Peanut allergy is far less common in Israel than in countries such as the UK. Is it because of early exposure to Bamba peanut snacks? Here’s the medical facts as of today.

Allergies are becoming increasingly common, particularly in the Western world, where rates of peanut allergy in the US, UK and certain European countries have been steadily rising over several decades.

A lot of research has been carried out trying to find out why this is the case, with no firm conclusions having been made.

Early Exposure Causes Sensitization? Or The Opposite?

It was previously thought that perhaps early exposure in utero or early life to peanut proteins could cause sensitization in high risk children. And so women were previously warned to limit or avoid eating peanuts during pregnancy.

Despite this, the prevalence of peanut allergy still continued to rise and it was later thought that – en contraire – perhaps through avoiding peanuts, children were not developing immune tolerance to them.

Conflicting Evidence Throughout The World

Going through medical scientific studies about allergies today, it shows that evidence for the different theories is conflicting throughout the world.

But studies in Israel would seem to support the de-sensitizing theory: Though peanut allergy is also on the rise here in Israel, it is far less common than in countries such as the UK.

One proposed theory is that because children are exposed very early in life through Bamba, the nation’s peanut based snack food.

Does Bamba Prevent Peanut Allergy? But What About Sesame?

Interestingly, sesame allergy rates, however, are high, despite that children grow up eating sesame–rich foods from an early age. Why is this? We just don’t know …

Read more about sesame and peanut allergy in Israel in our blogpost about Surviving Israel With a Peanut or Sesame Allergy.