always considered.
It is not necessary for folks to be intolerant of one another’s issues or to tell others to “just shut up”.
Hi Ellen –
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Vegetarians do not have to suffer as a result of being aware and careful of nut allergies! What an extreme view. I am vegetarian; my boyfriend is not, but he IS deathly allergic to nuts (tree nuts only, fortunately not peanuts). Since we've been together, i have taken precautions to make sure that my nut eating does not cause any contamination with his foods. I no longer cook with nuts. I still eat plenty of them, i just eat them as snacks throughout the day and not around him! I do keep my nuts well wrapped up at home so they will not cause residue. Bottom line, a nut allergy is a very serious and frustrating thing for the sufferer. With a little thought and effort, the rest of us can still enjoy nuts!
Being vegetarian is a choice. Having allergies that can kill you is not. Bans for the safety of one? Hardly. What an ignorant comment by Katherine G.
Katherine G – you can't live without nuts? And to think, some people won't live if they have them. Pretty self centered view if you ask me. Also, no-one is asking you to ban nuts from your diet, they are asking that you do not do it around those who can't have it in their diet. Is this really that difficult for you to understand? I have a child that was just diagnosed with a cashew nut allergy and it's ignorant people like yourself that scare the daylights out of me.
I would never expect everyone in a workplace to give up eating nuts for me. If I had such a severe reaction I would always be carrying my epi-pen. I like to consider the many and not the few.
I want to say Thank You for your article!! My daughter is Deathly allergic to ALL nuts, peanuts, coconut- which actually is not a nut, and shellfish. Even the smell of a nut in the air is enough to put her into anaphylactic shock and even kill her. The ignorance of some people hurts people like my daughter everyday. And as a parent I get VERY frustrated with their ignorance. Thats why articles like this and panels of people talking about this subject is such a help. Also the peanutallergy.com website or the http://www.foodallergy.org are great places to find more information. Please if some one at work or at school is allergic take death into consideration and keep your nuts to yourself!!
I met a gal who's children were allergic to nuts, they could not even eat soy (fatal Allergy)… Be careful even with soy…
Yeah, and soy is becoming more pervasive in items in the grocery stores as well. Sure it's a good source of vegie protein, but I really don't understand it with the growing number of allergies to soy. I didn't use to have to be quite so careful when shopping. Another thing most people don't know is that cashews are somehow related to the poison ivy plant. My family found this out when the doctor told us – my dad, who is severely allergic to poison ivy, ate too many cashews and broke out in the same severe rash.
the inconvenience of you not being able to eat nuts surely doesn't outweigh another person becoming sick or dying does it? how can you even compare it as being harmful to you?
I am a vegan, and yes, I rely a lot on nuts, peanuts and seeds in my diet. But seeds and soynuts, for example, also have similar benefits and are nut-free.
I worked in a nut-free/peanut-free school last year and ate a lot of hemp, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and soynuts.
It's not that hard – just introduce new foods to your diet. Like the other poster said, your convenience doesn't outweigh someone's health and life.
No one says that a vegetarian has to ban nuts from their diet , just don't have them around people who have nut allergies.
There are many alternatives, suchas tofu, golden pea butter, and soy butter.
Some people here do not remember that some do not see veganism as a choice. They see it as a minimum moral baseline.
There are vegans with fatal nut allergies, so it is not impossible to be vegan without nuts. But, that is not the point.
It is the responsibility of the nut-allergic person to adapt to the world, not to make the world adapt to them.
There comes a point when one must live like Susie Brown. She recognizes that she cannot morally force the world to adapt to her.
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/I+was+trapped+in+my...
For most, that should not be necessary. Usually, one need only avoid touching uncleaned surfaces and one's mouth, nose, and eyes and be segregated to some extent.
I'm finding some of these comments to be downright disturbing…. very upset about the attacks on vegetarians…. Sometimes – people adopt a vegetarian lifestyle not by choice – but by necessity (certain metabolic disorders and other health conditions…) Regardless – i am a vegetarian with severe (as in could die) multiple food allergies (including walnuts + chesnuts…) I have also worked in a school where the "peanut ban" also extended to all soy products… We ater our lunches in our class as there was no cafeteria… so my tofu couldn't have had any negative impact on the single child who was allregic – in his classroom down the hall and around the corner…yet I found myself eating only fruit and veggies at work…
Even better – by allowing schools to "ban" peanuts we have set a dangerous precedent (by labelling a food allergy as a disability) – can you imagine the parent of the diabetic child walking into the school office and saying – sorry – you have to ban sugar… Or even better – the parent of a child with PKU or MCADD (look them up…) asking for bans of the foods their children can't have…. They are also disabilities…
Finally – are we really going to raise these children in a bubble? I do agree with bans in the primary grades…say K-3, but at some point the allergic individual needs to advocate for themself and take responsibility for themself. Do you know who looks out for my food allergies? Me. And guess who did it as a child. Me. Walnuts are not banned from my house. Nor is anything else I am allergic to. I read labels with help from my husband (as children should be doing with help from their parents…) I mentioned the walnuts and chesnuts – but let me assure you it is a very long list. Nor have I requested my workplace ban any of these items… I don't eat foods that are not safe for me. My allergies are not society's problem… they are my own
Sorry for the length/multiple comments!