Peanuts are a Power Food!

 Peanuts and peanut butter are protein powerhouses providing over 10% of the U.S. recommended daily intake (RDI) per 1 ounce (28g) serving of peanuts or 2 tablespoons (23g) of peanut butter. In addition to protein, peanuts are packed with important vitamins and minerals, including resveratrol found in the skins. Not only are peanuts a nutritional powerhouse, but confer many health and nutritional benefits.

Peanuts move into the health spotlight

World scientific and consumer interest in peanuts as part of healthy eating patterns continues to grow. Yet not too many years ago, peanuts were on “don’t eat” lists for many people in the developed world. That’s because conventional nutrition advice judged foods one-dimensionally and  this influenced the public to focus mainly on their fat and calorie content. How times change. Over the past two decades, nutrition research has made big strides in understanding the health characteristics of different types of fat, leading to a clearer understanding of the beneficial role of unsaturated fats (the type overwhelming found in peanut products) particularly for heart health.  

For the American peanut industry and its worldwide customers, nutritional investigations and support for health and food services professionals and consumers wanting to learn more about peanuts have been spearheaded by The Peanut Institute and supported by many industry groups.

Claims and Guidelines

The United States approved a qualified health claim as early as 2003 for peanuts based around heart-healthy fats. In 2011, the European Union took this further by approving a health claim for foods such as peanuts, peanut butter made from 100% peanuts and peanut oil reflecting the heart healthy characteristics of the unsaturated fatty acids (predominantly monounsaturated oleic acid as found in olive oil) in these products. APC led the work which resulted in the European health claim for healthy fats found in such foods as peanuts, peanut butter and peanut oil and is able to advise users of US peanuts about communications and labelling implications of health and nutrition claims applying to peanut products.

Nutrient density – a new consensus

A new consensus is forming around the nutrient density of foods. That means seeing the nutritional attractiveness of a food in terms of the types and ratios of fat it contains plus macro and micro-nutrients per serving - rather than just calories. From that perspective, peanuts have clearly moved center stage and into the health spotlight.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010 recommend foods like peanuts because they are high protein packages that include healthy fats and nutrients like dietary fiber, potassium, folate, vitamin E, thiamin, and magnesium.   Nutrient dense foods help maintain good nutrition and calorie balance. Research shows that frequent peanut eaters do not gain weight when following a healthy diet and replacing less healthy fats and snacks with peanuts.

Peanut-related health evidence mounts up worldwide

It was only about twenty years ago that the landmark study appeared which described the relationship between eating nuts frequently and lower coronary disease risks – The Adventist Health Study. At that time, scientists advocating more nut consumption were the distinct minority.  It wasn’t until 1998 with the publication by Harvard researchers of results from the first Nurses’ Health Study that nutrition professionals and the media began to take notice. This large, ongoing epidemiological study of thousands of American professional women found frequent nut consumption (about five ounces per week) was associated with the lowest heart disease risks. Since then, the build up of evidence relating peanuts to health benefits has accelerated and the focus has moved beyond just healthy fats.   

Following from the groundbreaking work of the 1990s, the main findings emerging from nutrition research focusing on peanuts in recent years have changed our understanding of key factors related to healthy eating and disease risk reduction. These themes include:

Rediscovering the role healthy-fat, high protein foods like peanuts can play in Mediterranean and many types of traditional eating patterns increases their attractiveness and versatility to consumers and health professionals alike. 

Since 2001, APC has tracked major outputs of peanut related nutrition research going on around the world and produced the following summaries for health professionals.
Future directions for peanut and health research 

The spectrum of new and emerging research related to peanuts and health is broadening quickly. It already reaches beyond the well-established interest in healthy fats by investigating bioactive and anti-inflammatory constituents of peanuts for their health protecting qualities.

Scientific interest is rapidly rising in the polyphenols, phytosterols, amino acids and vitamins and minerals present in peanuts.

The application of this research to produce a better understanding of disease risk reduction practical dietary interventions associated with type two diabetes and some cancers, for example, is likely to be the next big chapter in the peanuts and health story.

The American Peanut Council, on behalf of the entire US peanut industry, is an enthusiastic advocate of these future research directions.  

For more information on resveratrol and this exciting nutrititious discovery, click here. Plus, read below for more exciting discoveries on the peanut nutrition!

APC compiles a regular series of “nutrition news you can use” stories linked to peanut nutrition research themes which are initially published in the APC Newsletter for members (see below).

Additional Peanut Nutrition Information

The Peanut Institute

is a non-profit organization that supports nutrition research and develops educational programs to encourage healthful lifestyles that include peanuts and peanut products.

Peanuts: Healthy Food For All

This white paper provides an overview as to why peanuts are a natural health food for all. It highlights the unique characteristics of peanuts and peanut butter, the research on their health benefits, and shows how they can be useful when added to diets the diets of young and old as well as undernourished and over-nourished populations around the globe.

USDA Nutrient Database

The Nutrient Data Laboratory (NDL) has the responsibility to develop USDA's National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, the foundation of most food and nutrition databases in the US, used in food policy, research and nutrition monitoring. Our database products are available to the public and scientific community.

National Peanut Board

The National Peanut Board (NPB) is a farmer-funded national research, promotion and education check-off program. Each of the 10 major peanut-producing states has a grower Board member and an alternate representative.

Peanut Nutrition

Peanuts and peanut butter are good sources of many essential vitamins and minerals.

Johns Hopkins Medicine - More Nutty Nutrition Facts for You.

Do you know all the reasons why you should be eating nuts - and which types and amounts are best? Take the following quiz to find out.

Nutrition News You Can Use - Using peanuts to reduce sensitivity to peanuts: latest study

Using peanuts to help allergic individuals build up a tolerance to peanut allergen sounds counterintuitive, but it lies at the heart of immunotherapy which is turning into a significant new way to help reduce the risks of severe peanut allergy.

Nutrition News You Can Use - European nutrition labelling debate

Almost half of all packaged food products across Europe have front of pack nutrition labels. In the UK and Ireland that goes up above 80%. No one disputes that providing nutritional information to help consumers make sensible and more healthy choices is a good thing. But European experience suggests that the more nutrition information there is and the more labelling and different formats that appear on food packaging, the more contentious and potentially confusing the whole subject becomes. One has to wonder what consumers make of it all, if indeed it affects their choices very much at all. It feels at times that they are just caught in the cross fire of competing beliefs about the merits of differing nutrition labelling systems.

Nutrition News You Can Use - Peanut skins may improve nutrient profile and flavour of peanut butter

Traditionally viewed as low-value “waste” destined for the biomass incinerator or added to animal feeds and removing them by blanching adds to processing costs. They create thousands of tons of residue. But pause and reconsider what peanut skins might contribute to product nutrient quality and flavour if we understood and utilised them better instead of seeing them as a problem.

Nutrition News You Can Use - Don’t exclude “the right kind of dirt” to reduce allergy risks

Is it possible to be “too clean”? Has our near-obsession in Western urbanised societies with home and personal hygiene got something to do with the dramatic rise in allergies and atopic diseases like eczema and asthma? Many people will answer “yes” to this, influenced largely by what the media has over the past 20 years usually dubbed the “hygiene hypothesis.” But like so many simplistic explanations for complex physiological and environmental phenomena, it turns out to be just that – too simple. And probably not literally true either. The rebuttal comes from a study of the evidence by scientists at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and University College, London, published in September this year*.

Nutrition News You Can Use - Children of mothers eating peanuts in pregnancy - less risk of asthma..

What do 62,000 Danish mothers know that allergists need to understand better? Simply that consuming peanuts and other nuts while pregnant – far from causing problems – actually reduces the risk that offspring will develop asthma, wheezing disorders and other allergies. This finding from Danish and US scientists analysing data from the Danish National Birth Cohort collected between 1996 and 2002 first appeared online in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology* in June this year and has attracted worldwide media attention since then. It is a powerful rebuttal to the prevailing guidance of only a few years ago which, although now withdrawn, still influences the thinking of some health professionals and policy makers who see nuts are somehow intrinsically risky to pregnant women and young children. They really need to read this study.

Nutrition News You Can Use - Monounsaturated fats are good for salads – and brains too

It’s not often that two stories with peanut implications come along that appeal to both culinary and neurological interests. But the practical implication from two recent US studies is just that: to be good to your salads (absorb more vitamins from salad vegetables 1) and your brains (safeguard cognitive health in older adults 2) use more monounsaturated oils. The good news is that peanut oil for salads and peanuts for everyday eating fit the bill perfectly.

Nutrition News You Can Use - Canadian researchers point out resveratrol’s therapeutic potential

Dutch and Swiss researchers reported last year (APC Newsletter, November 2011) that the metabolic health of obese men could improve from taking supplements of resveratrol, the polyphenol found in modest amounts in peanuts, grapes and some red wines.

Nutrition News You Can Use: Substituting peanuts for red meat reduces mortality risks by 19%...

A study from Harvard School of Public Health on red meat and mortality, funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the National Cancer Institute, and published this month in Archives of Internal Medicine illustrated the elevated mortality risks of eating too much “red meat” (and processed meats like sausages).* But there is much good news too: substituting servings of peanuts or other nuts for too much meat intake cuts the risk by 19%.

Nutrition News You Can Use: US data shows eating peanuts/nuts linked with lower heart disease...

Analyzing data from the US NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey) between 1999 and 2004 for more than 13,000 adults over age 19 showed that people eating more peanuts, peanut butter and other nuts have lower heart disease and metabolic syndrome risks.* This is a relationship finding (epidemiology) and not cause and effect from a clinical study, but the finding is important. The work was done at LSU and Baylor University.

Nutrition News You can Use: Peanut-friendly DASH diet comes out tops overall in expert assessment

There’s no such thing as the “perfect diet” for health and weight management, but a recent expert assessment of 25 well-known ones looking at seven different criteria concluded that the peanut-friendly Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) Diet came out tops in the “best diets overall” category. US News and World Report carried the results with details of the assessments.

Nutrition News You Can Use: Peanuts prominent in new Harvard guide for healthy hearts

The latest consumer health report from Harvard Medical School, Healthy Eating for a Healthy Heart (*) is positive about the heart healthy properties of peanuts, peanut butter and peanut oil. That includes seeing these as foods to choose more often for their nutrient impact and also consuming more of them to help alter the balance of fats in the everyday diet in the direction of an unsaturated fat, heart-healthy pattern. The report’s healthy fats message is strong: “replacing bad fats with good fats is more effective in preventing heart disease than reducing overall fat intake. … Do not avoid monounsaturated or polyunsaturated fats from vegetable oils, vegetables, fish, or nuts—these fats are heart-healthy.” That’s a refreshing change from what expert opinion said about fats only a few years ago.

Nutrition News You Can Use: African Heritage Diet Pyramid features Peanuts

The traditional cuisines of Africa are many and varied. Locally-grown peanuts are staple foods: peanut paste as an infant weaning food; boiled inshell peanuts; additions to meat and vegetable stews. Much of the traditional food wisdom of African cultures has been at risk of being lost in our modern day eating habits. Health problems in some communities of the African diaspora have been one consequence. Now the Oldways Preservation Trust has brought the wisdom of traditional African eating patterns to a much wider modern audience with the publication of the African Heritage Diet Pyramid (*). It is a welcome new member of the family of “traditional eating pyramids” (Mediterranean, Latino, Asian, and Vegetarian) which the Oldways Trust has published in recent years, all of which make space for peanuts and nuts.

Nutrition News You Can Use: Resveratrol shows beneficial metabolic effects in obese men

After years of conflicting positive and negative findings about the polyphenol resveratrol (found in peanuts, grapes, red wine, mulberries and some more exotic vegetables) based on cell cultures and animal studies – conflated with media hype about its alleged role as a “fountain of youth”, we may be closer to some hard human evidence.

Nutrition News You Can Use: Eating more nuts could save thousands of lives and make us healthier...

Making simple changes in what we eat could result in a 50% reduction in the burden on noncommunicable diseases and make us far healthier as well as saving considerable sums in healthcare costs, according to American and British editorialists in the British Medical Journal. Professors Dariush Mozaffarian of Harvard and Simon Capewell of Liverpool universities, both respected epidemiologists, argue that type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer and complications of obesity in particular all have diet as a powerful common determinant. If we improved our diets, we would reduce the level – and costs – of disease. To achieve that, they propose eight dietary priorities drawn from existing research knowledge, recommending six beneficial foods to eat more of and two harmful substances to reduce in foods, namely industrial trans-fats and sodium. Prominent in the list of foods to eat more of are nuts, meaning peanuts and treenuts, which should be substituted, the authors say, for starches, refined grains and sugars.

Nutrition News You Can Use: Foods including peanuts better at cholesterol lowering in combination..

Canadian researchers have produced more results showing that peanuts can help produce significant heart health benefits. The latest study from the team at the University of Toronto led by Prof David Jenkins and Dr Cyril Kendall looked at peanuts along with treenuts in a “portfolio” of other known cholesterol lowering foods including soy products, plant sterol enriched margarine and soluble (“sticky”) fibre foods such as oats, barley, okra and eggplant (aubergine) to see what effect they would have in combination when consumed by people who had high cholesterol levels.

Nutrition News You can Use - Eating nuts instead of carbs benefits people with type 2 diabetes

Research from the team of David Jenkins and Cyril Kendall at the University of Toronto published in the August issue of Diabetes Care by the American Diabetes Association (1) shows that a dietary intervention using mixed nuts including roasted peanuts had significant benefits in helping people with type 2 diabetes control blood sugar levels (postprandial glycaemia) and blood lipids (LDL and HDL cholesterol) associated with coronary heart disease.

Nutrition News You Can Use - DASH for Better Diabetes Control

The Harvard-generated DASH Diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) which includes peanuts and peanut butter along with fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, lean meats and fish, and low fat dairy products as recommended food choices, is well known to be effective in helping control high blood pressure.

Nutrition News You Can Use - Amino Acid and Vitamins as Found in Peanuts Can Reduce Pregnancy Risks

Researchers in Mexico City working with American co-investigators reported in the British Medical Journal recently that high doses of arginine – the most abundant amino acid in peanuts – together with antioxidant vitamins such as vitamin E, niacin and folate was an effective intervention to reduce the risks of pre-eclampsia in pregnant women.

Nutrition News You Can Use - Intake of Potassium Rich Foods Linked to Lower Stroke Risk

A recent analysis of the results from eleven studies following almost 250,000 adults for up to 19 years found that as potassium intake in the everyday diet rose, risk of stroke went down.

Nutrition News You Can Use - Magnesium, type 2 diabetes and peanuts

The role of magnesium (Mg) obtained for everyday food sources like peanut products in helping to reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes is becoming clearer thanks to research around the world.  

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