Is anyone allergic to some but not all 'nuts'?

burrr

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I was reading the thread about cashews being a fruit and not technically a nut and it reminded me that I recently accidently ate something with cashew nuts in the ingredients and didn't have a reaction. I'm allergic to peanuts and brazil nuts, for certain. I've known for years that I'm not allergic to almonds and in the past year found out that I can also eat hazelnuts.

There doesn't seem to be a clear link between allergies from what I've googled this morning. Peanuts are not a tree nut, like most other nuts. Brazil nuts are a seed and I react to them, but not to coconut which is also a seed - and I can eat loads of other seeds like pumpkin, sunflower, sesame.

I was just wondering what other people's experiences with nut allergies were, do you know if you can eat certain ones? Or do you just avoid all in case, like I did for years?
 
The clue to what you react to and what you do not react to lies in the protein or proteins that you are allergic to (I'm allergic to all dairy product's because of a protein or two in the milk they come from.)

It is common to be able to eat what are traditionally regarded as seeds and not nuts. In the school I worked in ALL nuts and peanuts were banned from the premises but not seeds and catering were allowed to put seeds into food because a nut allergy is exactly that, nuts not seeds, (plus the addition of not being able to have peanuts around as well).

I found this snippet of information which may go some way towards explaining nuts & seeds and various other 'things. (My bold and italics.)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/the-filter/qi/8434868/QI-Quite-interesting-facts-about-nuts.html

Nuts are defined as a simple, dry fruit with one seed (very occasionally two) in which the seed case wall becomes very hard at maturity.
True nuts include pecan, sweet chestnut, beech, acorns, hazel, hornbeam and alder.
Peanuts, almonds, pistachios, cashews, horse chestnuts and pine nuts are not nuts

It goes on to provide and explanation of what peanuts, almonds... and so on are.
In addition, coconuts are of the palm tree family and are not related (or only very distantly related) to tree nuts, so they will not produce anaphylaxis.
Similarly nutmeg is not a nut and is not of the tree nut family and will not produce anaphylaxis.

Another good list is here, though it is not the easiest to read because of the formatting and advertising. http://allergies.about.com/od/nutallergy/a/Tree-Nut-Allergy.htm
 
I do not have an allergy to peanuts, cashews nor almonds. I cannot remember ever eating hazelnuts or brazil nuts, so I cannot say anything specific about them in relation to allergies. As far as I can remember, the only food that I have eaten that I have had a bad reaction with, is soft boiled egg.
 
Yes, it's got to be a response to a shared chemical in those things, yet people are allergic to nuts in different combinations. I did read that hazelnuts and almonds are in the same allergy family so it makes sense that I'm not allergic to either. I find it strange that peanuts are a major source of 'nut' allergy, they're not a nut and yet most people with nut allergies are more likely to be allergic to other nuts, not other legumes.

You folks with no allergies are lucky, it's a pain in the butt!
 
I can not eat peanuts at all. They really make me sick to my stomach and give me migraines so I stay away from them. Even the smell of them will give me the same reaction. I seem to have the same affect with peanut oils, too. The worse is when somebody opens up a can of peanuts and as soon as I get a smell of it my eyes start to water and itch. It's an instant headache. It's awful.

I can eat any other kinds of nuts though and they don't bother my stomach at all. It is seems odd to me that I have such a back reaction to peanuts but can eat any other type of nut with no reactions.
 
It is seems odd to me that I have such a back reaction to peanuts but can eat any other type of nut with no reactions.
The very reason you can react to peanuts and be absolutely fine with other nuts if that they are a nut only in name. They are actually a legume (pea) and not related to nuts at all. Incidentally, i used to be the same as a child but grew out of it thankfully.
 
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I have no known allergy to any nuts whatsoever. I am lucky I can get a variety of them and enjoy playing around with them for food. Nut allergy? Naah, not me:scratchhead:
 
When my son was 6 he reacted strongly to all tree nuts. Then they kept retesting him and now at 12 he only allergic to cashews and pistachios. He reacts very strongly to these two nuts. He once ate a granola bar where the last ingredient was organic cashews so just a small quantity in the bar. He took two bites and asked if there were cashews in it. He threw up within a hour and had stomach cramps for the entire evening. You have to be so careful with food allergies.
 
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