Peanut Butter

According to WebMD, "Peanut Butter Packs a Healthy Punch" [thanks to Ben for the pointer (and for the suggestion that perhaps they left an "a" out of the last word)].

Researchers from Pennsylvania State University found that men, women, and children who ate a daily dose of peanuts or peanut butter were better able to meet the Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) for vitamins and nutrients than those who steered clear.

Specifically, the diets of peanut and peanut butter eaters were higher in vitamins A and E, folic acid, calcium, magnesium, zinc, iron, and fiber. Nuts are also loaded with monounsaturated fats, which have been linked to lower cholesterol....

In recent years peanut butter and nuts have been shown to be part of a healthy diet. A Harvard study in 2002 showed that women who regularly ate peanut butter and nuts had a reduced risk of type 2 diabetes. And the more they ate, the lower their risk was.

Yet despite the lead paragraph in the section quoted above, the more recent study showed an effect on the reduction of heart disease with men and children, but not women:

"Scientific evidence suggests but does not prove that eating 1.5 ounces per day of most nuts, as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may reduce the risk of heart disease." An ounce and a half serving of nuts is about a third of a cup or a small handful.

In this new study, the researchers found that men and children who regularly ate nuts had lower cholesterol. There was no significant effect in women.

But peanuts and peanut butter are high in fat, so there's a concern that eating too much could make a person gain weight. The researchers found that calorie intake was indeed higher in people who regularly ate nuts. However, BMI -- an indicator of body fat -- was actually lower in nut eaters.

As JB pointed out to me, however, the decline in BMI among nut-eaters was most likely due to substituting peanuts for meat, not supplementing a meat diet with peanut butter.

A note to students as we begin this term: peanut butter and rice - high food value, low cost.

Click here to learn more about peanut butter. Or maybe one of these books in the banner below will say something about peanut butter (the links seem pretty random sometimes):