March 1 is National Peanut Butter Lovers’ Day. Peanuts have been eaten in the Americas since ancient times. The Incas ate a peanut butter paste hundreds of years ago. George Washington Carver helped to popularize peanuts and peanut products. According to Dr. Walter C. Willett, a nationally-known nutrition expert and a member of the Harvard Heart Letter’s editorial board, people who eat nuts and peanut butter regularly are less likely to develop heart disease or Type 2 diabetes than those who rarely eat those products.
Two presidents have been peanut farmers – Thomas Jefferson and Jimmy Carter. And James Garfield, twentieth President of the United States said, “Man cannot live by bread alone; he must have peanut butter.”
The National Peanut Board gives the following Fun Facts:
- The average American consumes more than six pounds of peanuts and peanut butter products each year.
- The average child will eat 1,500 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before he/she graduates high school.
- Americans consume on average over 1.5 billion pounds of peanut butter and peanut products each year.
- Peanut butter is consumed in 90 percent of USA households.
- Americans eat enough peanut butter in a year to make more than 10 billion peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
- The amount of peanut butter eaten in a year could wrap the earth in a ribbon of 18-ounce peanut butter jars one and one-third times.
How to celebrate today? With peanuts, of course – roasted peanuts, boiled peanuts, a peanut butter sandwich, a peanut butter cookie, chocolate-covered peanuts, peanut butter ice cream, peanut butter fudge, peanut sauce. The list seems endless!
Genesis 1:29 Behold I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.
~N
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