I just fininshed reading John Berardi’s article entitled “The Winning Formula
How to manipulate diet and exercise
to look good naked” In his list of good foods he writes that mixed nuts are good to eat but (No Peanuts) as he puts it. I eat a bunch of natural Peanut Butter which is ok right? Then why are the nuts themselves bad?
PENUTS ARE BAD? SINCE WHEN?
If you have not noticed yet, Berardi likes to do things in the most perfect way possible. Peanuts and natural peanut butter ARE NOT a bad fat source, but they are not the best source. Flax oil, fish, walnuts, pistachios, olive oil, almonds are all slightly better fat sources and that is why he recommends those over peanuts. All lot of people (myself included) really like natural peanut butter and can easily eat too much of it in proportion to other fats.
we should get another black dood to invent cashew or almond or what not butter or something… would be neater for us bb doods.
This has been discussed in many other threads. If just looking for additional calories in diet, natural peanut butter will add additional fat calories but peanuts or peanut butter has none of the good omega-3 fats we’re always trying get more of in our diet. Real nuts (peanuts aren’t a nut but a legume like peas) have a better fat profile with nuts like walnuts and almonds having quite a bit of good omega-3 fats in addition to many other critical micro-nutrients. Real nuts are just a much better choice all around. Peanuts have a lot of omega-6 fats which we get to much of already. You don’t want to up your comsumption of any more omega-6 fats, instead eat more omega-3 sources of fat including real nuts and eat them raw for best nutrition.
Your comment would have been funny if you left out the “black” part.
I actually saw natural Almond butter and a bunch of other ‘nut-butters’ (hmm, sounds like a porn term) in a health food store I was in last week (I live in Canada, though). If you’re serious, I’m sure you can find others, but I haven’t tried any of them.
Why? George Washington Carver was a black man…I don’t see the racism. Could very well be “white privilege” though.
If you own a food processor you an make your own nut butters, just throw in the nuts and lt it whirl till it stars to get turn into a paste. You can use a blender, but you can only do a small amount at a time.
Joel I respect your opinion, and I understand that you can’t tell my tone of voice or from knowing me in rl whether I’m jokingly saying that or not. All I know that George Washington Carver loved the peanut, I mean how many things did he invent from it? Did a white man ever love a peanut so? I don’t know… but I doubt it. I go thru 1.5 jars of smucker’s brand natural creamy pb, so I appreciate the contribution that George Washington Carver made to my life and bb bulking progress.
Wow, that’s cool! You don’t have to add anything to it? I’m gonna try and do some walnut butter.
while we’re on this topic, can anyone quickly tell me why commercial peanut butter (i.e. skippy) is so bad? the stuff is delectable and oh-so-spreadable…it’s also significantly cheaper (at least around here)
See “Foods that make you look good nekid” article at T-mag to learn why regular pb is bad. Or just look at the ingredients.
Commercial brands of peanut butter (i.e. skippy) are full of partially hydrogenated vegetable oils, which, if you haven’t heard, is about the unhealthiest substance you can put in your mouth. If pressed into either eating a jar of skippy or smoking a pack, I’d smoke.
How do you make your own nut butter? This sounds very interesting… post up some more info.
whoa thanks for the clarification…while i know there are good fats and bad fats, i never really worried tooo much about the quality of the fats…when dieting and needin to round out my daily fat/protein intake, i usually have a few spoons of the peanut butter in my house: skippy roasted honey nut peanut butter (i don’t do the shopping). when you say its the unhealthiest substance, do you mean generally unhealthy (you’ll die earlier) or trainingwise unhealthy (you won’t get ripped/large)? or both?
One of my favorite health food stores and several of the Fry’s Supermarkets here (Arizona) have peanut grinders where you can make your own natural peanut butter, just like a coffee grinder. I’ve seen some for almond butter too but it is pretty expensive.
I mean that trans-fats are damaging mainly for general health. I think they contribute to insulin resistance too, which is a negative for bodybuilding, but I’m not positive. If you want to read a real good write up on reasons to avoid trans-fats on this site, put in a search for Berardi’s article ‘Biology Bash in Barrie’.
I don’t think that explanation cuts it. Walnuts have plenty of omega-6. Peanut oil is 19% saturated fat, which may have something to do with it, but I’d like to hear Berardi’s reasoning.
A couple of thoughts, guys:
I plugged a few combinations of what I called “Nut Medleys” into my “Food Processor” program. I used varying combinations of Macadamia nuts, Almonds, Walnuts, Cashews and Peanuts (all at 1/4 cup apiece). The “variable” was peanuts.
Surprisingly, whether peanuts were included or not, the breakdown of percent of fat calories did not change much. In other words, whether peanuts were included or not made little difference in the saturated, mono, and poly unsat percentages in the mix.
Now…in answer to screwtape…trans fatty acids are a detriment tooverall health. Making a product “smoothe” or increasing it’s shelf life by hydrogenation alters the chemical composition of the fatty acid molecule. We have not evolved enzyme systems that effectively digest these altered fats. In turn, this leads to a cascade of chemical reactions that lead to arterial damage. The problem isn’t cholesterol in our high incidence of cardiovascular disease in the West…it’s trans fatty acids that totally permeate our food supply.
So…a nut mix that includes peanuts should be just fine. If you like peanut butter, go with the Natural forms. It ain’t smoothe…but it’s much healthier!
Hope this helps!