Bamba: A Tale of a Peanut Allergy
03-07-2013 / By:
A Journal of
Allergy Clinical Immunology article reported that the rate of children with
peanut allergies in the United Kingdom was 10 times greater than that of
Israeli children. The 2008 study, which compared 5,000 children in both
countries, found that while Israeli babies typically ate Bamba peanut snacks
before the age of six months, babies in the United Kingdom had no exposure to
peanut products until after their first birthday.
"The
body has to be trained in the first year of life. We think there's a critical
window probably around four to six months, when the child first starts to eat
solids," explained Katie Allen, a professor and allergist at the Murdoch Children’s
Research Institute at Royal Children's Hospital in Australia.
Bamba is one
of the most popular Israeli snack food. It is essentially a puffed corn doodle
lightly coated in peanut powder. Similar
to Cheez Doodle snacks marketed by a variety of companies, Bamba easily melts
in the mouth, making it a safer delivery system for peanut protein than thick,
sticky peanut butter itself.
And although
it comes in a brightly-colored, crinkly bag, Bamba surprisingly has a benign,
nutrition value. This snack food very low in sugar, relatively low in sodium
(5% of the daily value) and is vitamin and iron-fortified. Each 1 ounce serving
has 160 calories, 4g of protein and 1g of sugar; it also has 4.5 mg of iron
(25% of the daily value for adults, but 64% of the recommended intake for
children aged 1-3 years and 45% of the recommended intake for kids aged 4-8). The product is also Vitamin C fortified,
which should help with the iron absorption.
Moreover,
Bamba doesn’t contain any dairy ingredients therefore making it a vegan snack food.
Another interesting fact about Bamba is that it’s gluten-free. But while some
people point out that the incidence of peanut allergy in Israel is significantly
lower than it is in the US, experts mention that the unscientific observation
that Israeli babies and kids coincidentally also eat lots of Bamba cannot be mistaken for proof that early
introduction of peanut protein causes lower allergy risk.
However, if
you or your pediatrician agrees to introduce your child to peanut butter but
are concerned that your child may not be able to handle its texture, Bamba may
be the best solution.