Roasting Peanuts Might Be the Cause of Severe Allergic Reactions - East Idaho News

Roasting Peanuts Might Be the Cause of Severe Allergic Reactions

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gettY 092314 peanuts?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1411470392584iStock/Thinkstock(OXFORD, England) — There’s news from England that might brighten the day of people suffering from peanut allergies.

As reported in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, researchers now think it’s something in the actual roasting process that heightens allergic reactions compared to raw peanuts.

A team from Oxford experimented with groups of mice to determine which peanuts would produce a more severe reaction. Based on what happened, the group eating dry roasted peanuts were more susceptible to allergies.

The researchers theorized that chemical changes occur when peanuts are dry-roasted and the human immune system is primed for those changes, triggering various side-effects that include difficulty breathing.

Oxford researcher Amin Moghaddam says this might explain why people in eastern cultures are not as prone to peanut allergies as the West since the nuts are generally eaten raw, boiled or fried.

Moghaddam doesn’t advise people with peanut allergies start munching raw peanuts until scientists know exactly why chemical changes occur when nuts are roasted.


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