What's with all the peanut allergies?

[Charles]

When I was a kid back in the 1960s and 1970s I don't think I ever heard of a kid having a peanut allergy. Maybe there was one, but it was sort of rare.

Today, you walk into a school and whole classrooms ban peanut products. Everyone knows of someone or someone's kid with peanut allergies.

Where the heck did these come from? Why (and how) all of a sudden are there so many kids with peanut allergies?

(Watch this get turned into a left vs. right debate.....)

[DLC]

What's with all the peanut allergies?

Eh... could be worse... could be penis allergies, and then where would you be?!!

[zaracatani]

I love peanuts, but some people I know allergic to eat, what are the allergic components of peanuts? Do you have any idea?