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    Peanut health advice 'should be changed'

    Posted on 26/09/2007

    The government has been urged to immediately change its advice on eating peanuts, after a major investigation into allergies by a group of peers.

    The House of Lords Science and Technology Committee concluded that the current advice for pregnant women and young children to avoid eating peanuts is 'out of date', pointing to evidence that it may actually increase the risk of children developing peanut allergies later in life.

    The committee also said that food labelling for allergies is often 'vague and defensive' and led to an unnecessary reduction in consumer choice.

    'Allergies are an ever-growing problem in the West and are now reaching epidemic proportions,' said chair of the committee Baroness Finlay of Llandaff. 'They can impair people's quality of life and in extreme cases can even lead to death.'

    Baroness Finlay went on to say that the UK had a severe shortage of specialist provision for allergy sufferers, and that the government should set up a specialist allergy centre in every Strategic Health Authority in the NHS.

    'These would act as a beacon of good practice and ensure new knowledge about allergies was spread and applied across the NHS,' she said.



    Category: Healthcare


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