Foods For Men Health Part 2/5

Peanut Butter

If you want a healthy heart, spread your morning toast with peanut butter. Heart disease is the leading killer of men and women, but men fall victim at an earlier age. Researchers from Pennsylvania State University compared the cholesterol-lowering effect of the step II Diet of the America Heart Association (AHA) with a higher-fat diet based on peanuts. The AHA plan included more carbohydrates. The peanut regimen was 36 per cent fat. After 24 days both diets lowered “bad” LDL cholesterol. But the peanut plan also caused a drop in blood fats called triglycerides and did not decrease HDL, the “good” cholesterol. The AHA diet raised levels of triglycerides and lowered levels of HDL. “Peanut butter is a little higher in fat,” says Penny Kris-Etherton, the lead author of the study. “But it’s the type that’s good for you – monounsaturated fat.” Researchers have predicted that the peanut diet could reduce heart-disease risk even more than the AHA diet could. Just don’t go nutty plastering on the tasty spread, since it is high in kilojoules.