MEDICAL INSIGHTS: Boiled peanuts are a Southeastern staple (2024)

If you want to eat a healthy snack food, at least here in the Southeast, then you should consider boiled peanuts.

Peanuts, however, are not really nuts– they are legumes. Legumes are in a class of vegetables that include peas, beans, soybeans and lentils. These are all nutritious foods that have a pod, and the seed is inside the pod. Therefore, when you eat peanuts you are really eating the seed.

Peanuts are healthy because they contain niacin, riboflavin, folate and vitamin E as well as dietary fiber. Even after boiling, peanuts provide potassium, calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, selenium and copper. These are important elements that supplement the diet.

One half cup of peanuts contains 24 grams of fiber. Peanuts are energy dense and a great source of protein. Lab tests concerning peanuts show that boiled peanuts have higher levels of antioxidants compared to roasted peanuts. Boiled peanuts have four times the antioxidants compared to raw or roasted peanuts. Reveseratrol, an antioxidant and bioactive compound, is preserved more through boiling than roasting. Boiling draws antioxidants out of the shell and into the seed.

Fully mature peanuts are not as good for boiling compared to raw or green peanuts. Peanuts for boiling are usually harvested 90 to 110 days after planting whereas peanuts to be used for roasting are harvested after about 130 to 150 days after planting.

The first recipe in print in this country for boiled peanuts may have appeared around 1899, but boiled peanuts were eaten in this long before that. Peanuts are assumed to have originated in South America, probably in Peru or Brazil. From there the Portuguese and Spanish sailors introduced them to Africa and other regions. Eventually peanuts ended up here in North America, but boiled peanuts are also eaten and enjoyed in China, Africa, Vietnam, India, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand and Central and South America.

Jimmy Carter and Thomas Jefferson are probably our most famous peanut farmers; however, governor Mark Sanford signed South Carolina bill H.4585 in 2006, making boiled peanuts the official snack food of South Carolina. Honor our state and eat some of its nutritious bounty as you watch your favorite football team on TV or in the stadium.