For those who care about such thing, I have given the humble peanut - a legume - its own post, divorced from the nut category.
Unfortunately, PCa researchers have yet to do a peanut study. In the latest nuts study [1]:
"Total nut consumption was defined as the sum of peanut and other nut consumption." Ironically, the only "nut" mentioned by name in the entire paper (full text) was the peanut.
When the British Dail Mail reported the study in June [2], it claimed that:
"Most of the nut-eaters in the US study ate peanuts ..."
That isn't stated in the actual paper. In any case, I'm going to treat it as a peanut study.
"Five 1oz servings a week of any type of nut cut mortality rates by 34 per cent, researchers found."
If it really doesn't matter if you eat peanuts, Brazils or pistachios, perhaps it isn't about the actual nut?
Peanuts are lumped with nuts because of the fat. Nut eaters are presumably not following a Dean Ornish 10% fat diet. More fat = less carbs. Maybe that's important, because the fat profiles are all over the map.
The study was published online June 9th this year:
"We conducted an incidence analysis and a case-only survival analysis in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study on the associations of nut consumption (updated every 4 years) with PCa diagnosis, and PCa-specific and overall mortality."
"In 26 years, 6,810 incident PCa cases were identified from 47, 299 men. There was no association between nut consumption and being diagnosed with PCa or PCa-specific mortality. However, patients who consumed nuts five or more times per week after diagnosis had a significant 34% lower rate of overall mortality than those who consumed nuts less than once per month ..."
It's said that we die with PCa - not of it. If that's the case, we can knock mortality down by 34% by eating "peanuts and other nuts". The finding might be a downer for those looking to avoid death from PCa, but look at it this way: the men who were avoiding death from other causes by eating nuts, did not increase their likelihood of death from PCa. I always think that when I do something heart-healthy, I'm increasing my chance of dying from PCa. The more I survive, the grimmer things look. LOL
The paper is titled:
"Nut consumption and prostate cancer risk and mortality"
but it is really showing that men with PCa can slash the risk of CVD death. It is well-known that PCa comes with added CVD risk, & ADT only makes that worse. Dr. Myers has stated several times that he is more concerned with cardiovascular issues in new patients. He ends up doing what he says their GPs should be doing.
...
[3] "Peanuts as a source of beta-sitosterol, a sterol with anticancer properties."
(2000 - U.S.) "Work from our laboratory, as well as others, suggests a protective role of phytosterols (PS), especially beta-sitosterol, from ... prostate ... cancer."
"Roasted peanuts contain 61-114 mg PS/100 g depending on the peanut variety, 78-83% of which is in the form of beta-sitosterol."
"Peanut butter, which represents 50% of the peanuts consumed in the United States, contains 144-157 mg PS/100 g."
[4] "Occurrence of resveratrol in edible peanuts." (2000 - U.S.)
"Resveratrol has been associated with reduced cardiovascular disease and reduced cancer risk."
"Peanuts from each market type, Virginia, runner, and Spanish, produced in four different locations contained from 0.03 to 0.14 microg of resveratrol/g. Seed coats from runner and Virginia types contained approximately 0.65 microg/g of seed coat"
[5] Fatty acids (from the USDA database)
- Saturated fat = 6% (palmitic acid = 5%)
- Monounsaturated fat = 24% (oleic acid = 24%)
- Polyunsaturated fat = 16% (linoleic acid = 16%)
---
[6] Conclusion.
With a narrow focus on PCa, one shouldn't expect much from peanuts. However, looking at overall survival, peanuts look very attractive.
To get the full benefit of phytochemicals, the skins should be consumed.
Apparently, Dr. Myers advises against peanuts.
I took against them about 7 years ago, but forget why. They are rich in folate - perhaps that's why. But I doubt that Myers cares about folate.
-Patrick
[1] nature.com/bjc/journal/v115...
[2] dailymail.co.uk/news/articl...
