Healthy Side Dishes

Make your meal complete with these healthy dinner and lunch sides made with peanuts. Peanuts and peanut butter not only add great flavor to your meals, they are packed with nutrients like protein and heart healthy components.

High Protein Side Dishes

One ounce of peanuts— about a handful— contains 7 grams of protein. That’s more than other nuts and for good reason: Botanically speaking, peanuts are legumes rather than true nuts, so their protein content is comparable to many beans. It’s important to consume protein every day, because the body doesn’t store it the way it does fats and carbohydrates. Dietary protein is used by the body to build and maintain bones, muscles, cartilage, skin, blood, enzymes and hormones.

Heart Healthy Side Dishes

When it comes to our hearts, peanuts in particular can provide some big-time benefits — which is why they’re included in FDA’s qualified Health Claim for nuts. Peanuts are a rich source of a heart-healthy type of fat that lowers LDL levels, and have shown to reduce heart disease risk by 15%. They also contain healthy oils, plant-based protein and fiber that can help further reduce unhealthy cholesterol. Our bodies have 100,000 miles of arteries that carry oxygen throughout the body, but when they become ‘stiff’ due to poor nutrition or lack of exercise, it raises our risk for things like a heart attack or stroke. Eating peanuts regularly can help prevent that stiffness and lower those risks.

So, explore these side dish recipes with peanuts for an amazing feast, healthy heart and body!

References:

1. Source: USDA Food Composition Databases, based on dry-roasted nuts.
2. Guasch-Ferré M, Liu X, Malik VS, Sun Q, Willett WC, Manson JE, Rexrode KM, Li Y, Hu FB, Bhupathiraju SN. Nut Consumption and Risk of Cardiovascular Disease. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2017 Nov 14;70(20):2519-2532. doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2017.09.035. PubMed PMID: 29145952; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5762129.
3. Coates AM, Hill AM, Tan SY. Nuts and Cardiovascular Disease Prevention. Curr Atheroscler Rep. 2018 Aug 9;20(10):48. doi: 10.1007/s11883-018-0749-3. Review. PubMed PMID: 30094487.