Eating peanuts can help prevent colon and rectal cancer and eating peanut sprouts can slow the aging process, two researchers in Taiwan said yesterday.
The results of the two studies by China Medical University (CMU) and National Chiayi University (NCU) challenged the common view that eating many peanuts or peanut butter is risky because aflatoxin -- the fungus on peanut shells -- can cause liver cancer.
Aflatoxin is formed because of improper storage and is usually caused by humid weather.
CMU researchers found that eating peanuts frequently can help prevent colon and rectal cancer after they studied the eating habits of 23,941 residents in eight counties in Taiwan.
Yeh Chih-ching (葉志清), assistant professor at CMU's Department of Risk Management, said that during the course of the study, from 1991 to 2001, 109 people dev-eloped colon or rectal cancer.
"We compared the cancer patients' eating habits with that of those who did not have cancer and found that the latter had been eating more peanuts," he said.
Yeh said eating peanuts twice a week can cut women's risk of developing colon or rectal cancer by 58 percent and men's chances by 27 percent.
Yeh said that phytic acid, phytosterol and resveratrol in peanuts have cancer-preventing effects.
His study found no link between aflatoxin and the development of liver cancer, he added.
Meanwhile, a study by NCU professor Chiu Yi-yuan (邱義源) showed that eating peanut sprouts can prolong lifespans because it is rich in the antioxidant resveratrol.
Chiu, who has been studying peanuts for 25 years, said peanut sprouts contain 30 parts per million of resveratrol, compared with 1 part per million of resveratrol in red wine, whose health benefits are well-known.
In Taiwan, peanuts are also called "changshengguo" (
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