Are paleo people right and peanuts are lethal?

#1

The argument goes that, without commenting on their beliefs about what ancient man ate, peanuts can cause liver cancer because they can contain aflatoxin.

That said, isn’t this not a problem with properly produced peanuts?

Also, isn’t there something that can go wrong with production of literally EVERY food in existence that can make it unhealthy, harmful or even deadly? So to avoid all foods that can be produced wrong and as such be unsafe would be to starve or produce 100% of your own food.

So should we avoid peanut butter and peanuts in general or not?

(Garry (Canada)) #2

Peanuts are for squirrels as far as I’m concerned. I didn’t eat them before Keto, and I have less reason to eat them now.

(Brian) #3

Peanuts are legumes. I eat in moderation. They’re not a food group. No allergies or anything here. Some do have trouble with them.

(Lee) #4

I think there are benefits and negatives regarding peanuts. I agree that aflatoxin isn’t that big a deal as you’d need to eat a very large amount for it to matter and it’s not as prevalent outside of Africa and S. America. Converting peanuts into peanut butter removes something like 89% of the aflatoxin content. I’m not too worried about phytic acid either (same thing, you need to eat a lot for it to make a difference).

Personally, I’m more worried about peanut lectins but I think I’ve read peanut lectins aren’t as bad as soy lectins.I don’t know enough about it to speak intelligently on the subject but I bet there are plenty of people here who do and I hope they chime in.

They are probably ok in moderation, but that’s part of the problem - lots of people just can’t do peanuts in moderation and they aren’t all that low-carb.

I stopped buying peanut butter (I love natural peanut butter) because I was going through a jar every week to ten days. Which for me, is too much and started causing weight stalls. And I wasn’t eating all that much of it - maybe two tablespoons after dinner most nights.

(Erin Mellas) #5

I don’t eat any legumes at all so no peanuts for me. I have Hashimoto’s and doing a very strict Keto elimination is what works for me. Many people still do Keto with peanut butter. Depends on what you have going on and what your goals are with Keto. For me, it’s not all about weight loss but healing my body and legumes of any kind do not support that.

#6

@FowlTemptress

Thanks. See I find it super hard to get all my potassium and I refuse to supplement because the supplement inustry is 100% unregulated. Peanuts have 200 mg per serving and peanut only peanut butter only has 4 carbs per serving so having some peanut butter a few times a day is a really easy way to up potassium. Not worth the risk of liver cancer but googling the issue it doesn’t sound like it is actually dangerous. Peanuts are tested and so peanut butter should be just fine to chow down on based on that. Still I wonder…

(Erin Macfarland ) #7

Peanut butter is like kryptonite to me, probably one of my favorite foods (if it’s considered a food at all, lol). I could eat a jar a day ! I still have it sometimes, maybe a few spoonfuls a week because if I make it forbidden, I would find myself eating it as s reaction to the mental restriction. But that’s based on my personal history with restriction, and plenty of people can cut it out and have no temptations. What is bizarre to me is that we would come to crave a food that contains a toxic compound that could damage our organs. That makes no sense, but we eat lots of foods that can cause harmful reactions amongst a population. It’s weird how our brains have responded to the introduction of new “foods” over history. If we are only the things that are for the most part totally benign (as far as toxins/ allergies) we’d probably only crave meat. But we have adapted to crave things like peanut butter, Doritos, buttercream frosting…all kinds of man made inventions. This baffles me

(Chris) #8

Me too, if it wasn’t filled with carbs I’d have my head in a jar 24/7.

(Banting & Yudkin & Atkins & Eadeses & Cordain & Taubes & Volek & Naiman & Bikman ) #9

You can get aflatoxin in dairy. You can get it in meats. In low dose, adequate protein consumption is adequate to defeat it.

I know many of you have no turnoff for peanut butter, but I’m reasonably sure none of you could eat 93 million jars of it.

There’s a lot of nonsense in a lot of diets. Why shouldn’t paleo have some.

(Erin Macfarland ) #10

Omg totally… steak is great and all, but peanut butter is frigging delicious

(Banting & Yudkin & Atkins & Eadeses & Cordain & Taubes & Volek & Naiman & Bikman ) #11

It’s funny. I have a definite off switch for peanut butter. Hot wings, pork chops… I can eat the house down.

(Lee) #12

I think there are trustworthy supplement brands but I’m not sure potassium is worth supplementing with a pill. I get mine from avocados and from a pinch of cream of tartar in some water if I feel I need some extra. I just pretend it’s lemonade; it’s tart as heck!

I would definitely eat more peanut butter if it didn’t stall my weight loss.

#13

What are your thoughts on peanut oil for stir frying?

(Banting & Yudkin & Atkins & Eadeses & Cordain & Taubes & Volek & Naiman & Bikman ) #14

@chi Smoke point ~450*F, but it’s ~35% omega-6, with no omega-3, and likely forms trans configured lipids when reused…

Also makes your house smell like peanut butter, which would probably drive an insulin response from some folks…

(Vincent Hall) #15

Peanuts and peanut butter are my weak points. It’s not unknown for me to devour a 250grm bag in a day, I tend not to buy large bags now but stick to smaller packs and aim for no more yhan one bag a week. Peanut butter, I judt don’t buy anymore.
Thing is, if its not in the cupboard or house, I don’t miss/want it.
Might have to do same with cheese as I’m overdoing the chedder at the moment, oh no! Chedder and peanut combo, now that’s in my head yum.
KCKO…
\v/

#16

Off here too. I pretty much grew up on peanut butter. I think I had my lifetime maximum allowable.

(Erin Mellas) #17

Same here! I use cream of tartar when I am doing 0 carb days. Too much potassium can be dangerous, so I get mine from natural sources too!

(Brian) #18

Thank you for pointing our cream of tartar. I had never paid much attention to it. Looks like a Tbsp is nearly 1500mg. Wow. That’s significant, and easy to come by.

Do you have a certain way that you take it? Mix it with water? Mix it with anything else? I can imagine the taste could be pretty overwhelming.

(Erin Mellas) #19

I will drink a Quart of water in the morning with a 1/2 tsp of cream of tartar, 1-2 Tbsps of ACV (Apple Cider Vinegar) and lemon juice to start my day. The ACV is more overwhelming than the Cream of Tartar. You can put some liquid stevia, if you can tolerate it as it will help with the flavor overall.

(Brian) #20

OK, that gives me a pretty good idea of the how much and the how. Thanks for that.

If I figured it right, that gives you about 247.5mg of potassium for the cream of tartar and about 11mg of potassium for the apple cider vinegar, give or take a little. So that’s a bit over 250mg of potassium you’re getting from one of your morning beverages. That’s not huge but it’s significant, something approaching maybe half of an avocado.

I may have to try it, just to see if I can handle it. I tried doing the ACV several times and I seem to drop away from doing that pretty quickly. I have a very hard time with the taste. But I should probably start doing it again, too.

Thanks!

:slight_smile: