Replacing white rice bars with peanuts as snacks in the habitual diet improves metabolic syndrome risk among Chinese adults: a randomized controlled trial

Year Published: 2020

Am J Clin Nutr

Di Wang, Liang Sun, Xiaoran Liu, Zhenhua Niu, Shuangshuang Chen, Lixin Tang, He Zheng, Xiafei Chen, Huaixing Li, Ling Lu, Vasanti Malik, Xu Lin

This 12-week study included 224 participants who either had or were at risk for metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome affects approximately 1 in 5 adults and is a cluster of factors that increase a person’s risk for developing cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. In fact, a person with metabolic syndrome is 5 times as likely to develop Type 2 Diabetes and 2 times as likely to develop Cardiovascular Disease within 10 years as someone without it. In this study, participants were given either white rice bars or peanuts to include in their daily diet for 12 weeks.

Key Findings: Although there were no differences seen in the individual measures like fasting glucose and lipid profie, the peanut group had a significantly higher rate of reversal of metabolic syndrome than the white rice group. People with metabolic syndrome who ate 2 servings (2oz) of lightly salted peanuts each day for 12 weeks had a 2.33 times higher chance of reversing the condition than those who did not. There was also a trend towards reduced risk for developing metabolic syndrome with peanut consumption compared to not eating peanuts. As an added benefit, peanut inclusion in the diet did not promote weight gain.