Posted on 07/25/2007 5:18:54 AM PDT by Abathar
GREENSBORO, N.C. -- An agricultural researcher at North Carolina A&T State University has developed what he said is a simple process to make allergen-free peanuts.
The inventor, Dr. Mohamed Ahmedna, is optimizing the process further to remove allergens from other foods.
"We are extremely pleased that we were able to find such a simple solution to a vexing problem that has enormous economic and public health ramifications, both for peanut-sensitive individuals, and the food industry as a whole," Ahmedna said.
Ahmedna is an associate professor of food science in N.C. A&T's School of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences.
The new process -- a first for food science -- could provide relief to millions of peanut allergy sufferers, and be an enormous boon to the entire peanut industry, according to school officials.
Doug Speight, of the N.C. A&T Office of Outreach and Technology Transfer, said food companies are showing a strong interest in licensing the process, which does not degrade the taste or quality of treated peanuts, and might even render them easier to process for use as a food ingredient.
The processed peanuts showed no reaction in tests on human serums from severely allergic individuals.
Researchers said a patent on the allergy-free peanut is pending.
Peanut and tree nut allergies are the most severe of all food allergies, affecting approximately 3 million Americans, and causing 100-150 deaths from anaphylactic shock annually and many more hospitalizations.
One study showed that between 1997 and 2002, peanut allergies in children doubled in the United States. Today, an estimated 1 percent of all children suffer from the allergy.
Ahmedna's work on peanuts has been funded through a United States Agency for International Development grant.
Well color me surprised, this is honestly the first time I have heard of a guy named Mohamed that has done something good for the world as a whole if this is true.
I have a friend who is deathly allergic to nuts of all kinds, this truly could be a huge blessing to millions of people. Just think, kids might actually be allowed to bring peanut butter sandwiches to school again, I have heard that a lot of places have banned all peanut products from being brought on school property.
NUTS!...........This is fantastic news!.........I once heard of a guy who died who had choked on some other food and passed out. The gut who tried to resuscitate him had just eaten some peanuts and gave him mouth-to-mouth.....
What I want to know is: what's behind this statistic?
I have heard this from many different places also. They don’t know why, but the Dr’s who specialize in allergies all agree that something is causing this huge increase in allergies of nuts, but they can’t figure out what it is.
Allergy free peanuts would be awesome. Maybe then, my son and daughter can start taking peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to school again.
I imagine that they will eventually point the finger at Global Warming.
What do you have in mind? Believe me, its real. My son breaks out in hives and his throat swells with one touch of peanut butter to his lips.
You’re too sensitive. My statement does not imply that I don’t think it’s real. I just think it’s worth studying why the rate of allergies is increasing. There’s something very interesting there.
Maybe you’re too sensitive. I just wondered what you had in mind.
Yeah, the increase in CO2 is behind all our ills now...
Actually, this line....
“Believe me, its real. My son breaks out in hives and his throat swells with one touch of peanut butter to his lips.”
implies that you think Clear case guy does not believe the allergy is real.
I personally can see why parents are touchy about the issue but he was not saying that it wasn’t real at all.
Nope, doesn’t imply anything. I just wondered what he had in mind. I wouldn’t have asked if I thought I already knew.
Soy milk, is my theory.
>>Causes of peanut allergy
19 March 2003
Of all the foods that children and adults can be allergic to, peanuts are arguably the most dangerous. Peanut allergy can be induced by the tiniest amounts – even traces on a knife from making a peanut butter sandwich. And every so often there’s a preventable death from the profound shock that can ensue.
Some British researchers have been following nearly 14,000 healthy children to work out why some developed peanut allergy in the first place.
The factors which were associated with peanut allergy were; drinking soy milk, having had a rash affecting the creases over joints, having a rash which oozed and crusted, and (interestingly) having used skin creams or lotions containing peanut oil in the past.
The first two factors - soy and the eczema type rashes - could just have indicated a child who already had allergic tendencies. But the peanut oil in the skin creams may have been more causal, sensitising the child’s immune system to peanut, preparing the ground for allergic reactions when peanuts were eaten.
All this needs to be confirmed and more work done to see whether these findings can translate into prevention.<<
Around the same time this got so huge, women were being told soy was good for them. Babies on soy formula and mothers eating soy going into breastmilk, is my theory.
I’m probably wrong.
Interesting. I hadn’t heard about a possible soy connection. Thanks.
You may not have been implying it, but to both the poster and myself, this is how it looks.
He doesn’t look sensitve at all.
An internet discussion can be difficult without facial expression.
Mohamed and nuts just seem to go together.
Very interesting, I have been reading more and more about soy and some of the problems that might be attributed to eating it, especially reproductive problems.
They keep saying that asthma is increasing in cities like NYC. Anybody who is not used to it could spend one night there and give a hundred reasons why it is an unnatural and unhealthy environment. Start with all the incessant honking and sirens 24/7. Some say it is incects and rodents. Yet those who live in big cities delude themselves into thinking they are environmentalists.
I’ve wondered if there could be another subsitute for babies who are allergic to cow’s milk. Breast is best but for some of us, not possible. (I had PIV and my meds could go into breastmilk, each girl got four days of breastfeeding while I could be monitored in the hospital). I wonder if Goat’s milk could sub.
My new namesake has just been put on Soymilk. I had to cringe.
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