Peanut Intolerance - Should It Be Ignored?

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Food allergies are relatively common but there are some that are going to be more severe than others. A good example of this is tree nut and peanut allergies. These can actually be so severe that they can take your life. In fact, anaphylaxis is a severe reaction to nuts that causes the airways to swell shut and your blood pressure to drop severely. You can either pass out or die of suffocation as a result of this problem.

Still, there is a big difference between peanut intolerance and peanut allergies. There are plenty of people who are intolerant to this type of food but are never going to experience a reaction that is as severe as anaphylaxis. Although they may have some mild reaction to the peanuts that they are eating, it may be classified differently as a result of it being less severe. That is why it is important for you to talk to your doctor about any reactions that you're having to peanuts in order for them to determine if what you are dealing with is truly an allergy or if it is simply an intolerance.

If your doctor determines that you are dealing with a peanut intolerance, you may be able to overcome it by simply avoiding peanuts in the foods that you eat. You may even be able to eat them on a regular basis but you're still going to have to put up with some of the problems that occur as a result of the intolerance. These problems typically include such things as gastrointestinal distress and heartburn. You may wonder, however, if it is necessary for you to be cautious to the point of avoiding them if you are only dealing with an intolerance.

Your doctor is going to be able to answer this question for you and more than likely, is going to advise you to avoid them if at all possible. This is not out of a fear of a severe reaction that occurs as a result of the peanut allergy but it is because you are not doing your body any favors by ingesting food that is causing the negative reaction. If you simply cannot avoid eating peanuts, even if you are asked to avoid them if possible, make sure that you are prepared for any reaction that you have. This can help you to overcome the discomfort of a peanut intolerance while you continue merrily crunching away.

If You Can't Overcome It - Learn to Live with It

Dealing with a nut allergy can be extremely discouraging because it causes us to live in such a way that we have to avoid almost everything that is in the world around us. As we learn about the different places that we may come in contact with this type of food, we suddenly begin to come to the conclusion that there is no place that is safe from it. Although this may seem like the case whenever you are first learning about it, you would actually be surprised to find out that it is possible to successfully avoid nuts and still live a relatively normal life.

The way that you're able to do this is to become informed about the world around you. This is not only the case when it comes to the type of foods that you eat but it is also the case whenever it comes to other things in our world. For example, did you realize that many dog foods contain nuts as well as hamster food and even hamster bedding?

If you feed your dog is kind of food, you have to be careful that you never come in contact with it while you are feeding them. Even if you are able to avoid this kind of contact, you may still have a reaction if your dog happens to lick you as his saliva will also contain the nut protein.

You also need to become very efficient at reading labels and being able to read between the lines. Many foods are not going to come right out and tell you that one of the ingredients contains nuts but many of them do. For example, did you realize that many salad dressings contain nuts? You need to make sure that you understand exactly where the nuts are so that you can avoid them at all cost.

Since you are unable to overcome a nut allergy and it is going to be something that you're going to have to deal with for the rest of your life, you need to learn how to live with it. This is not only because you want to be able to lead a fairly normal life, even though you're going to have to avoid many things in it, it is also because it means your very life if you happen to be uninformed about where the nuts are.

Direct and Cross Contact Nut Allergies and What to Do about Them

If you have to deal with a nut allergy, you are probably concerned with how you're going to come in contact with it. Most of us are pretty good at avoiding contact with nuts directly because they are relatively easy for us to identify. Even if they are an ingredient in the food that we are eating, we can easily see that whenever we read the label. There may be other times, however, when we need to be cautious about the food that we eat because there may be some nuts that are hiding below the surface. These are not directly identified for us on the label so we need to make sure that we are looking for them on a constant basis.

The most common way that we might come in contact with these type of nut products is through a process that is known as cross-contamination. A good example of this is if we eat something that was processed at a factory that also processes food which contains a variety of different nuts. If the equipment is not properly cleaned in between the processes, we can easily have a little bit of leftover nuts in our food as well. This may be enough for a reaction to occur in us that could even be deadly.

It might also be that we come into contact directly with these nuts and don't realize it. It is important for you to inform anybody that you know or that will be preparing food for you that you have a severe allergy. Don't assume that they understand what a nut allergy is because many people think that it would just be a matter of you having a slight reaction, at the most. Let them know that even contact with a little bit of nuts can produce a deadly result so you need to avoid them completely.

There is nothing that can be done about nut allergies in order to help you to overcome it, according to medical science. That is why it is necessary for you to be prepared, just in case you happen to come into contact with something that contains nuts. Carry an anti-histamine with you at all times and if you're allergy is severe enough, keep an epinephrine prescription with you as well. These things may be a little bit inconvenient but they can certainly save your life, should you happen to come into contact with nuts unexpectedly.


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