Why do some things (like peanuts) have so many people allergic to them while other things (like mint) aren’t causing issues to nearly as many?
Basically why are some things more allergenic than others
In: 168
Peanut allergies are found in about 1-2 % of people which is actually lower than some other common allergies like strawberries. But peanuts are packed with protein. And the thing that most people react to in peanuts is a protein called glycinin that peanuts and many other seeds like soy use to basically store protein for the future plants (peanuts are seeds). One interesting thing about storage proteins is that they are pretty tough. they resist heat and enzymes, which makes sense if you are a seed hoping to survive perhaps years until you sprout into a new plant. But that means that if you are eating the peanut, that protein is more likely to resist your own digestive enzymes. Peanuts also have a lot of it compared to strawberries so the violent reactions some have may be worse in peanuts due simply to the amount you are exposed to. I don’t have any research to back this up, but maybe proteins that are less likely to be broken down are more likely to therefor trigger an immune reaction because they are still “whole”. I read years ago that in countries where peanuts are boiled instead of roasted, peanut allergies were less common. Would be interesting to follow up on this.
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