Peanut Skins

As I cracked open a dry roasted, unsalted peanut this morning I began to ponder this curious little legume. What first caught my attention was the thin skin covering the nut. It is the skin that is still present when labeled Spanish peanuts.

I have robotically removed this skin without contemplation for years. We all throw out the shell, but do people eat the skin; surely, some must. Before popping the next peanut in my mouth I made sure to leave the skin intact. If you have never tried this before the results are not stellar. The skin has much more texture than flavor and its thin profile is well suited for jamming itself into guns or between teeth. I can see no potential harm only annoyance and lack of flavor in consuming the skin.

If I were to be concerned with the time expended in eating the peanut I would surely ingest the skin every time. For now, that is not my primary concern so I have little reason to ingest it. Alternatively I would consume it if there was some benefit. I know there must be some small amount of fiber, but could there be more to it?

With Google at my fingertips I found a few claims about peanut skins. First, there seems to be an urban myth about the skins. And it seems that a few bored or jonesing pot smokers have taken this issue to task. Some have claimed or propagated the myth that you can get high from smoking peanut skins. I am going to say this is a myth without even trying it. I am usually convinced by evidence, but the remote possibility that a peanut skin could create a mind altering smoke and the lack of credibility in the reports from sites such as answers.yahoo.com have crushed any urges to test this myth. Besides, it would take a lot of peanut skins to test this and I have better things to do.

The second and more likely claim is that there could be antioxidant benefit from eating the skin. There is not a lot of evidence, and it appears that raw peanuts skins provide the basis of the information. If you have never tried raw peanuts I would suggest it. They taste much different than roasted peanuts; different in a much less satisfying way.

From my evaluation of the limited information I do not see substantial benefit or harm from ingesting the skin. So I will now eat the skin. I mean, why waste it?

As a last thought, why is it so hard to find dry roasted peanuts that have been shelled which do not have maltodextrin and safflower oil added? The real problem is that I have to peel my own peanuts just to isolate them. Perhaps we will live in a world someday where simple foods are just that.