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December 1, 2005
Why is peanut allergy on the rise?
An(UPI) article released this week stated that children in the USA are more likely to develop peanut allergy than those in developing countries and researchers can only hypothesize as to why.
Now about 1 percent of the U.S. population younger than 18 have peanut allergy (this does not include other food allergies). That rate is higher than most developing countries.
So why is this happening? Some possibilities include: 1) increasingly clean U.S. homes where children's immune systems are tested less often in the early years, using roasting of rather than boiling of peanuts to cook them, and avoidance of peanuts until children are at least 3 years old.
Posted by David at December 1, 2005 7:23 PM