水煮花生、炸花生米、花生煲湯……花生營養豐富、物美價廉，是中國人喜愛的堅果。近日，美國《烹飪之光》雜誌綜合最新研究，刊文介紹了花生的5個好處。
1.控製食欲。
花生是“高飽腹感”食物，能讓你感覺更飽，或者飽的時間更長。發表在《營養與代謝》期刊上的一篇文章發現，用花生當零食的人吃得更少。美國普度 大學營養科學係教授馬特斯博士說：“花生的高飽腹感並不僅僅是脂肪、膳食纖維和蛋白質含量的原因，而是所有因素協同作用的結果。”布萊根婦女醫院營養係主 任凱西·麥克馬納斯說，如果在早餐時吃花生或花生醬，就能減少這一天的進食量。
2.有助減鹽。
鹹味零食通常是高鹽食物。但鹹味花生的鹽含量，比同樣重量的切片麵包、冰凍華夫餅還要少。因此，鹹味花生不但能滿足你吃鹹的愛好，還不容易導致攝入食鹽過量。
3.穩定血糖。
研究發現，如果人們把飲食中的一份紅肉換成花生，患糖尿病的風險會降低21%。花生會減緩碳水化合物的吸收。如果早上吃點花生，那麽你一天的血糖都不會過高。
4.保持心髒健康。
《營養學》期刊上一篇文章指出，吃花生最多的人，患冠心病的風險能減少35%。研究人員認為，花生中的脂肪酸構成，再加上其他成分的作用，能降低低密度脂蛋白（壞膽固醇）的含量，讓心髒更加健康。
5.減少結腸癌風險。
研究發現，每周至少吃兩次花生的女性，患結腸癌的風險能降低58%；而每周至少吃兩次花生的男性，能降低27%的風險。科學家分析，可能是花生中的葉酸和其他抗癌的營養物質起了作用。
A number of studies have shown that nutrients found in peanuts, including folic acid, phytosterols, phytic acid (inositol hexaphosphate) and resveratrol, may have anti-cancer effects. A good source all these nutrients—including the phytosterol beta-sisterol, which has demonstrated anti-cancer actions—peanuts have long been considered a likely candidate as a colon cancer-preventive food.(Awad AB, Chan KC, et al., Nutr Cancer)
Colorectal cancer is the second most fatal malignancy in developed countries and the third most frequent cancer worldwide. In Taiwan, not only has incidence of colon cancer increased, but the likelihood of dying from the disease rose 74% from 1993 to 2002.
Taiwanese researchers decided to examine peanuts' anti-colon cancer potential and conducted a 10-year study involving 12,026 men and 11,917 women to see if eating peanuts might affect risk of colon cancer.(Yeh CC, You SL, et al., World J Gastroenterol)
Researchers tracked study participants' weekly food intake, collecting data on frequently consumed foods and folk dishes such as sweet potato, bean products, peanut products, pickled foods, and foods that contained nitrates or were smoked.
Risk of colon cancer was found to be highly correlated with both peanuts, which greatly lessened risk, and pickled foods, which greatly increased risk, particularly in women.
Eating peanuts just 2 or more times each week was associated with a 58% lowered risk of colon cancer in women and a 27% lowered risk in men.
［說實話，我很懷疑上麵大部分內容的真實性。其實花生對健康的影響曆來爭議很大，有人認為對心血管係統不好，更多的人擔心黃曲黴。但花生不是垃圾食品。吃幾粒花生挺好，但不要走極端。］
