Teenagers who ate creamy peanut butter before the age of five were subsequently 71% less likely to have a peanut allergy than those who were denied the food, a new British study shows.
Researchers at King’s College London therefore recommend that parents give creamy peanut butter to their baby when weaning, then regularly until the age of five.
“Consumption of peanuts, from early childhood until the age of 5, made it possible to obtain lasting peanut tolerance until adolescence, independently of subsequent consumption of peanuts, which demonstrates that it is possible to obtain prevention and long-term tolerance in cases of food allergy,” they write in the medical journal NEJM Evidence.
Experts recommend creamy peanut butter because of the choking risk associated with other varieties.
“It justifies what we have been doing since 2015, with the introduction of peanuts very early in life,” commented Dr. Bruce Mazer, a food allergy expert at the McGill University Health Center.
British researchers began studying 640 young people around fifteen years ago; peanuts were avoided in half of the subjects, but the other half received them regularly as part of their diet between the ages of four months (before the first food allergies appeared) and five years.
The first results, published in 2015, showed a considerable reduction in the risk of allergy at the age of five among members of the second group. This new study demonstrates that this protection persisted over time, regardless of peanut consumption after the age of five.
Food allergies occur when the immune system mistakes a harmless substance for an enemy that needs to be destroyed. In more severe cases, the allergic reaction can develop into anaphylactic shock, a potentially fatal problem.
Early consumption of peanut butter means that the body will be first exposed to peanuts in the stomach, where the risk of them being perceived as a threat would be less than if the first exposure occurs on the skin.
Importance of prevention
Prevention is of the greatest importance, recalled Dr. Mazer.
Desensitization, he said, can treat up to 80 percent of children who develop an allergy by the age of two. By increasing the amount of peanuts gradually over time, the child will eventually be able to tolerate a reasonable amount.
However, if the child stops taking his daily or weekly dose at the age of nine, the allergy will recur in half of the cases, Dr Mazer warned.
“But if we have desensitization early in life, it’s as if the child had never been allergic,” he added.
Exposure to peanuts early in life allows the immune system to encounter them for the first time while it is still very flexible and able to adapt, Dr. Mazer explained, and that is why we vaccinate children while they are still very young.
Still, peanuts are different, he recalled. Up to 70% of children who are allergic to milk or eggs, for example, will eventually get rid of the problem on their own, which is not the case with peanuts, although we don’t really understand why.
“The good Lord has given us a very interesting immune system and we really need to understand how we can manage this on our own for the benefit of everyone,” concluded Dr. Mazer.