I was chatting with my father yesterday and he mentioned that his
persistent and often severe psoriasis had disappeared.  He has
had the condition for about 45 years, so this was no small
surprise.  I inherited it, but have been able to control it by
avoiding tomatoes and oranges, or at least I *think* that's how.

Anyway, I asked him if he had changed his diet in any way, and he
said he had.  He started eating peanuts.  I had told him about
the tomatoes and oranges thing about 10 months ago, but it didn't
work for him.

This is interesting to me for a number of reasons.  I eat a lot
of nuts, but not a lot of peanuts.  I do eat them occasionally,
however.  My grandmother (my father's mother) also had psoriasis
flare-ups once in a while but not often.  She was very fond of
peanuts, which she ate raw.

Ray says that peanuts are not paleo because they are not readily
digestible raw.  Well, they certainly taste better roasted, but
they do appear to be well tolerated by some in the raw state.  I
know that I don't have any trouble eating raw peanuts.  On the
other hand, although it is not certain where peanuts originated,
there is some evidence that they may be from Peru, making them
New World foods and therefore new to the food supply of most or
all humans (depending on where you stand on the question of
habitation of the Americas).  Some take the stand that no New
World food can be paleo, regardless of whether it is edible raw.
This rule eliminates certain foods, such as corn and potatoes,
that are not paleo even on Ray's looser definition, but it also
rules out tomatoes, which are Neanderthin-legal.

Getting back to peanuts, I plan to do an experiment on myself, by
re-introducing oranges and tomatoes into my diet, but eliminating
peanuts strictly.  I want to see if the psoriasis returns.  Then
I'll try adding peanuts and see what happens.  My father noted in
passing that the other thing that has changed since he has been
eating peanuts is that his cholesterol, which tends to be
elevated even with medication, has dropped sharply.  This is less
surprising, since there is scientific literature showing that
peanuts cause LDL cholesterol to fall, but it's still
interesting.

It seems to me that the question of whether peanuts are paleo
depends entirely on the New World foods question, if indeed
peanuts are New World food.  If I can reproduce my father's
success with psoriasis by eating peanuts, this would be worth
knowing for others who have this annoying condition.

Todd Moody
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