Nut allergies

Hi everyone, I just turned vegan a week ago and joined this forum a couple of days ago. As you can imagine I am reading everything I can on being vegan and my brain is like a sponge at the moment! I already got a really good answer to a burning question I had about vitamin B12 on this forum and hope someone can point me in the right direction with another question.

Like all vegans I'm sure, I am convinced that a natural plant based diet is what our human bodies were designed to consume. What I'm finding hard to understand is why so many people are allergic to food such as nuts and even legumes and fruits, and why this has become so common in recent years, because this is our natural diet afterall. When I was a child (about 35 years ago) no one I knew had any kind of allergy except perhaps hayfever. now it's so prevalent that food has to be packaged to say whether or not nuts are contained. I think I'm right when I say that wheat intolerance can be explained by the fact that we did not eat wheat until relatively recently in evolutionary terms. But nuts and fruit...?! Any opinions or references to further information would be gratefully received.

On a lighter note, does the bloating and flatulance that accompanies a diet high in veg and beans etc finally subside?:o

Hello - I think there are a number of theories about why allergies are more prevalent, including some about pollutants and some about over-clean childhood homes. Some of it is discussed in this (not new) article

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...bn-560048.html

Some people however think it's partly mass hysteria

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7773210.stm

Bloating etc probably will subside but you could moderate your intake of whatever foods are causing it in the meantime and eat more soothing foods such as rice and oats (if you find those soothing!). There is a relevant thread here:

http://www.veganforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5232

Thanks harpy for taking the time to reply and post those links - I'll definitely be checking them out!