Top 10 Fun Facts About Peanuts

Since I'm called Pnut on TheTopTens, I think it was my destiny to make this list, but you never know. Peanuts are known for being a popular food around the entire world, but what makes them so fascinating sometimes are its interesting facts about them. Hi, I'm Pnut, and today I'll be telling you the Top 10 Fun Facts About Peanuts.
The Top Ten
1 An Early Diet of Peanuts Can Lower the Chances of Peanut Allergies

Never ate peanuts when I was young, but since I haven't been allergic to peanuts yet, I think I will probably be good. Recently in an interesting research by UK and US researchers have confirmed that eating peanuts at a very young age can dramatically reduce your chances of ever getting peanut allergies. This can also happen even when the child stops eating peanuts when they get older. For example, this would mean that it confirms the guess that the very low rate of peanut allergies in Israel can be attributed to the popularity of Bamba, a puffed peanut snack available in some U.S. grocery stores.

2 Peanuts are Technically Not Nuts

Yeah, this one might be pretty surprising at first, because even though they have the word "nut" in it, they actually aren't really nuts. They are actually classified as legumes. Let me explain. Instead of being classified with chestnuts hazelnuts or acorns, they are edible seeds that are part of the Leguminosae family, which includes other edible seeds such as soybeans, peas, and lentils. But just for the sake of the world not going into a crazy chaos phase, let's just call them nuts, cool?

3 There is More Than One Type of Peanut

Believe it or not, there are actually different types of peanuts all over the world! There are a total of four types: Runner, Virginia, Spanish and Valencia. Runner is known as being the most dominant of the pack, as they were first introduced into the 1970s, and quickly became popular in the US. For Virginia, they have the largest kernels and are mostly roasted and eaten as inshells. Spanish instead has a reddish brown outer skin and they are mainly used for salted peanuts and peanut butter. Finally, Valencia have three or more small kernels in the pods and they are very sweet as well.

4 Peanut Butter is Required to Contain at Least 90% Peanuts

You know, I just realized something. There are so many brands of peanut butter that it can sometimes be hard to pick a favorite. But something that is surprisingly pretty weird is that in order for it to be called peanut butter, it needs to contain at least 90% peanuts in it. This applies to traditional and natural peanut butter. Some other ingredients that they would need would be salt, oil and sugar, even though they are natural ingredients for it.

I don't know if this is true or not, but apparently peanut butter can turn into crystals and diamonds.

5 Peanuts Can Sometimes Save Lives

A brand called Plumpy'Nut is known for being a life-saving food consisting of a peanut-based paste that's used to treat severe malnutrition in emergency situations. It is mainly given to children that are in developing countries so they can gain weight quickly, which may sound like a bad thing but it is actually good for them. The United Nations have helped use this peanut paste to save lives all around the world.

6 The Average Peanut Butter Jar Has Over 500 Peanuts Inside of It

Peanut Butter is a fan favorite when it comes to all of the foods that I like, but this one I never knew at all, and if I never heard about it recently I would've probably never known. On average, there would be over 500 peanuts that would be in a 12 ounce peanut butter jar, or to be exact, 540. So if you do the math, that would be 45 peanuts in a single ounce, which I'll admit, is quite impressive.

7 People Make a Practice Out of Throwing Peanuts

Before you know it, it will become quite the popular sport someday. According to the Guiness Book of World Records, a man by the name of Colin Jackson recorded a record for throwing a peanut the farthest distance, with a total of 37.92 meters (or 124 feet, four inches). What's surprising is the fact that this guy was a former world champion hurdler, so it's most likely he has had a lot of practice with this.

8 Peanut Shells Can Have Multiple Uses

Has anyone ever focused about what peanut shells can do to help with something else? Well, whenever there are leftover peanut shells from a peanut, they can be used for making things such as kitty litter, kindling and fireplace logs too. And if you use them as packing material, it actually really help out with the environment as well since peanuts are eco-friendly.

9 Peanuts Can Be a Great Healthy Source for the Human Body

This isn't really a surprise to be honest, but it could still be considered by some to be a very fun fact. Peanuts can be a really good source for protein as well as also contain other healthy nutrients, minerals, antioxidants and vitamins too. The amino acids in the protein are needed for growth and development.

10 Peanuts are a Huge Crop in Exporting

In the United States, one of the world's leading peanut exporters, peanuts are the 18th most valuable crop. The average yearly export is between 200,000 and 250,000 metric tons! Which I'll admit is mighty impressive for a small nut, or should I say legume.

I think this fact is very interesting and is the only one I did not know

The Contenders
11 It Takes Fewer Than 5 Gallons of Water to Produce 1 Ounce of Peanuts
12 More Peanuts are Grown in Georgia Than Any Other U.S. State
13 Peanut Butter Was Originally Made for People with Poor Teeth
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