AVOID  Peanuts

I used to enjoy peanut sauce, especially gado-gado, an Indonesian salad from Bali. Then I happened to notice something many years ago that changed my mind about peanuts. It seems people I knew who developed liver cancer had a love for peanuts; they would eat them all the time. Then I read that even organic peanut butter developed this certain type of fungus that grew on it. So it was not necessarily the peanut, but the fungus that co-exists on the peanut. This produces something called aflatoxin. Then I heard from a naturopath physician that peanuts are to be avoided by all humans. She told me her reasons and I found them very convincing especially when coupled with the experience of friends who developed liver cancers. I read a book called The China Study, written by a scientist who went to third world countries to convince them to eat more proteins. He studied children in the Philippines. The children of the wealthier families, were children who ate the most protein because they could afford to eat more proteins but these children all were developing and dying of liver cancer at a very young age. Liver cancer is usually a disease of an older population. There was coincidentally a little publicized study going on at the same time where researchers fed rats a known amount of the carcinogen aflatoxin [known to be in peanuts]. They divided the rats into two groups. One group ate a lower protein diet; the second group ate a high protein diet. 100% of the high protein diet rats ALL developed liver cancers and died. 0% of the low protein diet rats did not develop liver cancer. Both groups received the same, the exact same dose of the carcinogen aflatoxin. It was the same with the children of the Philippines; those who ate the most protein were dying at a very young age from liver cancer. Their source of protein was peanuts. Aflatoxin is present to a lesser degree in sesame seed paste and wheat cereals.