Peanuts, polyphenols and vascular health

Recent research has examined the effect that peanut consumption has on vascular health in healthy young people.

The study was directed by Rosa M. Lamuela, professor at the Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences of the University of Barcelona (UB), and member of the Food Safety Research Institute (INSA), located on the Food Campus de Torribera, and the Network Biomedical Research Center for the Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition (CIBEROBN) in Spain.

Peanuts, which are obtained from the leguminous plant Arachis hypogaea, are considered to be nuts from the point of view of nutritional composition and are the most consumed worldwide. With a high content of fatty acids, proteins, fibers and polyphenols, they represent a practical, accessible and nutrient-rich snack or snack that contributes to a healthy lifestyle.

Most nutritional studies focus on the analysis of significant differences in people with a high risk of suffering diseases, especially in advanced ages. In this population profile, it is easier to observe a beneficial effect if the eating pattern is altered or a healthy food is introduced into their usual diet.

However, this study involved 63 healthy young people (aged 18-33), who included a daily serving of peanut products in their usual diet for a period of six months. “In this study group it is much more difficult to observe any effect of the change in diet on health”, details professor Rosa M. Lamuela, from the Department of Nutrition, Food Sciences and Gastronomy of the UB.

The consumption of peanuts and peanut butter could have a beneficial impact on vascular health in healthy young people, judging from the results of the new study.

peanuts. (Photo: Stephen Ausmus/USDA Agricultural Research Service)

This investigation is the first nutritional intervention to confirm an improvement in vascular markers related to antithrombotic and vasodilatory effects in healthy young people after peanut consumption. The results reveal a significant increase in urinary levels of phenolic metabolites in those young people who consumed peanut and peanut butter daily compared to those who instead consumed a non-fiber and polyphenol-free cream.

Similarly, participants who consumed peanuts or peanut butter also showed an improvement in prostacyclin I2 levels and in the thromboxane A2-prostacyclin I2 ratio, molecules of a lipid nature (eicosanoids) that are considered markers of vascular health.

“It is interesting to note that some phenolic metabolites that significantly increased after the consumption of peanut products —especially hydroxycinnamic acids— were also correlated with improvement in both markers”, details the researcher Isabella Parilli-Moser (INSA-UB-CIBEROBN ), co-author of the study.

The new study reinforces the hypothesis —defended in the scientific literature and in previous studies by this research group— about the protective effect of polyphenols, the main antioxidants and anti-inflammatory compounds in the diet, on cardiovascular diseases in adults, as well as their effects antithrombotics and vasodilators. Likewise, the consumption of nuts and peanuts has been associated with a lower risk of developing cardiovascular diseases and diabetes, especially due to the protective effect of the polyphenols found in these foods.

The study highlights one of the potential health benefits of including peanuts and peanut butter in our diet, “but further studies will be needed to fully understand the mechanisms behind the positive effects of peanut consumption on vascular health,” the researchers conclude. researchers.

The work has been carried out within the framework of the Aristotle project, an initiative to analyze the prebiotic and postbiotic effects of the consumption of peanut products promoted by The Peanut Institute of the United States. The research has also had the support of companies linked to the food sector that have not participated in the experimental design or in the research protocol deployed in the study.

The study is titled “Urinary Phenolic Metabolites Associated with Peanut Consumption May Have a Beneficial Impact on Vascular Health Biomarkers.” And it has been published in the academic journal Antioxidants. (Source: UB)