Our recipes help you savor the season.
Making your holidays fun and festive doesn’t mean you can’t also make them healthy! That’s why we’ve asked a few of our friends to share some of their favorite peanut-powered recipes, in an all-new, absolutely free recipe book! How’s that for spreading good cheer?
And if you’re curious about some of the ways these simple, delicious peanut dishes can help you through the holidays (and, well, every day), check out our top ten healthy holiday benefits below!
Put Some Ease in the Season with Our Free Recipe Book!
10 Reasons Why You Should Add Peanuts to Your Healthy Holiday Recipes
1. De-Stress from Holiday Distress. From shopping to traveling and everything in-between, Santa isn’t the only one feeling the pressure during the holidays. Thankfully, peanuts contain an antioxidant known as P-coumaric acid, which studies show may help our bodies regulate our mood, stress, and anxiety.1
Something else that can lower your stress level is our cookbook’s easy, healthy holiday recipe for Peanut Thai Chili Brussels Sprouts from our friend Carmy. See? Taking care of your health doesn’t have to be hard.
2. Keep your blood pressure in check. Yes, that person totally stole your parking spot at the mall, and yes, the gift you ordered online won’t make it until January 12th—’tis the season, right? But even with all the ways the holidays can raise our blood pressure, the good news is that many of the essential nutrients in peanuts—like manganese, niacin, copper, magnesium, and potassium—can help support healthy blood pressure levels.
Another thing that can lower your blood pressure is slowing down and enjoying a nice dinner with family. And if you want some help bringing your guests to the table in a hurry, check out our cookbook for a Heavenly and Healthy Deep-Fried Turkey recipe.
3. Trim the tree (and your waist). The holidays are filled with so many gifts, but one that we’d like to return is the extra weight we always seem to pick up over the winter months. So, if you’re worried about becoming a little too much like a bowl full of jelly, skip the pie for a handful of peanuts. Each serving provides 7g of hunger-satisfying protein (more than any other nut) and can help you fight off snack attacks for hours on end.
If skipping the sweets just isn’t an option, check out our cookbook for healthy holiday desserts, including Crispy Toasted Quinoa Chocolate Peanut Butter Truffles.
4. Stay energized. Peanuts are considered an “energy-dense” food, containing the kinds of good fats that your body can use for energy. 2 And honestly, who couldn’t use some extra energy around the holidays?
These peanut snack recipes will help keep you going through wrapping presents, caroling, hanging the mistletoe and everything else on your holiday to-do list.
5. Avoid the Midday Crash. There’s nothing worse than needing to make that last-minute, post-work run to the grocery store for the evening’s holiday dinner menu when your own energy tank is on empty. That’s why peanuts or peanut butter are a great lunchtime choice—they have a low glycemic index, which can help stabilize your blood sugar and prevent that late-afternoon “crash” feeling.
6. Support Healthy Cholesterol. Peanuts are rich in fats that help lower LDL levels (aka “bad” cholesterol) and have been shown to reduce heart disease risk by 15%.3 So if you’re planning on indulging in some holiday goodies, don’t forget to give your body something it’ll like, too!
(If you’re really sweet on holiday treats, though, we’ve got good news: our cookbook has healthy holiday dessert ideas you don’t have to feel guilty about.)
7. Stay Heart Healthy Around the Hearth. Peanuts and peanut butter pack a lot of nutrition that can help support your heart, including 19 vitamins and minerals, fiber, bioactives and healthy fats (like those found in olive oil and avocados).
8. Prevent “Holiday Brain”. When you’re on the spot trying to remember the names of every distant relatives’ kids’ spouses’ pet, not to mention every recipe ingredient, travel schedule and more, we could all use all the help we can get. But no matter what your age, peanuts can help give your brain a boost—whether it’s supporting cognition, or your memory and processing power.4
9. Lower Your Disease Risk. We know it’s not a particularly cheerful topic, but what better reminder to take care of yourself than when you’re surrounded by the people who love you? The unique blend of nutrients like unsaturated fats, vitamins, minerals and bioactives found in peanuts and the healthy holiday recipes in our free recipe book will allow you to spend the holidays feeling good about your choices.
10. Live a longer, healthier life. Even with all the hectic schedules and last-minute shopping, we wouldn’t trade the holiday season for the world—and we want everyone to look forward to plenty more to come. So, make it more than a healthy holiday and support your health all year long. Take a word of advice from the Journal of the American Heart Association, who recommends eating a healthy plant-based diet with plenty of nuts, legumes (aka peanuts), fruits and vegetables.5
Peanuts are Your Recipe for a Healthy Holiday.
Whether you’re shopping for stockings or stocking your pantry, you’re going to need some natural energy to compete with the holiday rush. And with our free downloadable recipe book, you’ll have a head start on making this a healthy holiday you (and yours) will love.
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