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What is the Connection Between Vaccines and Peanut Allergies?

By / / adjuvants, chronic disease, Forrest Maready, George Washington Carver, immunization schedules other countries, James Lyons-Weiler, Jennifer Margulis, Joseph Mercola, peanut allergies, peanut allergy epidemic, peanut butter, peanut oil, RFK Jr, toxins

Why do some people think that vaccines are associated with peanut allergies?

There is no connection between peanut allergies and vaccines.
As much as Robert F. Kennedy, Jr tries to blame everything on vaccines, there is no connection between peanut allergies and vaccines.

The usual suspects…

What is the Connection Between Vaccines and Peanut Allergies?

That’s right, the only connect between vaccines and the idea of a peanut allergy epidemic has been made up by anti-vaccine influencers!

Still, it is true that there has been a big rise in the diagnosis of kids with peanut allergies.

“The prevalence of peanut allergy in the United States has been reported to have increased 3.5-fold over the past two decades, from 0.4% in 1997 to 0.8% in 2002 and 1.4% in 2008.”

White paper on peanut allergy – part 1: Epidemiology, burden of disease, health economic aspects

It’s just that there isn’t any connection between this rise and kids getting their vaccines.

What is Causing the Peanut Allergy Epidemic?

When looking for a cause for the peanut allergy epidemic, one clue might be that we are eating more peanut products than ever before!

While people have likely been growing and eating peanuts for thousands of years, it was only after George Washington Carver, the father of the peanut industry, helped and encouraged farmers to grow peanuts and created more than 300 products from peanuts that they really took off. This was in the early part of the 20th Century, but it would still take the invention of machines to simplify the harvesting and processing of peanuts to increase production even more.

Doesn't the simple fact that we are eating twice as many peanut products in recent years have to play a part for the rise of peanut allergies and reassure people that there is no connection to vaccines?
Doesn’t the simple fact that we are eating twice as many peanut products in recent years have to play a part for the rise of peanut allergies and reassure people that there is no connection to vaccines?

But it really wasn’t until the 1990s that we really started eating more peanuts and more peanut butter!

“To its critics, the federal peanut program embodies the worst in federal farm subsidies: restrictive, expensive and divorced from any standard of need. Its beneficiaries include some of the richest people in America, like the Mellon family of Mellon Bank fame, and the William B. Turner family, who made a fortune in sports real estate and sports apparel.”

‘Windfall’ Subsidies for Just Peanuts

Why?

Farmers were growing more peanuts because they were getting subsidies to grow more peanuts.

And just as we were starting to eat more peanuts and peanut containing foods, in 2000, the AAP warned parents to avoid giving these foods to high risk children until age three years. The recommendation included advice for breastfeeding mothers to avoid peanuts and other allergenic foods if their baby was at high risk for food allergies.

Of course, that is the opposite of the advice we now give, advice to introduce peanut antigens early. Advice that can help prevent peanut allergies!

How long were we telling parents to delay giving infants peanut containing products?

Only until a new clinical review came out in 2008 that reversed the earlier recommendation!

“There is also little evidence that delaying the timing of the introduction of complementary foods beyond 4 to 6 months of age prevents the occurrence of atopic disease. At present, there are insufficient data to document a protective effect of any dietary intervention beyond 4 to 6 months of age for the development of atopic disease.”

Effects of early nutritional interventions on the development of atopic disease in infants and children: the role of maternal dietary restriction, breastfeeding, timing of introduction of complementary foods, and hydrolyzed formulas

Another factor that has likely increased the number of kids with peanut allergies includes that roasting peanuts versus boiling or frying, leads to a higher risk of antigenicity. In other words, it makes it more likely that peanuts can trigger an allergy.

In the United States, peanuts are usually dry or oil roasting, while in countries with fewer peanut allergies, they are boiled or fried.

“…given that the hallmark of allergic disease is an altered immune response, it stands to reason that vaccines— which purposefully set out to “reprogram immunity”—are major contenders as allergy triggers.”

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

With so many better explanations for the rise in peanut allergies, not surprisingly, anti-vaccine influencers still want to blame vaccines.

Don’t believe them!

We Should Know What is Causing the Peanut Allergy Epidemic

Consider that rates of peanut allergies are very different in countries that have very similar immunization schedules!

“In Italy, peanut allergy is rare and dominated by LTP in the country’s center and south and by SSP in the north.”

Peanut allergy in Italy: A unique Italian perspective

Now how can that be if vaccines cause peanut allergies?

Rates of peanut allergies are also low in Israel, the Netherlands, Poland, Bulgaria, and Iceland.

In Thailand and Cambodia, peanut allergies are rare to non-existent, and peanuts are a prominent part of food preparation.

Rates of peanut allergies are also very low in most other Asian countries, including China, Japan, Philippines, Singapore, and Taiwan.

Spain and Sweden have higher rates than the rest of Europe, but are still lower than the US.

What’s the one thing that countries with low rates of peanut allergies have in common?

It ain’t that they don’t vaccinate their children!

“It is tempting to speculate that early exposure to peanut which is cooked braised or boiled may be one of the reasons for the development of tolerance, as Asians including children are often exposed to peanut rice porridge. It has been shown that roasting of peanuts increases its allergenicity.”

Food allergy in Asia: how does it compare?

In almost all cases, it is the early introduction of peanut containing products to children.

“Prevalence rates of peanut and tree nut allergy in Israel are 0.04 and 0.02%, respectively (1). Children are often exposed to peanuts very early owing to the popularity of locally produced peanut snacks, which have a spongy texture and melt on contact with saliva, making them safe for consumption even before 6 months of age.”

Peanut and tree nut allergy in children: role of peanut snacks in Israel?

The first studies on this were done back in 2003, when allergy experts noticed that Israel infants who ate BAMBA peanut puffs rarely developed peanut allergies.

This led to further studies which confirmed that the early introduction of peanut antigens could prevent kids from developing peanut allergies. And the latest recommendations to introduce peanut containing products to infants by the time they are four to six months old!

Lastly, since breastfeeding and maternal consumption of peanuts can also decrease a child’s risk of developing peanut allergies, you can see another reason why peanut allergies have increased. Rates of breastfeeding are far below levels that they were before so many commercial baby formulas became available.

Do you still think that vaccines are associated with peanut allergies?

If they are, then why would simply giving kids peanut containing products at an early age, prevent them from developing peanut allergies?

That’s what the Learning Early About Peanut Allergy (LEAP) study found.

Why does all of this matter?

Anti-vaccine influencers don't want to know what is causing peanut allergies. They just want it to be vaccines! Or vaccines and penicillin if you are Forest Maready...
Anti-vaccine influencers don’t want to know what is causing peanut allergies. They just want to blame vaccines! Or vaccines and penicillin if you are Forest Maready…

If you continue to believe that vaccines cause peanut allergies, not only might you skip or delay getting vaccinated, but you might miss the advice about early introduction of peanut containing products!

This puts your kids at risk for a vaccine preventable disease and peanut allergies!

More on the Peanut Allergy Epidemic

Last Updated on September 29, 2024