Nutritional and medicinal value of peanuts

Peanuts, commonly known as "fallen peanuts", have a legend in ancient my country that peanuts have the power of nourishing life and immortality, and are praised by people as "longevity fruit". As the folk proverb says, eating peanuts regularly can maintain health, and eating peanuts will make you miss meat.

Nutritional value of peanuts

Peanuts are as nutritious as soybeans and are a high-protein oil crop. Its protein content can be as high as about 30%, and its nutritional value is comparable to animal foods such as eggs, milk, and lean meat, and it is easily absorbed and utilized by the human body. Peanut kernels contain 8 essential amino acids for the human body in a suitable proportion. They are also rich in fat, lecithin, vitamin A, vitamin B, vitamin E, vitamin K, as well as calcium, phosphorus, iron and other elements. Regular consumption of peanuts can indeed play a nourishing and longevity role.

Peanuts are rich in nutrients, containing a variety of vitamins, lecithin, protein amino acids, choline, oleic acid, stearic acid, palmitic acid, etc. Peanuts also produce much more calories than meat, 1 times higher than milk and 4 times higher than eggs. Therefore, they are widely welcomed by people.

Medicinal value of peanuts

Peanuts are also a very good traditional Chinese medicine. Peanuts are sweet and mild in nature, and have the effects of strengthening the body, tonifying deficiency, soothing the spleen and stomach, moistening the lungs and resolving phlegm, regulating qi and nourishing blood, and promoting diuresis and reducing swelling.

1. Health care for cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases

After years of research, medical nutrition experts have discovered that peanuts and peanut products contain three health-promoting ingredients that are beneficial to the cardiovascular system: resveratrol, monounsaturated fatty acids and co-sitosterol.

As an important polyphenol biochemical substance, resveratrol not only has antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic and anti-thrombotic effects, but also has obvious antioxidant and anti-free radical effects (free radicals are an important cause of diseases such as aging, cancer, and arthritis). It not only has a certain preventive and therapeutic effect on coronary heart disease and hyperlipidemia, but also can inhibit the formation of tumors. According to measurements, each gram of peanut kernel contains about 1.7-3.7μg of resveratrol, with the highest content in the seed coat and seed coat. At present, my country's scientific research and breeding departments have screened out high-resveratrol peanut varieties with 18.8μg per gram of peanut kernel.

Unsaturated fatty acids in peanut oil account for about 80% of the total fatty acids. Unsaturated fatty acids can improve the balance of prostaglandins and thromboxanes in the blood, increase the content of high-density lipoprotein, and reduce platelet aggregation and thrombosis.

Caudal-sitosterol is a natural chemopreventive agent for tumor diseases with strong physiological activity. It has the function of blocking the formation of cancer cells induced by carcinogens, can effectively reduce the cholesterol level in serum, and play a role in preventing and treating cardiovascular diseases such as hypertension and coronary heart disease. It can also promote sebum secretion and maintain the physiological activity and surface activity of moisturizing and softening.

2. Lowering blood pressure and blood lipids

Eating peanuts can decompose cholesterol in the liver into bile acid and enhance its excretion, thereby lowering cholesterol. It has a significant effect on preventing atherosclerosis and coronary heart disease in the middle-aged and elderly. Peanuts and their leaves and shells contain a kind of luteolin, which has a blood pressure lowering effect, and the tail-sitosterol contained in peanuts has a lipid-lowering effect. Washing peanut leaves and shells and soaking them in water instead of tea has a certain effect on people with abnormal blood pressure and blood lipids. Peanut shell preparations are effective in treating elevated serum cholesterol.

(III) Hemostasis function

Peanut kernel red skin is rich in glycerol and sterol lipids, which can inhibit the dissolution of fibrin, promote platelet regeneration, strengthen the contraction function of capillaries, have a wide range of hemostatic effects, and have good therapeutic effects on various bleeding diseases, such as thrombocytopenic purpura, aplastic anemia, hemophilia, congenital telangiectasia hemorrhage, thrombocytopenia hemorrhage, gastrointestinal bleeding, tuberculosis and bronchiectasis hemoptysis, urinary tract bleeding, gingival bleeding, epistaxis, traumatic oozing and allergic purpura. Medical research units in Shanghai, Changzhou and other places in my country have extracted "Xue Ning No. 1" from peanut kernel red skin, which has obvious hemostatic effects on various bleeding diseases, especially thrombocytopenic purpura, hemophilia and visceral bleeding, with an effective rate of 83%.

Dietary health care prescriptions

1. Malnutrition

1. Nutritional edema: 60 grams of peanut kernels and 1 crucian carp, stew them together, add a little wine and eat.

2. For beriberi, take 90g peanut kernels, 60g red beans, 60g red dates and 30g garlic, decoct in water and take twice a day.

3. For simple malnutrition in children, use purified detoxified peanut oil to seal the "Zusanli" and "Shangjuxu" acupoints, 0.5ml for each acupoint, and it will be cured in 1-2 times.

(ii) Cough, phlegm and wheezing

1. Asthma: Take 15g each of peanut kernels, rock sugar and frosted mulberry leaves, cook until the peanut kernels are well cooked, then remove the mulberry leaves and eat.

2. For chronic cough, boil 30g each of peanut kernels, honey and jujube in water, eat the peanuts and jujube, drink the soup, take twice a day

3. For whooping cough, use No. 15 peanut kernels, No. 15 watermelon seeds (crushed), 1.5 grams of safflower, and 30 grams of rock sugar. Boil them in water and drink as tea, and eat the peanut kernels.

3. Diuresis and hemostasis

1. For chronic nephritis, take 60 grams of peanuts and 60 grams of red dates, decoct them into a soup and drink it instead of tea. Eat the peanuts and drink the soup for 1 week.

2. Chronic nephritis: 120g peanut kernels and 250g broad beans are put into a wok, add water and cook over low heat. When the water turns brown and turbid, it can be taken, and appropriate amount of brown sugar can be added when taking it.