How Are Peanuts Good For You?
Peanuts are scientifically called Arachis hypogea. They are also known as groundnuts, goobers, and earth nuts. They have their origins in South America.
There are four major types of peanuts. These include Runner, Virginia, Spanish, and Valencia.
Peanuts contain essential functional nutrients like fibers, proteins, antioxidants, polyphenols, and vitamins and minerals. They also contain all the 20 amino acids, the most abundant of them being arginine (1). These compounds can prevent disease and promote longevity.
The arginine in peanuts is known to stimulate the immune system. Peanuts also contain resveratrol, a bioflavonoid known to cut the risk of stroke (1).
Peanuts display protective effects against cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and other diseases (1).
To sum it up - peanuts are nutritional powerhouses. What this variety of nutrients achieves is something beyond incredible.
What Are The Health Benefits Of Peanuts?
Peanuts are chock-full of important nutrients, antioxidants, and fatty acids. These promote heart health by regulating cholesterol levels and aid diabetes treatment as well. The antioxidants in peanuts also help cut down cancer risk.
1. Peanuts Promote Heart Health
A team of researchers found that in over 200,000 people across the globe, those who regularly ate peanuts were far less likely to die of heart disease (2).
Peanuts (and other nuts, in general) can lower the bad cholesterol (LDL) levels (3). Bad cholesterol leads to plaque development on the blood vessels, and peanuts can prevent this.
Peanuts also reduce the inflammation that may cause heart disease (3).
The resveratrol in peanuts also helps combat heart disease. Peanuts seem to have similar cardioprotective effects as other nuts (4).
Regular peanut intake also lowers triglycerides, further promoting heart health (5). This effect can be attributed to their content of monounsaturated fatty acids, folate, and magnesium.
In another study, peanuts had increased the levels of good cholesterol (6).
Peanuts have a GI score of 14. On a 100-point scale, while the GI of peanuts is 14, the GL (glycemic load, which tells what a particular food will do to your sugar levels) is just 1.
This means adding peanuts or peanut butter to a meal doesn’t spike blood sugar levels. Including them along with a meal high in GL (like a bagel or a glass of juice) may stabilize the blood sugar levels. The American Diabetes Association names peanuts as diabetes superfoods (1).
The fiber in peanuts also helps lower blood sugar levels. They also contain magnesium and other healthy oils that don’t largely affect your blood glucose levels.
Consuming peanuts or peanut butter right in the morning may control your blood sugar levels throughout the day (7). A higher intake of peanuts and peanut butter can reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes in women (8).
Daily intake of a diet enriched with peanuts over 24 weeks could improve health parameters in patients with type 2 diabetes (9). The rich nutritional profile of peanuts is responsible for this - which includes monounsaturated fat, fiber, arginine, niacin, folate, and vitamin E.
3. May Aid Weight Loss
Peanuts are energy-dense foods. Including them as a snack may make you consume fewer calories later in the day (10).
Compared to eating them with a meal, peanuts elicited stronger feelings of fullness when consumed as a snack. This may eventually help with weight loss.
Including peanuts (along with other nuts) in one’s diet is one way to enhance palatability and nutrient intake without causing weight gain (11).
Research also shows that consumption of peanuts and peanut butter can increase the feelings of fullness. These could satisfy customers better than carbohydrate snacks in equal quantities (1).
4. May Prevent Cancer
High intake of peanuts (including other nuts) has been associated with a reduced risk of colorectal cancer (12). The isoflavones, resveratrol, and phenolic acid in peanuts can cut cancer risk.
Peanut intake is also associated with a reduced risk of postmenopausal breast cancer (13).
Among older American adults, peanuts were also found to prevent gastric and esophageal cancers. When comparisons were made, individuals who did not consume any nuts had the highest risk of contracting these cancers (14).
12 сен 2024
