As someone who suffers from numerous food allergies, such as peanuts, I understand the difficulty and fear that is associated with eating at restaurants. In this documentary about peanuts allergies, they discuss how the rapid increase in this particular allergy has changed agriculture, the restaurant business, science, and almost every aspect of society. Peanut allergies have become the most common type of allergy in children, with ½ of kids with allergies specifically having a peanut allergy. The peanut allergy is also one of the most severe allergies, making is increasingly more difficult for individuals to eat at restaurants. In the film, they discuss how negligence of this allergy by one Indian restaurant lead to the death of one man and the hospitalization of another girl. As a result, the owner of this restaurant was sentenced to 6 years in jail, simply because he had switched from almond based cooking to peanut based, for cost purposes. Peanut allergies are a severe and very common illness that cripples the lives of many, making it hard for them to eat out, attend baseball games, and even go to school (although schools have actually become much more cautious and even banned peanuts from the premises).
Although not much is known about allergies, one allergy scientist in the film noted that the increase in peanut allergies may be an impact of low exposure to germs and bacteria. In recent years, society has become much more focused on cleanliness and sterilization. Similarly, young children play outside much less frequently than children who grew up in the 90's. As a result, the human microbiome has changed, or become less diversified. From a scientific viewpoint, genetic diversity allows mutations and adaptions to occur over time. In relation to peanut allergies, as the allergy has become more common, is has been wildly removed as a household item, from schools, and from general consumption and production. Similarly, in 2000, the American Academy of Pediatrics strongly advised that parents refrain from exposing their children to peanuts until the age of 3, in attempt to avoid fatal allergic reactions in children. As a result, many peanut agricultural industries suffered greatly. However, in 2008, it was discovered that Israel had the lowest number of peanut allergies because their children were commonly snacking on Bamba, a peanut based product. Consequently, the United States then advised parents to start introducing peanuts at a young age in order to allow their children's immune system to learn to recognize the substance.
In general, this is a great film that highlights the challenges faced by individuals with peanut allergies and proposes a communal solution for how to address these problems. Based on the expert advice of the scientists in this documentary, I think that introduction of these foods will not only allow children to develop antibodies that recognize foreign substances, but it will diversify the human microbiome. Similarly, this consumption of this low-cost product will be more environmentally friendly than almonds and will also benefit the agricultural industry.
Review of Rotten
