About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Prevention
By Mayo Clinic staffThe best way to prevent an allergic reaction to peanuts is to know and avoid foods that cause signs and symptoms. In some foods, peanuts may be well hidden. This is especially true in restaurants and in other social settings.
If you know you have peanut allergy, follow these steps:
- Know how to avoid peanuts. Be sure to read food labels carefully, and avoid foods that may have come in contact with peanuts.
- Be prepared for a reaction. Talk with your doctor about carrying emergency medications if you've had a severe reaction.
Avoiding foods that often contain peanuts
Peanuts are common, and avoiding foods that contain them can be a challenge. The following foods often contain peanuts:
- Ground or mixed nuts
- Baked goods, such as cookies and pastries
- Ice cream and frozen desserts
- Energy bars
- Cereals and granola
- Grain breads
- Marzipan, a molding confection made of nuts, egg whites and sugar
Less obvious foods may contain peanuts or peanut proteins, either because they were made with them or because they came in contact with them during the manufacturing process. Some examples include:
- Nougat.
- Salad dressings.
- Chocolate candies, nut butters (such as almond butter) and sunflower seeds.
- Cultural foods including African, Chinese, Indonesian, Mexican, Thai and Vietnamese dishes.
- Foods sold in bakeries and ice-cream shops.
- Arachis oil, another name for peanut oil.
- Nowak-Wegrzyn A, et al. Adverse reactions to foods. Medical Clinics of North America. 2006;90:97.
- Skripak JM. Educational clinical case series: Peanut and tree nut allergy in childhood. Pediatric Allergy and Immunology. 2008;19:368.
- Atkins D. Food allergy: Diagnosis and management. Primary Care Clinics in Office Practice. 2008;35:119.
- Food allergy: An overview. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/topics/foodAllergy/PDF/foodallergy.pdf. Accessed Jan. 20, 2009.
- Li JT. (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. March 9, 2010.
- Ben-Shoshan M, et al. Is the prevalence of peanut allergy increasing? A 5-year follow-up study in children in Montreal. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology 2009;123:783.
- Ko J, et al. Use of complementary and alternative medicine by food-allergic patients. Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. 2006;97:365.
- Li X. Traditional Chinese herbal remedies for asthma and food allergy. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. 2007;120:25.
- Peanuts. Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network. http://www.foodallergy.org/page/peanuts. Accessed Feb. 24, 2010.
Find Mayo Clinic on