Originally published October 5 2005
Purdue study shows peanut butter lowers blood cholesterol
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
Purdue University conducted a study in which participants ate 500 calories worth of peanuts every day over an eight-week period, and one result was a significant drop in the number of triglycerides, which are counted as the measure of a patient's risk for heart disease.
The Food and Drug Administration recently approved a health claim that maintains, "Diets containing one ounce of nuts per day can reduce your risk of heart disease."
That's because over 80 percent of the fat in peanuts is derived from monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats, both of which have been shown to lower blood cholesterol levels.
In a study at Purdue University, people who ate 500 calories of peanuts a day (slightly more than half a cup) for eight weeks had a significant drop in their triglyceride levels (a risk factor for heart disease) while their intake of heart-healthy nutrients (folate, magnesium and fiber, for example) increased.
Peanut butter is good for you whether it's store-bought or the fresh-ground type you can buy at a health food store.
Most store-bought peanut butters contain 92 to 93 percent peanuts -- by law they're required to have at least 90 percent -- so that leaves little room for any other ingredients.
There's usually a small amount of sugar, salt, stabilizers, and, yes, hydrogenated oils.
But the hydrogenated vegetable oils generally amount to one to two percent of the total weight, and that's not enough to register trans fats on the label when the new labeling laws go into effect.
It was generally assumed that processing raw peanuts into commercial butter removed their healthy vitamins.
But recent studies at the University of Georgia published in the September, 2003 issue of the Journal of Food Sciences have shown that processing removes no more than five percent of the nuts' vitamin E. Turns out, peanut butter's oil base and the container itself protect against the erosion, usually by air, of the vitamin.
As with most things, though, too much of a good thing can be too much indeed: In the case of peanuts and peanut butter that would be calories.
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