10 ms·
This is not new news, but nonetheless important to replicate and keep studying. I think the first often-cited study about this was in 2008 [1]. There are severa
by chadash 4y ago
This is not new news, but nonetheless important to replicate and keep studying. I think the first often-cited study about this was in 2008 [1]. There are several more, including one in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2015 [2].
Basically, the original study looked at Jewish kids in Israel versus the UK and saw that peanut allergies were about 10x lower in Israel, even though Jews of European background (Ashkenazi) there are fairly similar, genetically, to Ashkenazi Jews in the UK (the majority of both groups migrated recently from Central and Eastern Europe).
There is a snack called Bamba that they eat in Israel. It's kind of like a peanut butter Cheeto puff, and it is a nearly-universal snack for young kids in Israel. It melts in your mouth, so a 6-month-old can eat it almost as soon as they eat solid foods. It's about as popular in Israel as Cheerios are in the US, maybe more so. The hypothesis is that Bamba consumption there dramatically lowers the risk of developing peanut allergies.
[1] https://www.webofscience.com/wos/woscc/full-record/WOS:000260940100019?SID=USW2EC0E8DnAmwY62JZxuqmYCy8vK https://www.webofscience.com/wos/woscc/full-record/WOS:00026...
[2] https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa1414850 https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa1414850
- vorpalhex 4y agoBamba is also delicious. The fat content from the peanut butter gives it a good body, like a cheese puff. If you decide to get some for your kid, get some extra for yourself.
- LeifCarrotson 4y agoI'm pretty sure most of the fat content comes from the palm oil, but I don't disagree with your conclusion.
- ortusdux 4y agoTJ's also sold some that were dipped in dark chocolate. They are the unholy hybrid of vanishing caloric density and a peanut butter cup.
- schwartzworld 4y agoTJs also sells Nutella filled bamba
- ijustwanttovote 4y agoTarget sells Bambas in the USA. We bought it to feed our infant for the same reasons you mentioned.
- ladberg 4y agoFor anyone wondering, Trader Joe's sells these in the US! They're great, and they're "real" Bamba and not a TJ's replica.
- latchkey 4y agohttps://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/pdp/058373 https://www.traderjoes.com/home/products/pdp/058373 "Bamba Peanut Snacks contain just four, simple ingredients: corn grits, peanut paste, palm oil, and salt."
- brewdad 4y agoThe palm oil is less than ideal but this isn't exactly health food to begin with.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- throwaway12245 4y ago>palm oil is less than ideal Why do you say this? Just curious. Palm oil is one of the better plant oils, no?
- dghughes 4y agoMassive harm of the environment by companies that farm it. Orangutans' habitat for one.
- Swizec 4y agoThe main problem with palm oil isn’t health afaik, it’s the orangutan habitat destruction since most palm oil still comes from wild forests instead of farming. https://www.wwf.org.uk/updates/8-things-know-about-palm-oil https://www.wwf.org.uk/updates/8-things-know-about-palm-oil
- 4y ago
- cmurf 4y agoAs popular as it is, I wonder if there's effectively microdosing happening from baby's 1st week, even before they eat it themselves?
- hgsgm 4y agoYou mean from exposure to other kids?
- PebblesRox 4y agoMy guess is through breast milk - which I was wondering about with the study as well; does it make a difference for breastfed babies whether their moms eat a lot of peanuts?
- myshpa 4y agoAnecdotal: a pregnant woman ate a lot of the stuff (something similar to Bamba) when pregnant, and I mean a lot. The child was diagnosed with peanut allergy when 1 y.o. Solution? Peanut microdosing, increasing dose progressively, in few months the allergy was gone.
- newaccount74 4y agoAnecdote from my partner: Allergies come and go, they're not necessarily permanent even if you don't treat them.
- seanmcdirmid 4y agoSince no one really knows what causes peanut allergies, it isn’t surprising they come and go without much insight into why.
- cmurf 4y agoMom, dad, siblings. Anyone snacking on it will have it on their faces, finger tips. It'll get on the counters and floor. And find its way on a bottle nipple, blankets, sheets, fingers, etc.
- perakojotgenije 4y agoIf you can't find Bamba but you have European or Balkan shop nearby you can try buying Smoki [1], it's the same thing. [1] https://www.google.com/search?q=smoki&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwiErP3PseP9AhUAnv0HHcBzC68Q2-cCegQIABAA&oq=smoki&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQAzIECAAQQzIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDIFCAAQgAQyBQgAEIAEMgUIABCABDoECCMQJ1DbCFjbCGCCDmgAcAB4AIABsgGIAeMCkgEDMC4ymAEAoAEBqgELZ3dzLXdpei1pbWfAAQE&sclient=img&ei=v5UUZMTQNoC89u8PwOet-Ao&bih=893&biw=1707 https://www.google.com/search?q=smoki&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwiE...
- pkaye 4y agoTJs carries Bamba.
- taejo 4y agoLooks like it's what's called Erdnussflips in Germany
- chihuahua 4y agoI just tried some last night, in a side-by-side comparison with real Erdnussflips. Bamba have a smoother/softer texture (less crunchy), and the peanut flavor is weaker.
- wheels 4y agoAmusingly, I tried to convince my ex (Serbian) that Smoki and Erdnussflips are the same thing. I filled a Smoki bag with German (ja! brand) Erdnussflips, and she immediately noticed, though there were a few seconds of confused looks (and laughter).
- jonas-w 4y agoWell ja! are definitely not the best Erdnussflips you can get, i would've noticed too that they don't taste that good.
- trelane 4y agoAldi sometimes sells these here in the us. They're similar to Bamba, but not as fluffy. It's a coarser-ground corn, I think. e.g. https://aldithings.com/deutsche-kuche-peanut-puffs/ https://aldithings.com/deutsche-kuche-peanut-puffs/
- subpixel 4y agoIt’s a full-on trend in the US to feed these to your baby to prevent peanut allergies. My daughter probably ate her own weight in Bamba.
- MrBuddyCasino 4y agoProbably ok to eat a little to avoid peanut allergy, but be careful about eating too much poly-unsaturated fatty acids. They do a lot of long-term damage.
- lacrosse_tannin 4y agoMaybe all the allergic infants died and didn't make it into the study.
- darzu 4y agoConsidering peanut allergies are ~1:50 - 1:200, that would be a lot of dead infants and I think that would show up in stats and news.
- makeitdouble 4y agoThere can of course be other factors going on, as the comparison is between different countries. Now, the infant death rate in Israel seems to actually lower by almost half of the US (Iḿ seeing 5.4 per 1000 for the US, vs 2.2 for Israel). https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/ISR/israel/infant-mortality-rate https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/ISR/israel/infant-mort... https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/maternalinfanthealth/infantmortality.htm https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/maternalinfanthealth/...
- ars 4y agoThey researched bamba, but then recommended peanut butter. I remember reading that boiled and roasted peanuts have different allergen profiles, and are not interchangeable. If you want to do this with your child, use actual bamba, not peanut butter.
- NikolaNovak 4y agoThat's fascinating! In ex-Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Croatia in my case) we were raised on Smoki which looks very similar! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoki https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoki
- myth_drannon 4y agoYeah, in USSR we also had these corn puffs(Кукурузные Палочки). Bamba is different despite looking the same. It has very "peanutty" taste (and ingridient) unlike the corn puffs which are just sweet.
- beagle3 4y agoConfusingly enough, there is also “red bamba” available in Israel (officially called “sweet bamba” but everyone calls it red bamba) which has no peanuts - only corn and an outer sweet red coating with a berry-ish flavor. An American friend told me it looks and tastes like captain crunch berries, and it is unfair that American kids have only a few in a serving, and israeli kids can just get bags of them.
- hiidrew 4y agoMan, I had an Israeli boss that turned me onto Bamba. Loved that stuff.
- 2muchcoffeeman 4y agoI always joke to new parents that they should adopt this strategy. Glad to see I was right!
- itronitron 4y agowas this research funded by the maker of Bamba?
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- tablespoon 4y ago> There is a snack called Bamba that they eat in Israel. It's kind of like a peanut butter Cheeto puff, and it is a nearly-universal snack for young kids in Israel. It melts in your mouth, so a 6-month-old can eat it almost as soon as they eat solid foods. It's about as popular in Israel as Cheerios are in the US, maybe more so. The hypothesis is that Bamba consumption there dramatically lowers the risk of developing peanut allergies. Target sells these "Lil Mixins" sachets that contain peanut powder. They're designed to mix in to milk or oatmeal, etc. The packaging says you can use them with kids as young as 4 months. They also sell similar sachets of tree nuts and egg powder.
- michae2 4y agoAnecdotally, giving our baby Bamba was actually how we discovered his peanut allergy, which was later confirmed by a traditional allergen skin test administered by a doctor. (We noticed puffy redness around his lips after his first piece of Bamba.)
- code_duck 4y agoI have eaten Bamba. My analysis is that they're pretty good.
- markdown 4y agoThere's a snack here in Fiji that matches what you describe, called Peanut Ruffs: https://www.google.com/search?q=%22peanut+ruffs%22 https://www.google.com/search?q=%22peanut+ruffs%22 I wish I could compare the ingredients.
- L_Rahman 4y agoN=1 disclaimer but this also happened for me with Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups for my peanut allergy, soft boiled eggs for my raw egg yolk allergy, and shrimp based broths for my shrimp allergy. Unfortunately it has not yet worked for tree nuts or bivalves but perhaps someday a switch will flip inside me.
- animal531 4y agoWhy does it have to be a solid? I mean you can introduce very small amounts in their milk from any age, which should work the same?
- cubefox 4y agoThese are called "Erdnussflips" (peanut flips) in Germany and Austria. Apparently they were first sold around the same time as Bamba, in 1967. Smoki came a little later. I wonder who copied whom here. In Germany they are mostly sold along potato chips (crisps), but they aren't as popular as them. And unlike Bamba they are usually not fed to small children, as far as I'm aware. Good to know they seem to protect against allergy, as peanut butter is not really a thing here.