Nutritional Facts of Peanut Butter are Amazing
Nutritional facts of peanut butter can be shocking. Many who want to slim down have avoided this protein’s wonders because of its side effects. However, did you know that peanut butter is one of the healthiest foods? Let us find out about peanut butter, and it’s nutrients in this article!
Nutritional facts of peanut butter, as comforting to know, have been satisfying with the most dieticians. Also, they would advise you not to give up on peanut butter. If you want to lose some of those unwanted fats around your belly and in your thighs, eating peanut is the key.
Researchers have found out that eating peanut butter can let you stay satiated for more than two hours. Two spoonfuls of peanut butter have 190 calories. Therefore, with peanut butter, you can avoid eating foods that may add to your pounds.
Some of you may be wondering, why peanut butter for many years has been the enemy of most people who are on a diet. And most of us are cynical if this oily, chunky and fun comfort food can be trusted in our diet meal plan. So you might ask, is peanut butter a good weight loss food? Based on a recent study, most people who included peanut butter in their weight loss program have stick to it and stay fit.
Key nutritional facts of peanut butter
One of the dietary facts in peanut butter is the protein. Protein is the key ingredient. So, how much protein in peanut butter per 100-gram? It’s good to know that our body can get as much as 25-30 grams of protein from that amount. When broken down to amino acids, it can repair and build our body cells.
The protein plus monounsaturated fatty acids are what makes peanut butter. In this case, you can have it as one of the best daily weight loss food because you can always eat your peanut butter without being afraid of adding those unwanted fats.
So if you are going to the gym or will jog in the park, then please consume some peanut butter. It will sustain your nourishment while losing some pounds. Health experts know that the high-quality protein in peanut butter will help you stay and feel full while shedding those unnecessary fats.
Other nutrients of peanut butter
Aside from the protein and unsaturated fats, this creamy goodness contains nutrients. Peanut butter has carbohydrates, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, folate, and niacin. Other nutrients are the following: pantothenic acid, pyridoxine, riboflavin, thiamin, sodium, magnesium, calcium, manganese, phosphorus, selenium, copper, iron, and zinc.
Further, peanut butter benefits include resveratrol, type polyphenols. This unique nutrient from peanut butter may contribute to heart health. Also, it can prevent some forms of cancer. Many people also could not believe in finding out that peanut butter is high in dietary fiber. About 10 to 15g of dietary fiber our body can get from eating 100 g of peanut butter. And dietary fiber prevents high cholesterol, heart diseases and even constipation.
So are you still asking if peanut butter is healthy? Yes, the World Health Organization considers peanut butter as one of the healthiest foods. The current feeding program in Africa and countries with nutritional and hunger problems are provided with peanut butter-based foods. More than a million children have been saved from starvation thanks to this superfood.
As we have stated earlier, nutritional facts of peanut butter have much valuable nutrition that can be beneficial to our body. You can have the vitamins and minerals in peanut butter that can be a good defense and prevention to many of the most common deadliest diseases.
Peanut butter nutrients are heart-friendly
If you are asking why peanut butter is right for your heart, then look at the many nutritional facts of peanut butter. Researchers and scientists were excited about what they found out in peanut butter. The unsaturated fats in peanut butter are similar to those present in olive oil. This peanut butter fat comes naturally in plant-based healthy foods. It can lower harmful cholesterol levels. It can also promote the circulation of good cholesterol.
Another heart-friendly mineral in peanut butter is potassium. Potassium has about 649 mg per 100 g of peanut butter. It will be enough to regulate your heartbeat and balance your heart rhythm. But always check with your doctor if you have kidney problems. High levels of potassium may aggravate your health.
Also, nutritional facts of peanut butter for the heart is vitamin E. Vitamin E is a fat-soluble antioxidant that may help in removing fat blockages in the arteries. You needed it in muscle conditioning and defense for free radicals.
Cancer fighter Peanut butter nutrients
You can also have nutritional facts of peanut butter to reduce the risks of cancer. As clinical studies, peanut butter may have anti-cancer properties such as the phytosterol B-sitosterol.
Peanuts have magnesium to promote a healthy immune system and maintain our blood pressure. It also keeps blood sugar at normal levels and retains our bone strength. As scientist found out, the magnesium in peanut butter can reduce inflammation and decrease the risk of metabolic syndrome.
According to the research, just by eating peanut butter twice in a week or more can lower the chances of having cancer-related diseases. But you don’t need to worry about your blood sugar level.
Gallstones and diabetes sidelined
You may find that some naturally made peanut butter has a sweet taste. This sweet taste has no contribution to your sugar levels. When we consume peanut butter, you can have less chance of having type 2 diabetes. The unsaturated fats in peanut butter have been studied by researchers to help insulin sensitivity in our body.
When doctors advise for you to avoid gallstones, chances are the main foods that they will eliminate from your eating habits. It will be more likely of those containing salty, oily, fatty and greasy. That’s why we fear eating peanut butter. We tend to think that the oils and fats from this buttery goodness will damage our internal organs. But on the contrary, according to a study about women who are regularly snacking peanuts and peanut butter for 20 years, they can’t develop to have gallstones.
Forget Alzheimer’s with peanut butter
If you are a vegetarian, then you’ll love to know that besides the protein it has, peanut butter is an excellent source of niacin or vitamin B3. Researchers have found out that niacin may protect our brains from getting Alzheimer’s disease. So by just consuming 2 tablespoons of peanut butter, you will get about 4.2mg of niacin.
And with the combination of healthy fats, oils and Vitamin E, you have one of the best readily available brain food in your kitchen. So, it’s not a myth that peanuts and peanut butter enhance your memory. Then it is best consumed while you’re studying.
Where do nutrients of peanut butter come from?
After you have learned about the health benefits of peanut butter, you will wonder where it came from. Contrary to popular belief, the peanut and potatoes have no similarities. You cannot find in trees. The peanut is a curious legume. After pollination, it loses its petals, and the fertilized ovary begins to burrow, forming the peanut shell.
Also, peanut butter is not a modern invention. It comes from the ancient Native Americans who make peanut paste from dry roasted ground peanuts. The ones who cultivated peanut are the Aztecs and Incas. Without them growing the nugget-sized treasure, the modern world would not enjoy the best nutritional foods.
Since 6,000 BC, these curious legumes have been farmed in South America. The early settlers of the continent were eating wild peanuts about 13,000 years ago. As time went by, peanut paste has become a staple ingredient of ancient cuisine.
When the Spanish and Portuguese conquered the Americas, they brought along these peanuts in their travels. After a while, peanuts and peanut sauces have been brought around the world. And eventually, many cultures have developed their cuisines around this versatile legume.
Kinds of peanut butter
The versatility of peanut come from the current largest producers of peanut and peanut butter. They can be found in China, India and the United States.
There are many varieties of peanuts out there. But the following four are most common—Virginia, which has the largest kernels and accessible at ball games; Spanish, which are of smaller kernels but produces a lot of oils; Valencia has bright-red skin covering and are best boiled; and Runner peanuts, which have become popular because of its high yield. You can have Valencia and Runner to produce natural peanut butter.
Health experts advise that if you are looking to enjoy the healthiest peanut butter, then choose to buy organic and all-natural peanut butter or try making some in your home by grinding freshly roasted peanuts.
How can you benefit from peanut butter nutrients?
They say too much eating of peanut butter is harmful. So, how to best consume peanut butter, if you may ask? Dieticians tell us that we can have a win-win situation if we combine peanut butter with your favorite fruits. It can be great recipes with bananas, apples and pears. Also, you’ll have that fantastic protein combined with those digestive enzymes.
They also advise that it would be better to avoid combining peanut butter with sweet preserved jams as it may romp up our sugar intake. Also, we do not need to add or use artificial sweeteners to ruin its natural peanut butter sugar.
If you want to have the perfect smoothie, combine peanut butter with a dollop of Greek yogurt, bananas or apples, cooked oatmeal, some honey and a pinch of cinnamon in a blender. This smoothie can charge up your mornings with vim and vigor.
You can use peanut butter in many ways. You can use it as a culinary replacement to olive oil and even to the fattening butter. Also, the oils of peanut butter can be replaced to olive oil in pesto and fettuccine. Further, you can also substitute peanut butter to dairy butter when baking.
What else can you do from it?
You can have natural oils from peanut butter as a replacement for shaving cream. This buttery oil from peanut butter acts as a moisturizer to your skin.
Similarly, you can use the oils to lubricate your tools and remove the squeaks in your doors. Leather products and wooden furniture can be maintained and cleaned by using peanut butter oil as well.
Also, peanut butter is flexible enough to be used as bait for pest control for mice, ants and cockroaches. Unknown to a lot of people, mice are more attracted to the sweet aroma of peanut butter as against cheese.
How to preserve peanut butter nutrients?
As we all know, the peanut butter is made from 100% natural peanuts. You’ll have all the health goodness without the additional sugar, salt, oil, other preservatives and other extenders in factory processed peanut butter.
Also if you will be making your peanut butter, make sure that you choose peanuts which are stored in a cool, dry place. Peanuts are prone to a particular fungus, the Aspergillus flavus, which produces the dreaded aflatoxin. The fungus usually grows on peanuts and peanut butter when it is humid, and the temperature is at 30-36°C.
Aflatoxin is a deadly carcinogen and could be connected to lowered intelligence and even mental retardation. To avoid the adverse effects of aflatoxin, roast the peanuts gently at about 75°C in an oven for a maximum of 20 minutes. This roasting process would also preserve those healthy oils and increase its digestibility.
Also, if you will be making peanut butter from just a handful of peanuts, it is best to store your remaining shelled peanuts inside your refrigerator in a sealed clean container. It will extend its shelf life from 2 to 3 months.
Peanut butter side effects
Peanut butter is rich in Omega-6 but has little Omega-3, the celebrated heart oil. Omega-6, in still inconclusive research, may have some impact on how our bodies react to inflammation. The fats are said to be used to create biochemical signals that encourage inflammation.
According to many studies, you will need to consume Omega-6 and Omega-3 on a balanced ratio as both are essentials in our body’s internal functions. Our body has no capability to produced these fatty acids.
If you think that you have some form of allergy with peanuts and peanut butter, you might need to avoid this chunky snack. The allergy can cause anaphylaxis and also be fatal. Peanut-allergic reactions may include sneezing, swelling, itchiness, hives, eczema and asthma. Other symptoms can be observed with abdominal pain, sudden lowering of blood pressure, diarrhea, and cardiac arrest.
To date, we are still finding a cure to peanut allergy. Avoiding it is still the best preventive way. So be sure always to ask if your food has some form of peanut or peanut butter and oils in it.
Luckily, you can avoid peanut allergy by giving few amounts of peanut butter at the age of four to six months.
Our insights
Not everyone knows that peanut farmers can use all the parts of the peanut plant. You can have many uses besides the beloved seeds that have shaped our daily lives. Besides the peanut butter we consume regularly, you can use peanuts in soaps, medicines, cosmetics and lubricants. Farmers can use the vines and leaves as high protein hay for horses, cows, goats and sheep. On the other hand, you can use the shells of peanuts for livestock feeds. You can also process into fertilizer.
When it comes to food, is peanut butter good for you? Just like any other healthy food, peanut butter is best when consumed with other healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables. And because peanut butter is rich in Omega-6 fatty acids, it is best to combine it with foods that are rich in Omega-3 fatty acids to balance their ratio in our body.
The best feature is the protein in the nutritional facts of peanut butter. No matter how many calories a peanut butter has, the amount will be enough for you to be satiated during your daily activities.
But again be sure to take your doctor’s advice before diving into a diet plan with peanut butter to avoid any adverse effects to your body. Peanut butter may be versatile, but there are still a lot of ways for us to get the nutrients and vitamins it offers. Our diet plan should always be personalized to our body and DNA for it to be effective.
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