| Get With the Program! Basics |
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| The healthiest vegetables are always green. Greens are undoubtedly healthy, but vegetables and fruits in other colors—red, orange, yellow, blue, and purple—all bring different nutrients to the table. You’ll get the most antioxidants, vitamins and minerals if you keep your plate colorful. |
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Peanut and peanut-butter lovers, do I have good news for you! Recent studies show that both are not only good for your heart, but your figure, too!
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.
No wonder folklore has it that peanut butter was invented as a health food in 1890 for malnourished patients!
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, click here.
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 butters' oil base and the container itself protect against the erosion, usually by air, of the vitamin.
I recommend nuts and nut butters as one of nature’s—and dieter’s—healthier food choices, click here. 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. Yes, they’re healthy, but only if eaten in moderation—a handful of peanuts or two tablespoons of peanut butter are appropriate portion sizes. They’ll fill you up, not out. In fact, one of the Purdue University study’s authors said that peanuts have such a high satiety value people actually want to eat less of other foods. Plus, his subjects’ resting metabolic rate went up after eating peanuts for the eight weeks! Other research has shown that 15 to 20 percent of peanuts’ calories pass through the body without being absorbed!
So, if you sadly gave up peanut butter sandwiches long ago, you might want to consider putting one of your favorite childhood staples back on your menu permanently. Just mix it into your new healthier diet.
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