Allergies - Sister to Sister

Bad Peanuts

Milk is the most common allergen, with eggs next. But it is peanuts that gets the press because they are so deadly as an allergen. Peanuts are quite nutritious but not really good for you even if you are not allergic to them. They contain things that are very bad for you, including aflatoxins that in some studies are linked to liver cancer, stunted growth in children and mental retardation

Peanuts grow underground where they are contaminated with a common mold called Aspergillus. This mold is highly carcinogenic. Processing into peanut butter may reduce aflatoxins by 89%.  It is unknown what happens to humans in the long run when exposed to Aspergillus and other afatoxins.

The USDA supposedly monitors the amounts of aflatoxins in foods and attempts to make sure the recommended limits are not exceeded. When the levels of afatoxins in peanuts and peanut products exceed the recommended levels, the peanuts are packed up and sold to poor countries as a food source.