Peanuts may help keep arteries open, flexible

Research from The Pennsylvania State University and published in The Journal of Nutrition, suggests that peanuts, especially peanut protein and bioactives, may help keep arteries flexible.

To isolate the effects of peanut protein and bioactives, researchers prepared two shakes: a control shake containing a mixture of healthy oils, fiber, and protein from egg whites, and a shake containing peanuts. The fat content in the control shake was an exact match to that of the peanut shake, allowing researchers to test the effects of peanut protein and bioactives specifically. The researchers measured the blood vessel flexibility of overweight and obese—but otherwise healthy—men using an ultrasound technique called flow-mediated dilation (FMD). In addition, they took blood samples to measure blood triglycerides.

The researchers found that the participants who ate peanuts as part of a meal containing 50% fat reduced the rise in blood triglycerides by 32%. In addition, peanuts also caused the participants’ arteries to remain open and flexible.

Levels of fat in the blood rise rapidly after a high fat meal, causing blood vessels to become stiff. This makes your heart work harder to pump blood through the blood vessels in your body, increasing the risk of heart disease and stroke. The researchers think the peanut protein, along with bioactives, vitamins, and minerals play a major role in preventing this stiffening response.

“Since the macronutrients were matched between the two shakes, we don’t think that it was the mono- and polyunsaturated fatty acids in the peanuts that affected the response,” said lead researcher Penny Kris-Etherton, The Pennsylvania State University. “The plant protein in peanuts, and specifically the amino acid arginine, along with the many other nutrients in peanuts likely played a role."

Study