The Power of Peanuts: Celebrating National Peanut Day

Mark your calendars: National Peanut Day is Saturday, September 13! Think it sounds nutty? Or that we’re *spreading it on* a bit too thick?   

Well, you shouldn’t be! After all, according to the National Peanut Board, Americans consume an average of 7.7 pounds of peanuts per person each year for a reason. Peanuts pack a punch! They’ve been around for more than 7,000 years, gaining popularity in the U.S. in the 1800s and later as a snack food at circuses, baseball games, and fairs (“peanuts and Cracker Jack,” anyone?) — long before the modern peanut foods of today became whole family pantry staples.

But peanuts are more than a beloved snack synonymous with our favorite pastimes. They’re a nutrient-dense, mighty superfood with protective and preventative health benefits, especially for kids.

Why Peanuts are a Nutritional Powerhouse 

✅ Big nutrition, big flavor, and big value in a tiny package? We think that’s deserving of celebration every day. As a valuable source of plant-based protein, healthy fats, fiber, and important vitamins and minerals for growing kids, peanuts have a long list of benefits, including:

✅ Packed with Protein: Peanuts are about 25% protein by weight, one of the highest among plant-based foods. A handful of peanuts has around 7 grams of plant-based protein (btw, that’s also the exact amount of peanut protein in each pouch of our Peanut Butter Nutty Puffs!). 

✅ Heart Healthy: Rich in monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats — the same kind found in olive oil — which support cardiovascular health.

✅ Smarty Pants Snack: Includes natural brain-boosting compounds like niacin and resveratrol, which are often combined in supplements to support healthy aging, enhance cellular energy, boost mitochondrial function, and provide antioxidant protection. 

✅ Tiny Amounts, Mighty Impact: The micro nutrients found in peanuts – including magnesium, phosphorus, vitamin E, folate – all contribute to the body’s energy, repair, protection, and growth. Together, they keep your systems humming along smoothly.

✅ Feeling Full Longer: Thanks to a fiber-rich snack, you can stay satiated longer and keep digestion on track.

Peanuts are a highly versatile and smart legume: protein + fiber + healthy fats, all in one yummy, crunchy package. They’re also a sustainable, resource-efficient crop (meaning good for us, good for the planet). And don’t forget affordable: pound for pound, peanuts and peanut butter are some of the most cost-effective sources of protein.  

Here’s the kicker (yep, there’s more!): not only are nuts nutrient-dense superfoods, but research shows feeding peanut-containing foods to babies regularly, starting early in the first year of life and through toddlerhood, can help prevent peanut allergies from developing by up to 86%.* We know what you’re thinking – wow. Let’s recap the research.

(Read even more here about the benefits of nuts.)

The Peanut Allergy Breakthrough: Prevention is Possible

In the year 2000, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended that babies avoid allergens like peanuts and egg in infancy. Although this guidance was not based on solid data – and was rescinded 8 years later – avoidance became the norm (and food allergy rates began to climb rapidly). Fast forward two decades, and the guidance to avoid common allergens in infancy has been reversed by groundbreaking research. Our co-founder, Dr. Gideon Lack, is one of the world’s leading pediatric allergists and lead investigator of the LEAP Study, a multi-year, NIH-funded clinical trial, which showed that introducing peanuts early and often can help prevent future peanut allergies by up to 86%.*

As a direct result of Dr. Lack’s seminal research, leading medical organizations around the globe now recommend introducing peanuts and other common food allergens early and often, once a baby starts solid foods. There’s more: the recent publication of the follow-up 2024 LEAP-Trio Study, also led by our co-founder Dr. Lack, tracked babies from the original study into adolescence, and found that the tolerance developed from starting peanut foods in infancy endured through the teenage years—proving that early peanut consumption has a lasting protective effect.

(Brush up on the latest clinical guidelines – from the USDA to AAP – here.)

Making Early & Often Easy

After reading up on the latest research, our co-founders Catherine and JJ Jaxon, were determined to follow the latest guidelines for their youngest child, but found early introduction difficult because nuts and nut butters are a choking hazard for babies, and the entire baby food industry was nut-free. So they thought: how amazing would it be to turn peanuts and tree nuts into delicious, quick-dissolve puffs that help parents include nuts in their diets, provide a nutritious snack, and actually do something good for them? 

Enter Mission MightyMe, the first and only pediatrician-developed puff made with peanuts and multiple tree nuts. Our puffs with purpose pull double duty, making early nut introduction and repeat exposure as easy and enjoyable as it should be, while also providing parents with a more nutritious snack solution they can feel good about serving up to littles. MightyMe Nutty Puffs are made with more than 50% nuts + superfood sorghum – which means they pack 3x the amount of protein compared to most baby puffs! – and they contain simple, organic, non-GMO ingredients and NO rice, corn or gluten. 

Our puffs check all the boxes: nutritious  for kids *and* helpful for busy parents. Plus, we developed them to ensure the nut protein matches the levels used in Dr. Lack’s research exactly. Here’s the breakdown for our pouches:

• One pouch of MightyMe Peanut Butter Puffs per week meets the AAP recommended 6 grams peanut protein weekly for high-risk infants.* One pouch is equivalent to 35 peanuts, or 3.5 teaspoons, of peanut butter.

• Two pouches of MightyMe Nut Butter Puffs weekly = 10 grams nut protein (2 gram per nut)

Win, win: easy for you, yummy and nutritious for them!

Join the Peanut Party!

Whether you whip up your favorite peanut dessert, make a PB&J or break open a pouch of MightyMe at snack time or on-the-go, we hope you’ll celebrate with us! (But who are we kidding: we eat peanuts like it’s National Peanut Day every day.) 

Our science-backed snacks set your little ones up for a mighty future. Shop our Nutty Puffs (available in four flavor varieties!) for babies, big kids and beyond – you can also find us in Target, Sprouts and many other select retail stores, as well as online at Amazon and Thrive Market.

Thank you to our customers who make MightyMe possible! As we grow, we’re helping even more families keep nuts in the diet and reduce food allergy risk – and together, we’re on a big mission to end the food allergy epidemic.* 

*FDA HEALTH CLAIM: For babies with an increased risk of peanut allergy (babies with severe eczema, egg allergy or both), introducing age-appropriate, peanut-containing foods as early as 4 months may reduce the risk of developing a peanut allergy. Caregivers should check with the baby’s healthcare provider before feeding the baby peanut-containing foods. 

Please note: This blog post is for information purposes only and shouldn’t be used as personal, health, nutritional, or medical advice. Always consult your pediatrician with any questions about what to feed your child.

Mission MightyMe products must be avoided by anyone who has a known or suspected allergy to any of the ingredients. If you have any questions about what you’re feeding your baby, consult your pediatrician.