Why are nuts associated with reduced mortality, but not peanut butter?
According to to the largest study of death risk factors in human history, poor nutrition causes death most of all. Tobacco alone kills about 8 million people a year, while the human diet kills millions more, as you can see below and at 0:20 in my video Do the health benefits of peanut butter extend to longevity?.
What are the worst aspects of our diet? Processed meat? Friends? Soda? No, five deadly things about our diet are: not enough fruit, not enough whole grains, not enough vegetables, not too much salt, and not enough nuts and seeds, as shown here and in my 0:42 video.
Nuts should not be surprising, because there are interventional tests is shown that eating walnuts improves the functioning of the arteries, and vascular diseases, like heart disease, are among our leading killers. But not all nuts can do this. They can also improve controls blood sugar, lowers cholesterol, reduces inflammation, reduces oxidative stress, and provides nutrition for our friendly gut flora. Do all nuts do this, or just tree nuts?
What about peanuts and peanut butter? About half of peanut consumption in the United States is of peanut butter, but the association between peanut butter intake and death has not been rigorously evaluated. To get this specific, we can turn to the National Institutes of Health-AARP, the largest prospective study of health and diet in history, which has followed more than half a million people since the 1990s.
The researchers found that nut consumption in general protected against all-cause mortality, meaning nut eaters lived longer on average. In particular, they are less likely to die from cancer, cardiovascular disease, liver disease, respiratory disease, kidney disease, and infectious causes (so maybe nuts also help with immunity). However, no such associations were found for peanut oil. So when it comes to longevity, peanut butter doesn’t seem like it. Why?
Well, we know that peanut butter consumers eat more meat, smoke, and are less likely to exercise, but the researchers controlled for all of these factors, as well as alcohol consumption, fruit and vegetable consumption, education, and more. So it’s not like the peanut butter eaters just ate more white bread sandwiches or something. (The researchers didn’t control for sugar, so they probably could have eaten more sugary jelly.)
Another explanation: This could be the processing that goes into making peanut butter – trans fat, oil, salt and sugar are added. But regular nuts are also often eaten with added butter, sugar and salt.
Could it just be the nuts themselves? Technically, they’re not nuts, so maybe they don’t have the same benefits. But no, a meta-analysis of all such studies found the same nut-like benefits for whole nuts, but not peanut butter.
Well, one thing is missing, even from the nut and seed oil of salt, without oil, without sugar is healthy cell structure. As I mentioned in How Not To Diet, whether we eat nuts whole or chopped, some nutrients are stored in tiny particles that provide a nice prebiotic boost to our friendly gut flora. It makes me wonder if there was a difference between peanut butter and smooth.
Meanwhile, there is “good evidence” to recommend eating nuts (preferably raw nuts over salted or toasted ones, and whole or chopped nuts instead of peanut butter) to maximize your chances of living a longer, healthier life.
Dr.’s comment
The healthiest nut can be walnuts. see Nuts and arterial function.
Don’t Nuts Make You Fat? see Nuts and Obesity: The Weight of the Evidence.
I mentioned my book How Not to Diet, which you can read more about Here. (All proceeds from my books go to charity.)
