The Threat of Peanut Butter
Dean
Got an interesting email recently about peanut butter and carcinogens:
Mr. Dean, Medically interested in your findings re: organic peanut butter.My response is as follows:Is there or are there additional sites/authors for me to search so that I might include your findings in giving medical advice.
Many thanks,
J. Stern, M.D.
Hi Dr. Stern.
Two articles you might want to look at are:
Beyond that, the unfortunate fact is that as far as peanut butter goes, especially "organic" peanut butter, you just have no way as a consumer of knowing what the aflatoxin content may be like. Some will always be there, it's all but unavoidable--which means that if you want to completely avoid it 100% of the time, you should eat almonds and other real nuts (and butters made from them) instead of peanut butter.
On the other hand, the risks can be exaggerated. If you just like peanut butter, the most important thing is to make sure the peanuts were quite fresh before grounding, then that the butter was put directly into an airtight container. Then, you should make sure to keep the jar tightly lidded and in the refrigerator--which frustrates some people because cold peanut butter doesn't spread as nicely, but if you're trying to avoid carcinogens that's the best way to do it.
Your safest bet is probably the most contrarian one: don't buy the "organic" varieties that are ground fresh in the store for you because you have no idea how long those peanuts have been sitting in the store (aflatoxin, produced by mold, grows over time), whereas the pre-processed stuff will have gone through rigorous FDA testing to ensure that aflatoxin content will be minimal, and then the peanuts will have been ground and put into airtight containers very shortly after FDA inspection.
In short, the most important question isn't "how recently were the peanuts ground?" but rather, "How soon after harvesting and inspection were the peanuts ground and put into an airtight container?" Because there's really no way as a consumer to test otherwise. The mold in question is pink so if you see a visible pink mold on a peanut (or corn) product you know for sure it's dangerous, but the mold is considered unacceptably toxic at levels that just aren't visible to the naked eye.
I hope that helps.
Dean
Related Posts (on one page):
- Why Would A Doctor Consult Dean?
- The Threat of Peanut Butter
On the other hand, I always tell my programming students (tongue firmly in cheek) that doctors are the stupidest end users, as programmers judge stupid: they can't learn to use the simplest programs that any entry-level office worker can master. They just can't RTFM. Why not? Because they're busy keeping up with a two-foot high mountain of medical journals... and a two-foot high mountain of patient histories... and a two-foot high mountain of textbooks for their latest certifications... and a two-foot high mountain of new drug reports... and a two-foot high mountain of new regulations and policies... and somewhere in there they might want to see their fasmilies... and treat some patients... and...
And frankly, doctors don't have much in the spare time department; and unless they're gadget freaks, they don't want to spend that precious spare time on learning to use some clunky software that will let them do what a nurse or technician or lab tech will do just fine if a doctor asks. So their standards for usability are a lot more exacting than those of the typical office worker. The office worker asks, "Can I learn to use it?" The doctor asks, "Does it do what I want, the first time and every time? Does it get in my way? Is it harder than writing or dictating instructions to the nurses?"
So maybe it makes sense for a non-specialist M.D. to tap Internet resources. But it's still kinda ironic to see an M.D. consulting a (non-medical) blog.
Short answer: No.
Medium answer: the best possible doctor you can ever have is one who doesn't think she knows everything.
Long answer: Dr. Stern wrote to me in response to an earlier article where I quoted scientific and medical authorities. He asked for more, and I gave two references written by medical authorities. So, see everything you just said.
You should believe your doctor knows more than you do about most medical things, because he does. But if he does not recognize that others--even non-MDs--may have information he doesn't have, then he's arrogant, cocky, and quite possibly dangerous to your health.
One of the best doctors I ever had was a guy named Emil Schnellbacher, who graduated medical school in the early 1950s (i.e. about 50 years ago). He told me that when he graduated from med school, the commencement speaker was an old doctor who'd graduated around the turn of the century. The old guy said, "When I graduated medical school, the commencement speaker told us that when he graduated, 50% of what he was taught turned out to be wrong. And he told the graduating class that 50% of what they had learned was probably wrong too--but they had no way of knowing which 50%, so they'd better rememeber 100% of it!"
Doctors are people. Really really smart people who you will be wise do consult if you have health issues. But you're a fool if you think they're anything other than that. A sign of a good one is that he's open-minded and doesn't think he knows everything.