ALBARIO NIKO
PINGKIAN MERRYFLOR
NIEVARES BERNIE
BASILIO MARICIS
LEYCO ELOISA
GUILLERMO ELGAR
We already tend to steer clear of peanuts for some obvious (to our readers) reasons: the fact that they’re legumes, rather than actual nuts; the potentially dangerous, “anti-nutrient” lectins found in them; and their prominent spot in the upper echelons of the “Most Common Food Allergens” list. But there’s another reason to steer clear of peanuts, something we’ve touched on briefly in the past but never expounded upon. Peanuts, along with a couple other crops we tend to avoid, like corn and cereals, are especially susceptible to a mold that produces a mycotoxin called aflatoxin.
Aflatoxin is a carcinogen that has been shown to cause liver cancer in rats (and, presumably, in humans). The amounts given to the rats in the study were highly concentrated, of course, with the express intent to study the effects of acute aflatoxicosis. You won’t be getting a couple grams of aflatoxin with every bag of peanuts or anything, so acute aflatoxicosis isn’t a big issue for people – at least in the US.
That’s not to suggest that correlations between aflatoxin ingestion and cancer rates in humans haven’t been found. In China, for example, a study of five groups of people from different villages found definite positive correlations between the amount of aflatoxin ingested and liver cancer mortality rates. Those villagers who ingested less aflatoxin were less likely to develop liver cancer; those who ingested more were more likely. Unsurprisingly, the three major sources of aflatoxins in this study were peanuts, peanut oil, and corn. Similar reports of aflatoxicosis have been made in India and Kenya.
India, China, Kenya – all developing countries with huge populations to feed. As the recent Chinese pet food contamination debacle attests, health and food standards in developing nations are often lacking.