Hi All,
We've been avoiding pine nuts forever. DS is allergic to peanuts and tree nuts. We tried to test for pine nut allergy the last time we did blood work but the lab made an error.
Is pine nut allergy common or is it nothing to worry about since technically it's a seed and not a nut?
We avoid pine nuts.
I've read that pine nuts are not a nut, and so don't fall under the category of tree nuts. But we don't eat them here at our house.
Words with nut-anything scare me, lol.
Yes, even though they are (nominally) seeds, they suffer from extremely high rates of both cross-reactivity (with other tree nuts) and cross-contamination, which of course makes them high risk in the same way that, say, bakery items or ice-cream are high risk.
HTH. We avoid them too.
we've avoided them because my ds would not eat anything called "a Nut". I thought they are seeds too.
they are seeds, but have a high cross-reactivity if the person is allergic to both almonds and peanuts...but that doesn't mean the person is allergic. It's one of those things to test for if you can. This was from some research I found ages ago...but you can probably Google and find something more recent or the info I had found.
Adrienne
My ds is pa but also highly allergic to sesame, so I am wary of other seeds. We avoid them also.
Yes, we avoid them. In addition to peanuts and all tree nuts, DD is also allergic to sesame. Not likely they'd agree with her!
DS is not allergic to pine nuts. He is only allergic to peanuts (he eats almonds and other treenuts if we can guarantee they are pf). But we haven't found store bought pinenuts that are pf. So he's never had a pine nut. Not yet.
We do have an "other safe nuts" thread where we've posted about places to find pf nuts and seeds. There are a few places for pine nuts mentioned in that thread. We just didn't get any this year, and they are pretty seasonal in the US.
Oh--fwiw, most pinenuts are processed in Russia and China. So by "safe" I mean sources in the US that I can call and verify their practices for.
DS is not allergic to pine nuts, and has had them in the past, but not recently. THe pesto I use used to contain pine nuts, but no longer does. And that is really the only pine nuts we ever had on a regular basis in my house.
We do not avoid things that we are not allergic to. However, when trying new things we only do it at home on days when we have time if things go wrong.
We avoid pine nuts. Our labs show allergy to most tree nuts as well as peanuts.
Elle
We avoid due to cross-contamination.
Now that China is main supplier, we would avoid those anyway (our family does best to eat NOTHING from China).
However, we did order some in-the-shell pinenuts from US supplier who sources them locally & that are not X-contam. We have yet to consume them.
Link to discussion in PN/TN board with some sources for non-Xcontam pinenuts, for anyone who might be interested in this thread.
Sources for nuts (peanut-free, treenut-free, etc.) (http://foodallergysupport.olicentral.com/index.php/topic,4057.0.html)
We also avoid them. Dd tests pos for peanuts and some tree nuts, but neg for almond. She does eat sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds. I worry about the cross contamination, and, I guess, because the name makes me nervous!
from wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_nut (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_nut)
they are technically seeds
Ajas: for you from the article--Risks from eating pine nutsPine nuts can cause taste disturbances, lasting between a few days to a few weeks after consumption. A bitter, metallic taste is described. Though unpleasant, there are no lasting effects. This phenomenon was first described in a scientific paper in 2001.[11] Publications have made reference to this phenomenon as "pine nut syndrome" or as "pine mouth".[12] The Nestlé Research Centre has hypothesized that nuts from a particular species of pine occurring mostly in China, Pinus armandii, is the cause of the problem. The suspect species of pine nuts are smaller, duller, and more rounded than typical pine nuts.[13] A 2011 study found results consistent with this hypothesis and also suggested that chemicals used in the shelling process might be responsible.[14] Metallic taste disturbance, known as metallogeusia, is typically reported 1–3 days after ingestion, being worse on day 2 and lasting typically up to 2 weeks. Cases are self-limited and resolve without treatment.[15] Möller[16] has postulated a hypothesis that could explain why the bitter taste appears several days after ingestion and lasts for as long. A well known physiological process known as enterohepatic recirculation (EHR) could play a key role in the development of PNS.
The FDA is currently investigating "Pine Mouth".[17]
We avoid pine nuts for PN/TNA son.
An aside, I think it was pine nuts that were responsible for the Bertucci's death of an individual who identified herself as tna.
thanks everyone for your replies. We are doing our yearly allergy blood work next month. We are 100% testing for pine nuts this time!
Would love to start making some foods with pine nuts if my kid is not really allergic and I can find pine nut not cross contaminated with peanuts.
Hey If I am allegic to pinetrees but im not allergic to nuts, will I have a reaction if i eat pine nuts?, when I cut a pine tree for christmas I get hives all over my arms, so I switched to artificials seems to help not having a real tree in the house for my breathing as well, I am worried if i go to a restaurant or something and the have some kinda dish with pine nuts in it, I will be in big trouble if i am allergic to them, Ingesting something that comes from a tree that makes me break out worries me a lot, does anyone know if this is an issue?
The proteins shouldn't cross-react-- pine nuts, like any other seed, contain specialty 'seed storage' proteins, which have little-to-nothing in common with any of the other proteins that the plant produces for its other metabolic requirements.
This is why someone who is allergic to walnuts may have no trouble at all handling or even working with walnut WOOD, and can certainly tolerate the pollen from the tree without any problem.
Does that make sense?
The sap of many conifers contains terpenoid compounds that are highly irritating to the skin, not to mention being pretty potent sensitizing agents (potential allergens); that doesn't make their seeds particularly allergenic, however, nor their pollens.
What CM said. Plus,pine trees have mold and stuff on them, and if you are allergic to the mold, but not the pine itself, you can react. That is DH's problem. He is allergic to the mold on the tree, so before we bring it in, we have to spray the crap out of it with anything that might kill the mold (he likes to use Lysol, but I cannot breathe if he uses that, so I put Listerine in a spray pump and that works pretty well too).
Both kids tested neg to pine nuts. They did have chance to eat non-Xcontam pinenuts that we prepared at home (roasted in shell) and had with a pasta.
Was fine for our kids & they didn't have any adverse response. Plus they loved them.
Have not been able to get those pinenuts again as one source didn't have due to drought.
Not sure if I'll be able to get them this coming fall, but will try.