Waiting to board our plane and....

[Goofy_Disney_Dad]

So, @IndyRnRfan, how was the flight?

 

[gwynne]

So, @IndyRnRfan, how was the flight?

And what did you have for a snack?

 

[AnnaFloridaLover]

So, @IndyRnRfan, how was the flight?

I'm getting worried. I hope everyone on the plane didn't succumb to starvation.

 

[goofy4tink]

So, today I went grocery shopping. For the first time ever, I noticed the extraordinary number of 'alternate' peanut products!! Who knew. And exactly what does one do with peanut powder?

 

[Goofy_Disney_Dad]

So, today I went grocery shopping. For the first time ever, I noticed the extraordinary number of 'alternate' peanut products!! Who knew. And exactly what does one do with peanut powder?

I like sunflower seeds and have seen the spread made with them. I've considered buying it but I'm not sure I'd like it. I think the powder is used in smoothies and drinks.

 

[bookgirl]

oops forgot to quote, in answer to the peanut powder question.

You add water and it makes a paste. not great but a great alternative if you are sensitive to hydrogenated oils or need super low fat alternative to peanut butter. I use it in smoothies and I will sometimes rehydrate it if I'm in the mood for PB but have already had a lot of high fat foods that day.

 

[bookgirl]

I like sunflower seeds and have seen the spread made with them. I've considered buying it but I'm not sure I'd like it. I think the powder is used in smoothies and drinks.

It tastes just like sunflower seeds but I'm not overly fond of it, kind of reminded me of the time I thought it be a good idea to try plain tahini, interesting but not something I want to repeat. (love sunflower seeds however)

 

[goofy4tink]

Ahhhh. Ok. Since my gall bladder was yanked out a year ago, I have t tolerated peanut butter very well. Same with Nutella. It's the fat content. Might have to look at the powder.

 

[bookgirl]

Ahhhh. Ok. Since my gall bladder was yanked out a year ago, I have t tolerated peanut butter very well. Same with Nutella. It's the fat content. Might have to look at the powder.

Yep I have no GB either but hydrogenated oils still upset my stomach. I use Smucker's Natural which only has peanuts and salt, but sometimes I need to go even less added ingredients.

I also add more water then they say on the instructions. It's one of those YMMV things. I find following the directions leaves me with a drier paste then I find pleasant.

 

[IndianaMouse]

So, today I went grocery shopping. For the first time ever, I noticed the extraordinary number of 'alternate' peanut products!! Who knew. And exactly what does one do with peanut powder?

I can tell you what not to do. Never dip half an apple into the powder without shaking off the excess. It will suck every bit of moisture out of your mouth and you will spend the next 15 minutes trying to get the thick coating out of every crevice of your mouth ....

it's pretty good mixed with yogurt and used as a fruit dip

 

[PollyannaMom]

I've never seen peanut powder, but I did find the Wowbutter someone mentioned up-thread, and actually liked it. (I had tried a sunflower one before, but thought it was too gritty.)

Unfortunately, the jar does say "For best results, refrigerate after opening," so it may not help the exact situation here - but it will be great for me when I sub, as I have an ice pack in my lunch anyway. I've always avoided taking peanut butter crackers because I don't know if I will end up in a nut-free room. I like having another quick option. The jar even comes with explanation stickers to put on stuff you pack for kids.

 

[Starwind]

That brings up an interesting point. You always hear about peanut allergies, but what about tree nut allergies and flying. There are many snack with nuts in them. Has anyone ever heard them make an announcement about nuts?

Yes. I am anaphylactic to both peanut and tree nuts and on more than one occasion when I have flown the airline (a Canadian airline) has made a planewide announcement for both peanuts and tree nuts (at their request -- as in they asked me if it was ok if they did it and explained that they preferred that they did to reduce the risk, so I agreed), in addition to creating a multi-rwo buffer zone around my seat where the passengers were individually briefed.

SW

 

[Starwind]

I've never seen peanut powder, but I did find the Wowbutter someone mentioned up-thread, and actually liked it. (I had tried a sunflower one before, but thought it was too gritty.)

Unfortunately, the jar does say "For best results, refrigerate after opening," so it may not help the exact situation here - but it will be great for me when I sub, as I have an ice pack in my lunch anyway. I've always avoided taking peanut butter crackers because I don't know if I will end up in a nut-free room. I like having another quick option. The jar even comes with explanation stickers to put on stuff you pack for kids.

I recommended the Wowbutter. Glad you liked it !!!

FWIW, I have never refrigerated mine and have not had any noticeable bad effects from it staying room temp. Every rare so often it separates a little little bit in the jar, which is easily remidied by stirring with a knife, but even that most jars do not do. The opened jar lives on our kitchen counter, unopened in the pantry.

SW

 

[Starwind]

1. There is no such thing as an airborne peanut allergy. Peanuts must be ingested. Now, this was a surprise to me because there is a very loud contingency of parents at my kids’ school who swore that their children had airborne peanut allergies and therefore no one could bring any packaged goods that even said they were made in the same place as other things with tree nuts or peanuts. But it doesn’t actually exist. Some people have a psychosomatic reaction to the smell of peanuts due to knowledge of their own allergy. It is not life-threatening. I didn’t know this until a doctor told me and I read it on dozens of medical websites. Since an airborne peanut allergy does not exist (unlike my son’s airborne allergy to pet dander), it is radical to try to ban them.

Yes, in fact, there is such as thing as airborne peanut allergy.

"Airborne peanut allergy" commonly refers to two things:

(1) Peanut protein getting airborne. This is a definite known allergy situation. Some examples of when it can happen: some unknown number of people opening packets of peanuts in an enclosed space (like an airplane); lots of peanut shells on the floor of a restaurant (like at a sports bar or steakhouse that has peanut shells on the floor); a manufacturing facility where something like peanut flour is made or peanuts are processed; a place where peanuts are heated or cooked or roasted (this could be on an airplane, though usually when it is done it is tree nuts like cashews being heated for first class passengers; but think of peanuts being roasted at a baseball game or state fair).

The allergen level in each of the situations may or may not be enough to trigger a reaction or to trigger an anaphylactic reaction in a peanut allergic person. I, personally, have reacted in the peanut shells in a restaurant situation, having gone in thinking I would be fine because I had been perfectly fine in the same restaurant previously; lesson learned the hard way.

These types of reactions -- to the presence of actual, documentable/measurable peanut protein in the air, are quite real and are well discussed in medical and scientific literature. BUT, not everyone with a peanut allergy will react to those situations. Why some would and some would not is not as well understood.

FWIW, the same types of reactions can occur to, for example, seafood being cooked, as the cooking releases seafood protein into the vapour that is released into the air and for a particularly sensitive person that can be enough protein, breathed in, to trigger a reaction. I can say from personal experience that the level of protein needed can be at a level that is below the ability to SMELL the seafood and the reaction, in some people or some situations, can start before you realize there is any seafood around (long story on how that got discovered for me, but lets say the reaction was well under way before it was figured out what was causing it... kind of an unfortunate unintentional double blind experiment).

(2) The other type of situation is when there is ONLY the smell and definitely NO peanut protein present. As far as what medical science currently understands about allergies, this situation should NOT cause an allergic reaction. The smell ALONE can exist without the protein. It is the protein (there are actually a number of different proteins that can be, any one or more, responsible for the allergic reaction; for most food allergies there are certain protein(s) that are the most common causes for most allergic people) that is believed to be the problem. The smell ITSELF, ALONE, is caused by different molecules that are understood to not be the problem.


HOWEVER, sometimes the protein comes along in highly unexpected situations.


For example: I have a very close friend who one day was at a church gathering at an indoor church meeting hall. She is highly anaphylactic to peanut and has experienced anaphylaxis causing cardiac and respiratory failure multiple times due to both peanuts and tree nuts (i.e. she has died and been resuscitated more than once due to her allergy to accidental exposure to peanuts and tree nuts, both as a kid and as an adult). At the church meeting, unknown to her, someone opened a brand new, never opened, jar of peanut butter across the room from her. She had no way of knowing they had done it and could not smell it. She went into anaphylaxis. Three epipens were used while waiting for the paramedics to come. She stopped breathing and her heart stopped before the paramedics got there. CPR was started, though was challenging because her airway had almost entirely (though not quite) swelled shut. The paramedics continued CPR and managed to establish an airway. At the hospital they were able to start her heart again, though she was put on a respirator for a number of days. She spent about a week in the ICU. The person who opened the jar of peanut butter realized what had happened right after my friend collapsed, but by that point it was too late. As best her doctors can figure, there must have been some peanut protein in the "air" space at the top of the peanut butter jar and when the seal was broken that protein got into the air and the fans in the room moved the protein towards my friend, who breathed it in. She is sensitive enough that that little bit was enough to trigger the reaction. they could not come up with another plausible explanation given the circumstances.

Clearly a very weird set of circumstances. And something both not well understood and probably near impossible to ever reproduce.

I will say that my friend, very very rarely, has flown. She wears nitrile gloves, long pants and long sleeves. Her husband wipes down her seat area and puts a cover over her seat. She wears a 3M P100 half face respirator that has been properly fitted. She notifies the (Canadian) airline months ahead of time and they do a buffer zone and planewide announcement. When at home normally she carries 4 epipens wherever she goes (plus additional meds); on the airplane she carries 8-10. As far as I know she has never had a reaction on a plane.

SW

 

[tinkerbellandeeyor]

I hate to ask but is it me or is this thread getting a little long

 

[NHdisneylover]

I hate to ask but is it me or is this thread getting a little long

You can always quit reading along if it has lost interest for you.

 

[tinkerbellandeeyor]

And normaly I do and I should have this time

 

[dinolounger]

I bet you would feel differently if it was your child with the severe allergy. How can you possibly be torn?

Look into "tyranny of the minority." It will help you understand why this is a tricky issue.

 

[dinolounger]

I always ask this and never get an answer. If someone is truly that allergic--that having a peanut somewhere at the other end of the plane is going to cause that person to react and die--how do you function in everyday life???? You can't go into the supermarket and request that all peanut products be put away. You can't go to the library and be guaranteed that the person before you didn't have a PBJ before coming and touched the door handle. You can request that everyone in the movie theater put away their Goobers and peanut M&Ms. You can't go anywhere where there's other people--church, school, shopping, hospital, library, post office, etc., etc.--and be absolutely sure that everyone within 100 feet is absolutely peanut free. So how do these people survive???

And the PP who mentioned that people with allergies hate asking for these accommodations... Maybe some of them do. But I see many, many more that actually seem to want the entire world to bend to their needs. It seems to be much more about the, "all about me" attitude than the trying to adjust to the world as it is.

Mom2AidandEli, you have made excellent points and I strongly suspect the reason you never get an "answer" (i.e. rebuttal?) is the fact the "tyranny of the minority" crowd (or to use your term, the "all about me" attitude) doesn't have one.

That doesn't mean I don't have sympathy for those with these allergies. I can only imagine how difficult in particular it is to be a parent with a child who is dealing with them.

But I do get frustrated when I see said parents (and/or their supporters) seeming to take immediate offense the moment anyone dares to raise reasonable questions regarding the practicality of their demands and their impact on others. Understandably, they probably get worn down just doing that, which may explain why they never even get to addressing the question of "forget the travel issue, how do you ever even get out of the house safely?"

 

[bcla]

I hate to ask but is it me or is this thread getting a little long

Of course it is. That's part of the intrigue.

Personally I think there's a lot of bluff and bluster on this thread. In the end I would think most people are reasonable and don't think "to hell with anyone else" when a simple request is made.