Peanut butter has been with us through thick and thin, from childhood into adulthood, from peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to a healthy topping for your morning bowl of oatmeal. Unless you’re allergic to peanuts you probably even have your favorite kind of peanut butter be it smooth or crunchy, sweetened or salty, regular or organic, store-bought or homemade. It’s a great thing to dip apples into, use as a spread, or even add to salad dressings and sauces. But here’s something you probably didn’t know about it – peanut butter has one major side effect.
You probably grew up knowing that peanut butter is good for you. It’s a source of healthy fat and fiber, it’s a very good source of protein and it packs a decent amount of magnesium and iron too. Peanut butter can balance out any meal or snack and help you stay feeling full for longer. But here’s the kicker – eating it every day can have an inflammatory effect on the body of the more sensitive peanut butter lovers.
Even if you’ve never been allergic to peanut butter before, eating it every single day can cause you to develop a peanut intolerance, which isn’t as bad as an allergy but still isn’t fun to deal with. The symptoms of peanut butter intolerance can range from fatigue and skin rashes to acne and weight gain. So if you’ve noticed some of those symptoms and you eat peanut butter every day it’s best to get your bloodwork done.
The good news is that, unlike allergies, food intolerances can be reversed. All you need to do is temporarily remove the offensive food from your everyday meals, diversify your diet, and after a certain time, you can successfully reintroduce it again.
Food intolerances are pretty common for people who like eating the same kind of foods every day for months or even years. And while we’ve already established that these things are reversible, you don’t really want to have to cut out foods from your diet, do you?
Moderation is key. If you love peanut butter you can still have it relatively often, but perhaps try to switch it up and have it every other day, or every two days or so. This way you get to enjoy all the benefits without risking any unpleasant side effects. Turns out that “too much of a good thing” is a very real thing when it comes to peanut butter.
