When You Eat Peanut Butter Every Day, This Is What Happens To Your Arteries – Health Digest

Two tablespoons of smooth peanut butter has 188 calories and almost 16 grams of fat with no cholesterol. You’ll want to pay closer attention to the proportion of saturated fats and unsaturated fats. Peanut butter has 3 grams of saturated fat versus 9 grams of unsaturated fat, which means there is three times more unsaturated fat than saturated fat. While saturated fat is often tied to heart disease because it raises LDL cholesterol, it also raises HDL cholesterol. HDL cholesterol is what sweeps your arteries of cholesterol so it can be processed by the liver. The unsaturated fat works to lower your LDL cholesterol.

However, nutrition professors at Harvard Medical School suggest avoiding eating too much peanut butter because it can lead to atherosclerosis. Instead, it might be wise to include other types of nuts and nut butter as part of an overall healthy diet. The American Heart Association suggests getting no more than 5% or 6% of your daily calories from saturated fat, which comes to about 13 grams for a 2,000-calorie diet. Two tablespoons of peanut butter’s 3 grams of saturated fat will fit into this window, but you’ll have to watch the saturated fat from other foods as well if you want to protect your arteries.