The peanut is one of America's favorite foods! Roasted in the shell for a ballpark snack, ground into peanut butter or tossed in a salad or stir-fry, peanuts find their way into everything from breakfast to dessert.
One serving of peanuts is a good source of protein, Vitamin E, Niacin, Folate, Phosphorus and Magnesium. Peanuts are naturally cholesterol-free and low in saturated fat.
Show your Peanut IQ by sharing some of these fun facts with your friends.
Peanuts are not actually nuts at all! They are legumes, like beans, peas and lentils.
Americans eat 3 pounds of peanut butter per person every year. That's about 700 million pounds, or enough to coat the floor of the Grand Canyon!
Two peanut farmers have been elected President of the United States: Thomas Jefferson and Jimmy Carter.
One acre of peanuts will make 30,000 peanut butter sandwiches.
How Peanuts Became Popular
During the Civil War, Confederate soldiers sometimes had nothing to eat but peanuts, or "goober peas," a name that may have come from "nguba," the word for peanut in the Bantu language. Union troops found themselves eating — and enjoying — these unfamiliar vegetables.
