After a two-decade long hiatus, peanuts may be making a dietary
comeback. More doctors are recommending nuts as part of a heart-healthy
diet, as the peanut industry has focused its efforts in emphasizing
the antioxidant benefits of eating the nutty snack.
And people seem to be responding--the
numbers speak volumes:
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The total consumption of peanuts jumped last year to nearly
1.7 billion pounds, compared to 1.5 billion pounds the year
before.
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The amount of snack peanuts eaten climbed to 415 million pounds
in the 2003-2004 crop year (the highest since the mid-1990s).
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Peanut butter consumption soared to 900 million pounds, from
a low of about 700 million in the 1990s.
Do Peanuts Have More Antioxidants Than
Red Wine?
A study by the University of Georgia (UGA) may peak interest further,
as scientists found a way to dramatically increase the amount of
resveratrol--an antioxidant and key cancer and heart disease fighter--in
peanuts to levels beyond those in red wine.
The peanuts modified at the UGA labs have more than 12 times the
amount of resveratrol found in a study of 29 different red wines.
Those wines averaged slightly more than a half-microgram of resveratrol
per gram, while the peanuts modified by UGA researchers presented
almost 8 micrograms per gram.
How do scientists improve the resveratrol content in peanuts? The
method sounds simple ...
Peanut kernels are sliced into tiny pieces or hit with ultrasounds.
So far, whole nuts don't respond to this process, scientists say.
The only other drawback scientists reported was a slight off-flavor
detected in a peanut butter prototype by a consumer panel and verified
by UGA's trained taste panel.
Georgia
Farm Bureau April 4, 2005
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