Peanut Butter & Legumes Help page

[kTerminator]

Hi All-

I really miss peanut butter and other legumes (black/kidney beans).

I have forgot why I don't eat peanut butter anymore, other than the fact that it can be 'highly allergic'.

Can someone please remind me what's the bid deal /w peanut butter? Is its fat not good either (making it have almost no positive qualities?

Thanks for the help!

Kyle

[yodiewan]

The fat in peanut butter is not ideal. It's very high in linoleic acid (omega-6). Personally, I don't think they're that much worse, if at all, than other nuts. Other nuts are high on the allergen list also and can carry alfatoxin too. And I'm starting to be persuaded that beans aren't as terrible as I used to think. Kurt Harris (Archevore - Archevore Blog) has said that they're not totally evil and our own ChocoTaco agrees.

[Dr. Bork Bork]

IMO, the no peanut butter rule is dumb. If you're only going through a very small jar of pb in a month or two, you're fine. You didn't die from it before, you're not going to die from it now!

Alternatively, I do have an awesome chocolate macadamia nut recipe: (pb is great, but I think my Mac Daddy Butter beats out almond butter in taste and nutrition, but I'm not biased or anything :P )
The Primal Junk Foodie: Mac Daddy Butter

[Hedonist]

I'm 68. Do you know how many times I have seen the "experts" flip flop about peanut butter? Grrrrrrrr!!! I eat some good quality organic peanut butter. More

As for beans, I eat some traditionally soaked ones each week. Too lazy to soak them myself so I buy Eden Foods ones.

[Chaohinon]

Soaked beans have nearly non-existent antinutrient content (lentils especially so); they're far less toxic and inflammatory than chocolate, nuts, and coconut meat. Even regular canned beans aren't that bad if you rinse out the juice. And you really can't beat the starchrotein and starch:fiber ratios, assuming your gut can handle plant proteins.

After initially discovering primal, I spent a good 6 months totally bean-free, and had no trouble adding them back in in large quantities.

And peanuts are predominately MUFA. I'd be more concerned about aflatoxins, calories, and the fact that it's really not palatable without sugar.

[Unshod Sarah]

Try almond or cashew butter instead, though I find that without toast, what's the point?

I love, love, love beans. Crazy about beans. The no-bean thing is way harder than the no-bread thing. I ate some hummus the other day and was totally sick to my stomach. Then at another time, I had a soup with some white kidney beans and felt great. The soup was wall vegetables and a small amount of beans. Totally satisfying. I think each person has to do some self-experimentations. No more hummus for me.

[Lily Marie]

I never crave almond butter or any other nut butters. I do crave peanut butter from time to time and in between, I can't stand the taste. I take that as a sign to eat a spoonful of peanut butter for a couple of days and move on.

[Catherine]

I ate some hummus the other day and was totally sick to my stomach.

that is very interesting. Chickpeas have always tasted yummy to me, i secretly loved just eating them out of the can. But they just had the most foul effect on me, like it was a serious case of "i like them but they don't like me". I really don't miss beans at all but i did have some tasty black beans this past weekend (ordered naughty tex mex takeout!) and had no ill effect. Still, i have no plans of ingesting them on a regular basis ever again. It would have to be a dire economic situation for me to go back to eating beans like i used to.

[Mud Flinger]

What about the lectin content in beans. Is it higher than nuts? Eggs? Grains? I need to do some research!

[kTerminator]

Isn't it a point of primal blueprint to try and 'avoid poisonous things'? I thought that was a strategy to minimize the bad things we eat (80% rule etc) to reduce the chances of poor health in the future. It was my understanding that allergies can develop at any time; is this incorrect? I have no/limited knowledge on food allergies.

I CAN eat peanuts/beans, it's just, should I? I think that 'yodiewan's post expressed the most compellling reasons against peanuts (not really a nut anyway), in helping skew the scales in favor of Omega 6 in the forever battle we must fight to balance our Omega 3:6 ratio.