Nuts or Olives?

[peterbj7]

On a more cheerful topic, it seems peanuts are (relatively) falling out of favour in the UK
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddrink/foodanddrinknews/8288296/The-olive-could-soon-overtake-the-peanut.html
If the trend continues and passes to the USA, what sort of effect might it have on the economy of certain areas?

[Gela]

Well for starters, I just can't see M&M's putting chocolate over olives. We'd be in big trouble at Halloween time . I see more and more recipes using olives as a key ingredient. So I think we can all get along, olives to the left and nuts to the right - right?

[azbob]

Now Gela, you're not trying to turn this in to a poltical discussion, are you? 

Peter, man can not live by bread alone he must have peanut butter!!!!!!

[peterbj7]

Reminds me of a conversation I had with someone here recently.  I said that because of the extreme high fat content any nuts were tricky foods for anyone who had ever had any form of Hepatitis.  And that included peanut butter.  The response was "there aren't any nuts in peanut butter".  And she isn't a blonde!

[martinbsmithjr]

Well she may not have been a blonde but she was probably right. Peanuts are generally considered to be 'legumes' and not nuts which are generally the seeds of trees. There is some controversy on this but I think generally peanuts are categorized as legumes.

http://www.peanut-institute.org/peanut-facts/

[peterbj7]

Interesting distinction.  They are still very high in fat however which was the key point.  I know they are because I made the mistake of eating a single half nut when I was recovering from Hep A, and it set me back a couple of days.