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Podcast Episode

Allergy prevention and management [re-release]

The Healthy Handful··25 May 2026·26 min

About this episode

As Australia marks Food Allergy Week, we're revisiting this important episode exploring research around nut allergy prevention and management. Australia continues to have one of the highest rates of food allergy in the world, with reactions ranging from mild symptoms through to life-threatening anaphylaxis. In this episode, Dr Vicki McWilliam explains the current understanding of why allergies are so common in Australia and discusses the major shift in allergy prevention research - particularly the evidence supporting early introduction of peanuts in infancy. She also explores emerging research into treatments and therapies, and what this could mean for the future management of nut allergies. This timely re-release provides health professionals with an evidence-based overview on one of the most important and rapidly-evolving areas in nutrition and allergy research. Access episode webpage: https://www.nutsforlife.com.au/resource/allergy-prevention-and-management-re-release/  About today's guest Dr Vicki McWilliam is a Clinician-Scientist Fellow at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute, a Senior Dietitian at the Royal Children's Hospital and a Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Paediatrics at the University of Melbourne. Dr McWilliam is also an Associate Investigator for the Centre of Food Allergy Research and a member of the National Allergy Centre of Excellence Food Allergy Advisory Group. Supporting resources HealthNuts study https://lifecourse.melbournechildrens.com/cohorts/healthnuts/#overview EarlyNuts study https://lifecourse.melbournechildrens.com/cohorts/earlynuts/ Follow-up to Adolescence after Early Peanut Introduction for Allergy Prevention https://evidence.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/EVIDoa2300311 Update on Tree Nut and Seed Allergies: Prevalence, Clinical Characteristics, Diagnosis, and Management  https://e-aair.org/DOIx.php?id=10.4168/aair.2025.17.6.672 Primary prevention of infant food allergy: a randomised controlled trial of postnatal vitamin D supplementation (VITALITY) https://lifecourse.melbournechildrens.com/cohorts/vitality/ Websites https://allergyfacts.org.au/ https://foodallergyaware.org.au/ https://www.nace.org.au/research/food-allergy/ Sign up to NutENews Follow us on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn Credits Host: Belinda Neville Contact us admin@nutsforlife.com.au