How healthy/unhealthy is peanut butter and why does my taste to almonds change at night?

January 11, 2012 8:29 AM

Can you get an allergy from peanuts? My diet has changed recently and sometimes I will end up eating 1/3 of jar in a day. I'm eating the all natural kind that doesn't contain trans fats. Is the saturated fat any better for you because it comes from peanuts? I'm also eating more almonds lately and I've noticed that they often have almost no taste to me in the middle of the day, but at night (especially an hour or two before bed) they have this very sweet, full taste. Do your tastebuds change through out the day?
posted by theNeutral to food & drink (19 answers total)

You can develop and allergy to anything you're exposed to repeatedly. These are usually called "Adult onset" allergies. So, it's possible.

As for the healthiness of large amounts of peanut butter.. probably not so much. Remember, it's not what you eat but how much of it you eat. 1/3 of a jar of peanut butter once a week is far more healthy then a 1/3 of a jar of peanut butter every day.
posted by royalsong at 8:37 AM on January 11

(Depending on the size of the jar and what else you're eating, the fattiness/quantity might not be such a problem - if you're a vegan going low-carb and you're talking about a small jar, I wouldn't worry too much about it because frankly you're going to be eating a lot of nuts. If you're eating a bunch of meat and cheese AND the peanut butter, probably not so hot. Maybe keep track of servings rather than jar percentages?)
posted by Frowner at 8:46 AM on January 11 [1 favorite]

Variety is generally a good idea, because you get different nutrients from different foods.

That said, unprocessed foods (and natural peanut butter is basically unprocessed in my opinion) are generally more healthful than more highly processed foods.

There's actually lot of debate just how harmful saturated fat actually is. One thing about peanut butter is that it actually is mostly unsaturated fat - which almost everyone agrees is good for you, at least in moderation.

So, it's probably not the best idea to eat 1/3 of a jar of pb every single day, but it's not the worst thing ever. Overall, I personally consider natural pb a very healthy food, but one that should be eaten in moderation.
posted by insectosaurus at 8:47 AM on January 11

I developed a peanut allergy at age 30. So, yes.
posted by spinifex23 at 8:50 AM on January 11

In my opinion, 1/3 of a jar of a single food every day is probably not going to be good for anyone, especially a substance like peanuts that many people develop allergies to. Can I ask what dietary changes you're trying to accomplish by doing this? There might be a healthier way - like if you are a vegan trying to get fat and protein on a low carb diet, avocadoes and coconut milk plus a vegan protein powder might be a more sustainable choice.
posted by permiechickie at 8:53 AM on January 11

Is your question "Is it possible to newly develop a peanut allergy as an adult?" or is your question "Will eating lots of peanuts cause me to become allergic to them?"
posted by fritley at 9:00 AM on January 11 [3 favorites]

Peanut butter is one of those "too good" foods. It has a lots of fat and salt, which tends to override satiety feelings and lends to easy over-eating. Some peanut butters throw in sugar as well to perfect the fat/salt/sugar trifecta.

If you switch to unroasted, unsalted peanut butter you will find it a lot harder to overeat - basically because it tastes like ass in comparison to the roasted/salted/sugared PB we are used to!

Roasting nuts also tends to ruin the healthy oils prevalent in nuts. Instead of PB, perhaps try a handful of raw/unroasted almonds in the evening?
posted by sarah_pdx at 9:41 AM on January 11 [1 favorite]

Yes! I totally changed my diet a while ago. Started eating only whole, unprocessed foods and getting the most nutrition out of every single thing I put in my body. Since nuts are fabulous for you, I ate a TON of them - much more than I ever did before (say, a peanut butter sandwich every couple weeks). I was eating table spoons of peanut butter all the time, buying raw nuts and making my own nut butter, just generally going crazy with it. Predictably, my body started going crazy and I developed all sorts of great allergies (peanuts, tree nuts) that were not evident before.

Moderation!
posted by 3FLryan at 9:42 AM on January 11

To answer your other question, yes, things tasting different at different times of the day is not uncommon. For me it think a big part of it has to do with my hydration levels. I don't know if the taste buds actually change/are more sensitive at different times, it would be interesting to learn more about...
posted by catatethebird at 9:46 AM on January 11

If you're in ketosis from a low-carb diet, almonds will taste noticeably sweeter.
posted by callmejay at 9:52 AM on January 11 [2 favorites]

Were the almonds out of the same package? The reason I ask is that raw almonds are super bland, while roasted almonds are sweet and aromatic.
posted by Sys Rq at 10:42 AM on January 11

Unsaturated fats are divided into monounsaturated and polyunsaturated. Monounsaturated are fine. A balance of polyunsaturated fats that skews towards omega-6 increases systemic inflammation, which worsens many diseases from obesity to anxiety. Further, high polyunsaturated fat consumption increases oxidation of LDL lipoproteins, which increases the rate of atherosclerotic formation. Peanuts have a lot of omega-6 and little omega-3. For this reason, they are not a good food to have in large quantities. Almonds and macadamias are somewhat better.
posted by Earl the Polliwog at 11:06 AM on January 11 [1 favorite]

I came here to post what Earl did.

While saturated fat is healthy, peanuts have too much omega-6 and barely any omega-3, which makes it unhealthy to eat so much of it.

And yes, you can develop allergies to anything at anytime, depending how compromised your immune system is.

Saturated fat would be better from animal fats (specially bovine meat, which has a good omega-6 to 3 ratio), and coconut oil.

About day/night taste-buds: Do you eat a lot of peanut butter during the day but not at night?
I think when compared to peanut butter, almonds would taste pretty "dull". But if by bed time, you haven't had peanut butter for a few hours, then perhaps your taste buds "reset" and you enjoy the almonds.

Be careful on relying on nuts for your main source of saturated fat. The terrible 6-3 ratio can make you unhealthy. At-least eat fish and eggs if you won't eat meat.
But speaking of nuts, macadamias will have a better ratio than almonds, and almonds have a better ratio than peanuts.
Maybe try macadamia butter :-D

I don't recall having taste buds change during the day, however my taste buds have changed: these days, I really can't stand the taste of cookies, ice cream, drinks, and other processed things that I liked less than a year ago. They are too mind-blowing sweet, it makes my eyes tear up, it makes me cough up in disgust.
posted by midnightmoonlight at 12:51 PM on January 11 [1 favorite]

"I think when compared to peanut butter, almonds would taste pretty "dull". But if by bed time, you haven't had peanut butter for a few hours, then perhaps your taste buds "reset" and you enjoy the almonds. "

Specially if the peanuts are roasted, then turned into butter, and the almonds are plain. Roasting makes the taste more intense.
posted by midnightmoonlight at 12:52 PM on January 11

Thanks for all the responses! My question is more specifically, can you get an allergy to peanuts from eating too much. It's only a few times a week I'll be hungry and not sure what to eat and I'll dip slices of apple in peanut butter and it's the most delicious treat! (It will keep me full for a good 4 hours, probably because of the protein and fat in the peanut butter.) In my mind, a snack consisting of just apples and all natural peanut butter (just peanuts and salt) seems very healthy, but the saturated fat is pretty high (12.5% of RDA per 2 Tablespoons) I wanted to see what others thought.

As for the almonds, most of the time when I grab a handful as a snack during the day, they have no flavor to me, but then if I do the same thing before bed they are have so much flavor. We buy the same brand, same size all the time. Kind of weird.
posted by theNeutral at 3:24 PM on January 11

Not sure how well it has been proven, but some people say food allergies can be caused by a "leaky gut".

The idea is that when someone's intestine is compromised incompletely digested food proteins get into the blood. The body creates antibodies to these foreign-looking proteins. The next time it happens, the immune system reacts.

If the theory is true, you should be okay unless you have a "leaky gut". I have no idea if it's true, but I found it interesting - and semi-terrifying.
posted by sarah_pdx at 3:50 PM on January 11

Maybe try varying what kind of nut butter you eat? There's almond butter, hazelnut butter, etc. They aren't cheap, though.
posted by Neekee at 5:14 PM on January 11

I similarly enjoy peanut butter, and just wanted to add that peanuts aren't actually nuts, they are legumes. As has been pointed out the fat balance of the "real" nuts is supposed to be better for you. However, I usually find the other nut butters to be too rich or strongly flavored and get tired of them easily, and so have to rotate among them. I've gone through stretches where I've eaten more than a jar of PB a week, and never developed any allergies. That is not to say that you won't though. Eating natural PB&apples is certainly healthier than a whole host of other similarly easy to eat foods.
posted by lab.beetle at 6:39 PM on January 11

You need to figure out how much peanut butter you're actually eating, not just in terms of jar level. Peanut butter is very calorie dense (only a little better than actual butter).

Example: Say your jar is one of the smallest ones, 12 oz. You eat a third of it a day, split up into two snacks, and two apples (one with each snack). That's over 400 calories per snack, maybe closer to 500. Similarly your handful of almonds could easily be over 100 calories (maybe closer to 200!). Between the two, you could easily "snack" half of a normal daily calorie allotment. Maybe you're working to gain or having trouble keeping weight on, but for most other people this would be an easy way to over eat.
posted by anaelith at 4:21 AM on January 12 [1 favorite]