Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Can You Identify Types of Nuts?

As an Allergic Reactor to all tree nuts and peanuts, I have always stayed as far away as possible whenever I have seen them.  There have been some articles recently about whether children and adults who have nut allergies, can actually properly identify the different types of nuts (article and Huffington Post Link).

The study was done at Ohio State University.  The article states that only about half of the participants, both adults and children, could identify the different types of tree nuts and peanuts.  The results showed that adults were able to identify them better than children, but not by much.  

I think they are missing the main point though of having these allergies.  I am not sure how important it is to necessarily know the name of each type of nut, as it is to know "oh hey, that is a nut and I need to stay away."  If you have had these allergies since you were a child, like me, more than likely you were shown visually what nuts were.  The names of each type were not as relevant if I couldn't eat any of them anyway. 

I am always a promoter of more education, so I do agree with the study, that maybe there should be more education for people who are Allergic Reactors.  Most importantly, recognizing visually that you can't eat it because it is a nut, is really the main concern.  If your child recognizes what nuts look like, and know to avoid them, then that is most significant.

Readers, what do you think?  Did you read these articles?  I would love to hear your thoughts!  



Monday, March 19, 2012

My Year of Busyness!

Dear Readers,

I am so sorry for the lack of posts lately!  My year has been extremely busy, but I am now hopefully back to a consistent schedule of postings.

There have been some interesting articles that I have noticed in the news lately about food allergies, and I am excited to write about them and hear your thoughts as well.  Topics that I look forward to writing about this week are: Allergic Reactor's ability identifying types of tree nuts, Allergic Reactor's feeling bullied, and Allergic Reactor's feelings of normalcy in everyday life. 

I hope that you will also share your thoughts on these significant topics! 

I look forward to writing more,

Miss Allergic Reactor