Discussion Board

I'm sorry I keep coming up with these weird questions lately, but I can't seem to help myself. I've been thinking about this for a while.
Are there theories as to why peanuts are so much higher in fat than other legumes?

I know I should go over to some botany forums or something. But, with my response to peanuts and peanut butter, I am very depressed that whoever designs these things would perpetrate this cruel and heinous hoax on me.

Mark

In regard to their design, Mark, think about the many times in history when people have been starving and needed the extra calories from high fat foods to survive. This explanation may not satisfy you and others but it makes sense to me....

If you are not starving...eat something else!

I can appreciate that, pinkrose. I just can't seem to see the evolutionary advantage to the plant. I see the advantage to populations that ingest them. I was thinking it may have something to do with the shells being underground as opposed to other legumes, but then I'd expect things like potatoes to have fat in them.

Thanks for your response.

Mark

The thing about evolution is that there's a huge randomness factor. Some of the traits of a plant are the result of natural selection, others are just random stuff that happened that was neutral from an evolutionary perspective so it never got selected out. Very hard to tell looking at a specific trait whether it offers an evolutionary advantage at all.

That said, storing energy tends to be expensive for plants, there's usually an evolutionary advantage that can be identified when they do a lot of it. However, it's often very subtle. Usually it's a benefit that comes from having something want to eat the plant. Fruits and seeds that are attractive to eat can often result in wider seed dispersal, for example. But there are plants that benefit from having rooting animals grubbing in the ground near them, because of fertilization or better soil aeration or better water penetration/retention in the soil. That alone can be enough reason for the plant to store food energy.

It certainly seems to have that effect on me. Of course I don't have to dig them up. It's curious to me that other legumes did not select the higher fat content as well.

Thanks for your insight. I attended a lecture and am reading a book by Ropert Sapolsky of Stanford who is very bullish on the idea that all life is driven by the desire to reproduce its genetic material. I think that is why I've been focusing on these evolutionary arguments. It seems almost to be lower on Maslow's pyramid than survival in many ways. Sometimes it seems like what we are actually doing here is trying to offset the unnatural habits that our contrived environment has tricked us into adopting. I used to think of peanut butter as being on the healthy end of the spectrum. But I am certain now that it undermines my ability to fulfil those physiological needs.

Thanks again for your response.

Mark

You may enjoy checking out this researcher and his work

http://www.unm.edu/~psych/faculty/lg_gmiller.html

In Health
Jeff

Looks to be right in line with some of the things I've been hearing and reading. I will take a look at some of his work.

Thank you.

Mark