During my second episode of CFS, I had a craving for peanut butter very early on. Peanut butter on Swedish Rye Crisp Bread. Later, as I recovered and grew familiar with research; I came to the conclusion that it was my body ordering my mind for the ingredients to produce red-blood cells. Many CFS symptoms matches hypoxia (altitude sickness) symptoms. Hyperbaric oxygen does reduce symptoms in CFS patients (2013 study) and many patients mentioned that their symptoms get worst with increase in altitude. Similarly, David Bell,MD found that circulating blood mass is low in CFS patients. Lastly, Dr. Leslie Simpson found that the red blood cells are deformed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (1991 ).
A summary of what is in peanut butter is available here. I recall find a reference to peanut butter providing all of the nutrients needed to produce red blood cells except B12 (hence B12 supplementation, or the B12 producing bacteria should be supplemented at the save time). Unfortunately, I am not able to locate this precise reference or an equivalent. References that I did find are:
I am aware that there are concerns about peanut butter being high in arginine which encourages herpes virus (which are associated with CFS in some people). For the background and a list of foods, see this site. Also, peanut allergies is a concern (which appears to be treatable by probiotics — or make it much worst!). So, this is strictly a sharing of my experience that some may wish to consider.
CFS Remission 