Peanuts as part of a high-fat meal may decrease cardiovascular risk in overweight, obese men
Overweight or obese men who ate three ounces of ground, unsalted peanuts as part of a high-fat meal improved their postprandial triglyceride response and a preserved endothelial function, according to a randomized trial.
Lead researcher Penny M. Kris-Etherton, PhD, RD, of the Pennsylvania State University, and colleagues published their results online in the Journal of Nutrition on March 29.
Kris-Etherton said in a news release that eating peanuts might help prevent stiffening arteries, which can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease.
“Typically, whenever we eat something, it causes the arteries to get a little bit stiffer during the post-meal period, but we have shown that if you eat peanuts with your meal, this can help prevent the stiffening response,” Kris-Etherton said. “When the stiffening response happens in the cells that line the arteries, resulting in decreased elasticity in the arteries, it can limit the availability of nitric oxide, and when there's less nitric oxide, the arteries don't dilate that much. What you want is a dilation of the arteries and for them to be really elastic.”
The researchers randomized 15 healthy overweight or obese men to a meal containing three ounces of ground peanuts or a control meal that had the same energy and macronutrient content but did not include peanuts. They delivered the meals via a shake and used flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) of the brachial artery to evaluate the effect of acute peanut consumption on postprandial lipids and endothelial function. They mentioned that three ounces of peanuts is approximately three times the average serving size.
The men were between 20 and 50 years old. They had low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels below 160 mg/dL, triglycerides below 350 mg/dL and blood pressure below 140/90 mmHg. They also did not medications for elevated lipids, blood pressure or glucose.
At baseline, the mean age was 26.7 years old, and the mean body mass index was 31.4 kg/m2. Participants had their lipids, lipoproteins, glucose and insulin measured at baseline and 30, 60, 120 and 240 minutes after consuming their shakes. They also had their FMD measured at baseline and 240 minutes.
Participants in the peanuts group had a blunted serum triglyceride response 120 minutes and 240 minutes after their meals compared with the control group. The groups had similar total, LDL and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels and glucose and insulin responses. Meanwhile, the control group had a significant decrease in FMD at 240 minutes, whereas the peanuts group had no significant change in FMD from baseline.
All participants in the peanuts group maintained their endothelial function at 240 minutes, whereas only control group participants with a 150 mg/dL or higher total cholesterol level and greater than 100 mg/dL LDL cholesterol level at baseline had a significant decrease in FMD.
“After a meal, triglycerides increase and this typically decreases the dilation of the arteries, but the peanuts prevent that big increase in triglycerides after the meal,” Kris-Etherton said in a news release. “And that may be the mechanism behind this effect, because the triglycerides are not getting so high, which may explain why there is not a decrease in artery elasticity.”
Executive Editor
Tim Casey joined TriMed Media Group in 2015 as Executive Editor. For the previous four years, he worked as an editor and writer for HMP Communications, primarily focused on covering managed care issues and reporting from medical and health care conferences. He was also a staff reporter at the Sacramento Bee for more than four years covering professional, college and high school sports. He earned his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Notre Dame and his MBA degree from Georgetown University.