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The Peanut Butter Diet




Source of Recipe


The Seattle Times by Molly Martin


List of Ingredients




Sent to me by Catgurrl at RecipeCircus!

Recipe



~ Hold the Jelly ~
Can the Peanut Butter Diet rev up those looming New Year's resolutions?



YES, you read that right: the Peanut Butter Diet. And no, it's not April Fool's Day.

The diet pendulum, which in recent years has gone from Ornish (goodbye fats!) to Atkins (bacon rules!), hovers somewhere in between with the Peanut Butter Diet.

Based on a small but growing body of research that indicates adding certain types of fat into the diet can actually help folks lose weight, the Peanut Butter Diet took off last year when Prevention magazine made it a cover story — and had its best-selling issue of 2001. Its nutrition editor, Holly McCord, followed up with a paperback, "The Peanut Butter Diet" ($6.50, St. Martin's).

"At first, I was very leery about it," says McCord, a registered dietitian. "I was like everybody else. I thought lowfat was the only way to go."

One study that helped change her mind was by Boston researchers at Harvard's School of Public Health and Brigham and Women's Hospital. Subjects who followed a moderate-fat diet (35 percent of calories from mostly monounsaturated fat) not only were three times as likely to stick with it as those on a more traditional lowfat diet (20 percent of calories from fat), but they also maintained a significant amount of that weight loss for 18 months, and the lowfat dieters didn't.

"At 2 1/2 years," McCord says, "many people in the 'high-mono' group still have maintained their weight loss."

Subjects were allowed to choose the sources of their monounsaturated fats: olive oil, canola oil, avocado, nuts, peanut butter. The food they picked most often, McCord says, was peanut butter.


"Peanut Butter Diet," in any case, sounds better than the similar "High-MUFA Diet" which, in a study at Penn State University, decreased the risk of heart disease by nearly 21 percent, compared with 12 percent for those on a lower-fat diet. And a recent update of guidelines from the National Cholesterol Education Program increased its recommendation for overall calories from fat from 30 to 35 percent, strictly limiting saturated fats (found mostly in animal products) and transfats (found in hydrogenated fats, common in processed foods).

Understand, though, that because fats are high in calories — and total daily calories still are key — portions aren't huge. With peanut butter, we're talking four tablespoons a day for women, six for men. Since peanut butter is hard to scoop out of a tablespoon (without employing the tongue), McCord advises envisioning a Ping-Pong-ball-size portion for each two tablespoons.

The diet apparently can work because fats often taste yummier, fill us up better, stick with us longer and leave us more satisfied. When they're monounsaturated fats, the benefit doubles, since they don't add to cholesterol and may even increase HDL, the so-called "good cholesterol."

McCord's book includes a month of meal plans, 50 simple recipes and many ideas for incorporating peanut butter into the diet, from mixing with oatmeal for breakfast, blending into a sauce for dipping chicken kebabs for dinner, or stirring into nonfat refrigerated pudding for dessert.

In case you're thinking this diet sounds way too good to be true, in addition to monounsaturated fats, the other major food groups in the Peanut Butter Diet are vegetables, whole grains and potatoes, lean proteins, fruits and calcium-rich foods. The diet also calls for "vitamin X" — 45 minutes of exercise each day.

Of course, the Peanut Butter Diet isn't suitable for those with peanut allergies, although other nut oils can be used, or olive or canola oil for those avoiding nuts altogether.

McCord looked into questions about popular brands of peanut butter having high levels of transfats and sugar, and found the amounts to be negligible. Likewise, she says, common concerns about aflatoxins (which can result from mold growing on poorly-stored peanuts) aren't warranted in this country because of regular testing.

I asked if she kept her peanut butter in the refrigerator, since I'm leery of nuts and other oils otherwise becoming rancid. But it's not a problem, McCord says.

With the Peanut Butter Diet, she can't keep a jar around long enough for that to be an issue.