Hello, you can tell I'm back on form because here I am steaming at the gills about some nutritional misinformation given to me yesterday by a well-meaning friend. We were chatting on the phone about my stay in hospital, and I mentioned that because hospital food is inedible but you are not allowed to bring in hot, cooked food, I compromise by taking in oatcakes, peanut butter, fruit, dark chocolate, green tea and other goodies, so I've always got something healthy to eat in my locker. 'Peanut butter!' she exclaimed, 'but everything I've ever been taught tells me that it's carcinogenic!' (I should explain that this friend is pretty alternative, and is always going on herbal and naturopathic courses of various kinds). I replied, 'well, as far as I'm concerned, it's a good vegetarian protein and contains healthy fats, so it's an ideal food if you don't have much appetite. I know that if peanuts are not stored properly, they can contain aspergillus mould which produces aflatoxins, which for all I know may be carcinogenic. But anyway, I have cancer already, so it can't harm me!'
Now, I didn't want to enter into an argument with this friend, so after we'd finished our conversation, I did a bit of research on peanuts and their supposed carcinogenicity (is that a word?) Lo and behold, when I looked on PubMed (the medical database) the first bit of research I found was on peanut butter consumption in adolescent girls and its positive association with lower risk of benign breast disease, and girls with a family history of breast cancer had a significantly lower risk if they consumed more peanut butter. And the second piece of research I read found that resveratrol from peanuts and other foods inhibited the growth of human breast cancer cells in a laboratory experiment. So it certainly isn't clear that peanut butter is necessarily carcinogenic.
I also checked out the problem of the aspergillus mould in peanuts. It is true that it has been associated with liver cancer in some parts of the world such as West Africa, where a lot of peanuts are consumed and storage is not always to the highest standards. BTW it isn't found only in peanuts, but also in pecans, pistachios and other nuts and legumes. However, according to the British Peanut Council, the EU has the most stringent levels of aflatoxins permitted in foods in the whole world, at 4 parts per billion, so peanut butter sold in this country is perfectly safe. The same is not true of peanuts sold for feeding birds but we all know, I hope, not to eat those.
Now I've got that off my chest I'm off to have some peanut butter on toast for my lunch!
