When you have a severe nut and peanut allergy, making Nutella probably isn't a good idea.
Unfortunately, says St. Albert's Jennifer Duggan, she only found out about her allergy after she'd started brewing up a batch of it about two years ago.
"I couldn't breathe," says the 29-year-old, and she started blacking out as her blood pressure dropped. "I knew I had to go to the hospital, but I couldn't remember how to get there."
But she survived, and is now part of an online group that's promoting allergy awareness. "A lot of people don't take their allergies seriously," she says, despite the fact that any allergic reaction can turn fatal. "A little bit is not OK."
What are allergies?
About five per cent of Canadians and five to eight per cent of Canadian children are allergic to certain types of food, says Stuart Carr, an assistant professor of pediatrics and head of the Division of Pediatric Clinical Immunology and Allergy at the University of Alberta.
No one's sure what causes allergies, Carr says, but research suggests they are on the rise. The rate of peanut allergies in adults today is roughly twice what it was 25 years ago, for example, but still only at about two per cent of the population.
Most allergies appear during childhood, Carr says, which makes kids a little more likely to have them than adults. Most schools will have one or two kids per classroom who are allergic to some sort of food, and maybe one child in every three rooms who is allergic to nuts.
Allergic reactions can include hives, rashes, coughing, vomiting and more, Carr says. When these reactions happen in combination, its known as anaphylaxis, which can be fatal.
Asthma, exercise, medication and biology can all affect the strength of a person's reaction to an allergen, Carr says.
"You can do a lot to reduce the risk of a severe reaction, but the one thing you can't do is predict the severity."
All allergies can be deadly, he emphasizes, but some, such as nuts or shellfish, are more likely to be deadly than others, such as wheat.
How do I avoid them?
Duggan says she now has to be very careful about what and where she eats. "There are very few places I can eat at," she notes, as many restaurants have nuts on the menu. Some of her friends' homes are off-limits due to nut residue.
There's usually at least one student at Neil M. Ross Catholic School who is allergic to a certain food, says principal Sandra Cimino. They try to be "nut-sensitive" by reminding parents and students to be allergy-aware and to leave foods like peanut butter at home.
Kids with allergies are encouraged to carry EpiPens (disposable injectors meant to counteract allergic reactions), Cimino says, and staffers are trained in their use.
"Every once in a while someone will go, 'Oh my goodness, my mom packed a peanut butter sandwich for me,' " she says. When that happens, they'll give the kid an alternative lunch.
You don't have to ban foods from school to protect allergic kids, Carr says. Although smells and food residues can cause minor reactions such as hives, truly life-threatening ones generally don't happen unless a child actually eats the problem food.
"If the kid next to you is eating the food, you're not going to have anaphylaxis," he says. "As long as your kid doesn't eat that allergen, they're going to be fine."
Anyone with an allergy should have a plan and know what foods to avoid, Carr says.
"The onus is still on the person with the allergy," he says.
If you avoid sharing snacks, wipe down your tables and wash your hands after eating, you can avoid having (or causing) most food-related allergic reactions.
Visit www.healthyalberta.com for more on allergies.
