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, for peanut specifically the evidence is now clear — early introduction reduces the risk — though for other allergens such as sesame the picture is less settled.
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.
Early peanut introduction — the kind Israeli children get through Bamba — is now backed by strong trial evidence. The LEAP trial (New England Journal of Medicine, 2015) found that high-risk infants who regularly ate peanut-containing foods from infancy had about an 80% lower rate of peanut allergy by age 5 than those who avoided peanut, and 2024 follow-up data show the protection persisted into adolescence. International guidelines, including the US NIAID addendum (2017), now recommend introducing peanut-containing foods to most infants in the first year of life.
Safety note: use infant-safe forms — Bamba puffs dissolve in the mouth and suit infants from around 6 months, and smooth peanut paste in puree is another option; whole peanuts are a choking hazard under age 4.
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.
