I always find my eyes wandering to the back of the peanut butter jar, and the hugely high fat contents seem to pop out at me.
Now as much as I love this wonderful food, I would rather be eating a chocolate bar than two teaspoons of peanut butter, so I gave it up for a while.
I recently have been told that peanut butter is in fact good for you. (something to do with the fats being good fats?) I have even found peanut butter on the list for healthy snacks to eat. I am confused, will someone please clarify this for me.
I stay away from it because most brands have trans fats (Partially hydrogenated and/or hydrogenated fats). You can find brands without trans fats though. If you can make it yourself, even better.
As Boscibo said, I’d stay away from the mass-marketed brands (Jif, Skippy, et al.); they tend to have partially or completely hydrogenated oils, which are bad, bad, bad. Trader Joe’s (as well as other places, I’m sure) sells “natural” peanut butter. It’s not quite as convenient (you have to mix it up after you open it the first time & it must be refrigerated), but you’re not getting the transfats.
As for the “good fat” vs. “bad fat” thing… I suspect that it has to do with it being saturated or unsaturated fat, but IANANutritionist & I took my nutrition class last summer, anyway.
It is healthy, but you have to be careful with the quantities. More than a tablespoon a day is probably too much for most people. And as has been said, try and find brands that don’t have added sugar, salt or trans fats (in the form of hydrogenated vegetable oils) - saturated fats are what you want (goes for anything, not just peanut butter).
You can find the natural stuff in some big chain grocery stores now. It’s more expensive, but to not have the preservaives, sugar, salt or trans fats is worth it. It’s all I ever buy. I cannot STAND the mass marketed brands. Especially Jif.
And, you can get a workout trying to stir the stuff up. I think it tastes better, too.
I say Who Cares? it’s yummy! Peanut butter over pancakes (instead of regular butter) is delicious, btw. I sure wish the Great Peanut Butter War of 2001 hadn’t been lost in the Winter of Our Missed Content. I can’t even find the thread with the fallout over on Fathom.
Funny thing I noticed, is that natural peanut butter has more calories per serving than “regular”. That’s because non-natural adds sugar, which dilutes the fat content! Of course, sugar is worse for a lot of people than peanut butter fat.
I only use natural peanut butter, due to the sugar content of regular.
