East Asians and Westerners tend to suffer the same types of food allergies in about the same proportions. But there is an exception. Westerners are roughly twice as likely as East Asians to be allergic to peanuts.
Why gives? And why are people allergic to peanuts at all? Writing in The Economist, Alex Berezow dives into clinical immunology and discusses a study finding that mice were also more likely to develop a peanut allergy - if the peanuts were dry-roasted.
As readers of Science 2.0 know (and if not, see articles like The Science of Grilling) dry roasting is the Maillard reaction - “browning” - where sugars and proteins form complex, new molecules called advanced glycation end-products.
How peanuts are cooked may help explain why they are allergenic - The Economist
