September 12: Shea

My wife was reading a food label and the ingredient "shea" was in the product. At which point, my wife informed my daughter that she couldn't eat this particular food item; indicating that shea is a nut-related product (if you recall, my daughter has a tree nut allergy). So, my daughter asked me to look up shea and write about it in my blog, thus here we are. Shea is actually in reference to the shea tree, which is a tropical African tree with fatty nuts that, when crushed, yield shea butter. Shea butter is a vegetable fat used in food preparation, and today quite frequently used in chocolate products as a substitute for cocoa butter. And, no, people with nut allergies should not ingest foods, or even use products such as soap, moisturizer or lip balm, that contain shea or shea butter.