Neither do they cause cholesterol nor do they fatten: peanuts help to maintain cardiovascular health

Peanuts deserve a lot of reverence and also four clarifications. The first: botanically they are a legume, but we eat them as if they were nuts. The second: they do not generate cholesterol, as has probably been said and believed. In fact, from bags of mixed nuts, it has become customary to believe that peanuts were the worst. “No food of plant origin contains cholesterol, which is only present in foods of animal origin, because it is a molecule that is part of the membranes of their cells”, explains dietitian-nutritionist Anna Grífols. And the third: peanuts not only do not generate cholesterol, but they help to regulate it, as demonstrated by one of the most important clinical trials on nutrition and cardiovascular health, carried out in the State with the participation of the Rovira i Virgili University, among others.

This study, which is called Predimed, reached the conclusion that the Mediterranean diet, with nuts, helped to improve the lipid profile, reduced LDL cholesterol (that is, the bad one) without harming HDL cholesterol (the good one). “These benefits are explained by their content of unsaturated fats, fiber, vitamin E, polyphenols and phytosterols, compounds that also contribute to improving cardiovascular health”, says Grífols.

Healthy fats

And now we move on to the fourth clarification, the one that relates the intake of peanuts (and nuts in general) with an increase in kilocalories. The recommendation from doctors and nutritionists is to eat a handful a day. “It is an easy amount to include in a balanced diet,” says Grífols, who also adds that nuts, in general, are energy-dense because approximately half of their weight is healthy fats. In other words, “it is true that they provide many calories in a small volume (between 500 and 650 kcal per 100 g of product), but this does not make them a 'fattening' food; what will determine whether we gain weight or not will be the whole of our diet and our energy balance.” Furthermore, the way we eat them is also essential: it is not the same if we eat them raw or roasted as it is if they are fried or caramelized. “Always raw or roasted and without added salt, preferably,” advises the dietitian-nutritionist.

To finish, let's move on to the bow. Eating peanuts keeps heart disease away, as confirmed by the Swiss scientific journal Antioxidants, with a study led by Rosa Maria Lamuela, professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences of the University of Barcelona (UB). Thus, what the nutritional composition of peanuts provides is what makes them allies for good cardiovascular health.

So, peanuts, which are botanically a legume, which we eat as nuts, and which have always been the ugly duckling of nuts, are a powerful food with many nutritional benefits. Eating twenty-five or thirty grams daily means eating a handful, which is easy to add to a salad, chopped into white rice, or simply put into a ground base (picada) in a homemade stew. Dear peanuts, you deserve a good bow, and the four clarifications are now complete.