Does Eating Peanut Butter Every Day Impact Your Early Death Risk?

Eating Peanut Butter: A 2015 study in the International Journal of Epidemiology looked at the diets of people aged 55 to 69 living in the Netherlands. Eating up to 5 grams of nuts (a few peanuts or almonds) every day was linked to a 12% lower risk of all-cause mortality.

The more nuts you eat, the better. Eating up to 10 grams of nuts like walnuts every day reduces your risk by 26%, and more than 10 grams of nuts (less than an ounce) lowers your risk of early death by 28%. Eating nuts also lowers your risk of dying from neurodegenerative disease and cardiovascular disease by 44% and 17%, respectively. Peanut butter wasn’t linked to any risk of death from any disease.

Meanwhile, a 2019 study in Nutrients also found that eating nuts decreases your risk of death, but didn’t find a link with peanut butter. The researchers explained that people in their study who ate peanut butter had different lifestyle factors than people who ate nuts. For instance, peanut butter eaters were more likely to eat red meat, smoke cigarettes, and neglect exercise.

The researchers also said that processing peanut butter might take away some of the health benefits of nuts. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the thin skin of a peanut has powerful antioxidants similar to green tea.