In 1980 there was a peanut shortage. Now, I can’t really recall why there was a shortage, but I think it was due to bad weather that hurt the previous year’s peanut crop. I remember a lot of jokes made that the reason for the shortage was that President Carter (an ex-peanut farmer) was leaving office and he was upset that he didn’t get reelected in the previous year’s election.<\/p>\n
In any case, the shortage of peanuts caused a huge increase in the price of peanut butter. We’re talking a MAJOR increase. Some budding entrepreneur, taking advantage of the consumer’s desire for a replacement product, started producing sunflower seed butter and offering it for a price well below that of peanut butter. My mom, being a single mother trying to feed 3 kids (I think my brothers had moved out of the house by this time) was finding it difficult to justify paying so much for a jar of peanut butter while trying to make ends meet. When she ran across this much less expensive sunflower butter, she snapped it up and brought it home.<\/p>\n
I’ve always loved peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and my mom would often make them for me for lunch. I guess she made me a SB&J sandwich (Sunflower Butter & Jelly) and I ate it. I remember it tasting not at all like peanut butter, but the consistency was the same – and that counts for a lot of our enjoyemnt of food. In any case, I must have eaten a sandwich or two. A day or so later, I woke up on a Sunday morning and rubbed my eyes. I noticed that when I rubbed my eyes, they were a little sore and it felt like I couldn’t open my eyelids all the way. I got out of bed, looked in the mirror and saw that my eyes were red and swollen! It was difficult for me to even keep them open for very long because I had to force my eyelids to stay up.<\/p>\n
Long story short, my mom figured that I had suffered an allergic reaction to the sunflower butter. I had eaten sunflower seeds before, but perhaps the sheer volume of concentrated oil had affected me differently. Later in the day, I started to break out in itchy red hives on my stomach and arms as well as my face while my eyes continued to swell. I stayed home from school for a day or two and when the reaction hadn’t started to fade, my mom finally took me to the doctor (we didn’t have health insurance, so we avoided the doctor unless we had some kind of emergency). He diagnosed me with a food allergy and gave me some antibiotics saying that the reaction would clear up in a day or two. On a side note, these were the first non-chewable tablets I was ever able to take. Up to that point, I had only ever had chewable or liquid medicines because I didn’t think I could swallow tablets. Of course, my mom got me to swallow the tablets by inserting them into a tasty chocolate devil’s food cake!<\/p>\n
My sister really got a kick out of how I looked over those few days. Somewhere, we have a snapshot of me looking very “stoned”. Since I was only about 9 years old, I didn’t really even comprehend what that word meant, but she certainly found it hilarious! Anyway, within a few days, the swelling and itchiness went away, just like the doctor had said they would and I was back in school. I know I didn’t eat any more sunflower butter after that. In fact, I think that jar of generic PB replacement sat in our cupboard for several years! I don’t think I’ve had a sunflower seed since that time either although I do eat foods that contain sunflower oil and I’ve never had a problem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In 1980 there was a peanut shortage. Now, I can’t really recall why there was a shortage, but I think it was due to bad weather that hurt the previous year’s peanut crop. I remember a lot of jokes made … Continue reading