More and more children are allergic to cashew nuts

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• While adults hardly ever have cashew nut allergies, the number of children affected is increasing.
• Children's immune systems react particularly strongly to a protein in cashew nuts.
• This is shown by a study with Swiss participation, which evaluated data from 142 international allergy centers.

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Whether as a salty snack or hidden in gluten-free flour and vegan milk, the cashew nut, originally from Brazil, is all the rage. They are rich in protein, but contain less fat and calories than other nuts. Incidentally, cashews are not actually nuts at all, but the seeds of a fruit.

More and more children are allergic to cashew nuts. This is shown by an analysis of a European allergy register, as reported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF). However, this allergy hardly ever occurs in adults.

They actually have nothing to do with cashew nut allergy: a deaconess nurse at the bedside of a child, photographed in Switzerland in 1946.

KEYSTONE

For the study published in the journal "Allergy", an international research team with Swiss participation analyzed data from the European Anaphylaxis Register, which includes figures from 142 allergy centers in various countries.

Number one in children

The register records so-called anaphylaxis - severe overreactions of the immune system to triggers such as food or medication. The symptoms range from skin rashes and swelling to breathing difficulties and anaphylactic shock, in which the heart and circulation can fail in extreme cases.

In total, 23 percent of the food allergies recorded in the register were attributable to the category of nuts that grow on trees. According to the study, cashew nuts ranked first in this category for children, while the native hazelnuts and walnuts fell back to second and third place.

Previous studies have confirmed that the immune system of children reacts particularly strongly to a protein in cashew nuts, as the SNSF explained. Anaphylaxis occurs even more frequently than with a peanut allergy. And even smaller amounts than peanuts can trigger an attack.

More severe than peanuts

In adults, on the other hand, allergies to cashew nuts hardly played a role in the cases documented by the anaphylaxis register. The mature immune system is obviously less susceptible.

According to the researchers, the increase in cashew nuts is probably due to the fact that they have been consumed more frequently in recent decades. Cashew nuts are often hidden, for example in products such as pesto, or deliberately used as a vegan source of protein.

"As a result, many more children come into contact with cashew nuts at an early age than in the past," explained Karin Hartmann, a researcher and doctor from the University and University Hospital of Basel who was involved in the study.