November Is Peanut Butter Month

November is known as Peanut Butter Month. The United States is a leading maker and exporter of peanut butter, but its history is more than 3,000 years old.

The Incas of South America used a mashed peanut paste, and it wasn’t until the invention of modern mixing machines and the addition of vegetable oil that we got the peanut butter that we’re familiar with today.

John Harvey Kellogg is given credit for taking out a patent in 1895 on a process for preparing nut meal using boiled peanuts. He served it to the patients at his Sanitarium in Battle Creek, Mich.

There was an interesting study that came out earlier this fall that links the ability to sniff peanut butter with Alzheimer’s. They held a teaspoon of peanut butter under the nostils of Alzheimer’s patients and found that all of them had a tough time smelling it using their left nostril. They had an easier time smelling it with their right.

So does it mean peanut butter can provide a sniff test for Alzheimer’s disease. It probably needs more study, but it’s a pretty low-tech, low-cost way of taking early steps in treating the early stages of Alzheimer’s.

Other than that, Happy Peanut Butter Month.