A handful of peanuts a day can shield you from food poisoning
HERE’S the perfect excuse to enjoy a bag of peanuts with your pint – eating a handful of the snack every day may help reduce your chances of getting food poisoning.
Eating peanuts can improve the health of the gut and the body’s ability to ward off bugs such as E.coli, it claims.
Scientists from the University of Maryland found peanut kernels significantly stimulated the growth of lactobacillus casei and lactobacillus rhamnosus, the type of friendly bacteria more commonly associated with yoghurt drinks.
By increasing the amount of ‘good’ bacteria, the nuts were able to reduce the amount of a dangerous bacterium, enterohaemorrhagic E.coli, which can cause severe food poisoning.
The friendly bacteria out- competes harmful bacteria by occupy- ing space on intestinal walls and by producing antimicrobial substances, reducing risk of infection.
Lead researcher Dr Debabrata Biswas, who used flour made from peanut kernels in the study, said: ‘Eating approximately 50g of peanuts a day could improve the gut microflora and would help to protect against food-borne illnesses caused by common foodborne bacterial pathogens.’
However, the benefits were found only to apply when the kernels are eaten without the skin. When the scientists tested peanut skin, they found it had the complete opposite effect from the kernel – inhibiting growth of good bacteria and in fact promoting growth of E.coli and salmonella bacteria, if contaminated food had been eaten.
E.coli can be transmitted by eating undercooked meat, using the same chopping board for raw and cooked food or eating contaminated raw vegetables.
The research is the latest to reveal benefits of peanuts. Last month a study suggested they were nature’s statin, able to reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. They may be a costeffective measure to improve cardiovascular health because they are so cheap, the study by Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Tennessee, added.
Although nearly half the weight of a peanut – 48 per cent – is fat the majority is monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat, which is healthy for the heart.
Healthy for the heart