Peanuts are among the most popular snack foods in the United States. Millions of American children are raised on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. PB&Js, as we like to call them, are found in children’s lunchboxes around the country. Or at least they used to be.

Now, many school officials ban peanuts or any products containing peanuts from school property. About 2 percent of U.S. schoolchildren will have an allergic reaction to peanuts. And that number is growing.

People allergic to peanuts can develop skin conditions or watery eyes. Children with a peanut allergy can develop a skin condition called eczema.

Some reactions are so severe they can result in death. So far, doctors have advised parents against serving peanut-containing foods to children under the age of 3. But a 2015 British study found that waiting too long most likely is partly to blame for the peanut allergy problem.

Anthony Fauci is head of America’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Dr. Fauci spoke to VOA on Skype. He notes that m Israel, people have a tradition of feeding peanuts to babies.

He says a team of experts have agreed on new guidance for U.S. pediatricians who specialize in children’s allergies.

Fauci calls giving children peanuts a way of “challenging” their bodies. He thinks it could be done safely with some boys and girls, but not with others.

High-sugar diets raise risks for heart disease, obesity and diabetes, but we do love our sweets, so health experts have tried to suggest alternatives, and honey has been foremost among them.

Honey is actually sweeter than sugar is, which means, in theory at least, that you could enhance flavor equally with a smaller quantity of honey. But honey actually has a higher calorie count. It may have more minerals, which looks better on a label but, in reality, these are such trace amounts that they don’t offer any real advantages.

Honey’s reputation as a medicine is not wholly unfounded. Some honey does indeed have antibacterial properties. One byproduct of enzymes in honey is hydrogen peroxide, a powerful germ killer. Plus, honey’s texture and consistency are good for keeping wounds clean, and bad for bugs that might want to infect them. Honey is moist and its gooey consistency mean it can easily spread over and stay over wounds while keeping the tissue from becoming dry and fragile. The sticky substance means bacteria can not accumulate and multiply easily. It is particularly well-known for fighting bacteria like staph, salmonella, E. Coliand certain bacteria that can infect the gut and cause ulcers.

However, scientists can only say this for sure about Makuna and Malaysian Tualang honey. We don’t know yet whether local home grown honey has the same potency-or safety. A hot cup of tea with some honey stirred in certainly sounds like it would make you feel better. But it’s difficult to say for sure that it will.

When you have a cold, contact with warm water (from tea) may help to bust up phlegm(痰)that blocks your airways. But some suspect the real secret to the qualities of a cuppa is in the honey. There are studies that suggest that honey does work as well or better than cough suppressant(抑制性的) drugs like Robitussin.

Most of these, however, were considered by the academic world to be widely misinterpreted by the media. One of the findings that seemed to have given the honey trend some additional legs came from a study that said there was “no difference”, statistically speaking, between honey and one particular cough suppressant.

If you’ve ever eaten a free doughnut (甜甜圈) on the first Friday in June, you’ve celebrated the Doughnut Lassies — whether you realized it or not. National Doughnut Day was established to honor the Salvation Army volunteers who fried sugary snacks for World War I soldiers on the front line.

When the US entered World War I in 1917, the Salvation Army, a charity organization, sent about 250 volunteers (who were mostly women) to France, where the American army was stationed. The plan was to bring treats and supplies as close to the front line as possible. But the closer the volunteers got to the action, the fewer resources they could access.

Margaret Sheldon and Helen Purviance were credited with bringing doughnuts to the Wester Front. They had a handful of ingredients, including flour, sugar, animal fats, baking powder and canned milk. Doughnuts were one of the few sweet foods they could make without an oven, and once they had a fire hot enough to heat the oil, they could fry them up fast. The women had the pan to cook them in, but for other parts, they had to get creative. For example, grape juice bottles became rolling pins (擀面杖) when necessary.

Sheldon and Purviance’s pan could fit seven doughnuts at a time, and on day one, they made just 150 doughnuts for the group of 800 men. The soldiers even fought over a doughnut. Then they made some changes to their operation, and eventually made 5,000 doughnuts a day. The snacks were so popular that the volunteers earned the nickname “Doughnut Lassies”, while the soldiers they served were nicknamed “Doughboys”.

The Doughnut Lassies’ impact didn’t end with World War Ⅰ. The American soldiers’ experiences overseas made doughnuts a commonly eaten food for them back home.