If a tasty bag of peanuts is one of your favorite go - to items for a healthier snack , take note : That ’s really not a egg you ’re crunch on . While they sport the " nut " name , peanuts are actually a legume , making them a member of the family of plant - based items that includes lentils , beans and soybeans .
rightful to the legume family , a peanut is composed of an eatable seed that grows inside a pod . One reason you may not promptly assort peanuts with those more familiar legumes is that you do n’t eat the peanut ’s ironic and brittle pod , like you do with many legumes – the green bean , for illustration .
Another departure lie in where the Nut grow . You wo n’t find a peanut growing on a tree , as you would with almonds or cashew . Called pasturage legumes , peanut pods maturate under the soil , originating from a bush - corresponding , creeping plant . When they ’re good and quick to harvest , they ’re pulled up , similar to a cultivated carrot or potato . Perhaps the soubriquet " ground fruitcake " is a more descriptive rubric for this tasty leguminous plant [ rootage : Asef ] .
Because peanuts grow underground , they can become contaminated with a strain of mould yell aflatoxin , which can cause illness . In the United States , the Department of Agriculture carefully monitors earthnut production and staunch the physical process for any earthnut with unsafe levels of aflatoxin [ author : Grunert ] .
Already familiar to those who follow a vegetarian dieting , items in the legume family provide a dear germ of concentrated , nonanimal protein . Peanuts hold more protein than most straight nuts , packing in 7.3 grams per ounce . They ’re also rich in a wide of the mark array of nutrients , including folate , vitamins E and B6 , zinc , atomic number 20 , iron and more [ source : The Peanut Institute ] .
Regardless of what they ’re called or where they grow , peanuts have become an American staple fibre . According toThe Peanut Institute , peanuts and peanut butter compose 67 percentage of all U.S. nut uptake . The peanut ’s versatility helps explicate this overpowering popularity – it can be roasted and eaten as a snack , pureed into peanut butter , tossed into fuss - nestling or add to adust trade good .
So next time you ’re munching on some earthnut and want to share noesis about your favorite legume … hey , go nuts .
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