Thank goodness you cleared that up. Otherwise I fear everyone in this thread would have been totally confused and the thread probably would have died on post 2.
I’m another of those people who eats peanut butter that’s just straight peanuts, no additives (TJ’s creamy unsalted), and I like it a lot better than straight peanuts.
Part of it is the texture. I love the mouth-feel of peanut butter. Also, ISTM that peanut butter, even pure PB with no additives, is sweeter than straight peanuts.
Excuse me, I’ve got to go eat some peanut butter straight from the jar…
Nutella is over 40% each palm oil and sugar. The sprinkling of ground, dried hazelnut is less than 13%. The remainder is a bit of cocoa and dried skim milk.
It’s hazelnut-flavored chocolate frosting. Actually, frosting, on the whole, is better food.
For the record, if it’s not 95% peanuts, it’s not peanut butter. So even the worst PB brands that “load it up with sugar etc.” are a fraction of Nutella’s content.
That’s still 3.3M people.
OK - that’s the last time I will say anything positive about Nutella.
I once tried to make my own hazelnut butter using a food processor. I learned that hazelnut oil is so unsaturated that it won’t solidify even in the refrigerator.
I’m trying to figure out why you doubted it in the first place.
Are there a lot of people going around thinking they’re allergic to peanuts when they’re actually not? Why would they think they’re allergic?
Yup. During school breaks, I’m a camp counselor, and we get information about camper health issues. About 5% of them are listed as being allergic to peanuts (even more are listed as allergic to shellfish, but that doesn’t come up nearly as often in elementary-school lunches). If the actual figure for real peanut allergies is 1%, that means that there are about four times as many false peanut allergies as real ones.
Yes, there are a surprising number of non-allergics claiming allergies. It makes life more difficult for those of us who are the real deal. Also, hovering smothering parents.
There is also a lot of misunderstanding about allergies, and food allergies in particular. Food allergies are not always life-threatening anaphylaxis situations, nor do you have to have that sort of reaction in order to have a “real food allergy”.
Me wantee. Plenty of PB and cheese sandwiches, even microwaved them, but I never fried one, and frying makes everything better.
And Broomstick, this isn’t that thread. That one’s on another track, so be careful of derailments.
Love PB and love peanuts. A couple of articles I’ve read have said raw peanuts are healthier, one saying the high temperatures of roasting increases carcinogens and other bad stuff. I hope not, raw peanuts aren’t that great.
Macadamia nut butter is for sale, and it’s not particularly “rich” in any way.
However, it also isn’t particularly good at turning into “butter”: it seperates even worse than peanut buttor, to an even less attractive solid/oil.
Also, like Tahini or Cashew paste, it just isn’t as good as PB.
Just like “supertasters.” Maybe 25% of the population would qualify as such, but on the Internet 90% of people claim they are. Probably because they both want to feel “special” and don’t exactly know what a “supertaster” actually is.
I don’t think it is that complicated.
First, there is a lot more to price than people’s preferences. I would bet that the majority of people would not particularly like beluga caviar, but it costs a few thousand dollars a pound, because it is so rare and difficult to harvest. Likewise, peanuts are probably the easiest and cheapest “nut” to grow and harvest.
Second, having said that, I would guess it is in fact true that a lot more folks like PB than raw peanuts. I know I do. I almost never buy peanuts, but we go through a jar of PB once every couple of weeks. PB is delicious, and also much more versatile (IMO) than raw peanuts.
Peanut allergies are more common among younger folks, though. I’m not sure this explains all 5% that you see, but you’d certainly expect to see more of them at camp than in nursing homes.
Does that indicate real allergies that go away as a person ages, though, or just that peanut allergies are the current fad, and so they’re overdiagnosed for today’s youth when they weren’t in the past?
Some allergies go away with maturity and/or age… but not all.
The percentage of allergic people in the population really is going up. There are various hypotheses for this, but no one really knows for sure why.
A certain number of people with peanut allergies DIE and therefore never become old - peanut allergy is not always fatal but it one those more likely to be fatal (the other big one is shellfish allergies).
There probably is some over-diagnosis and/or hysteria, but you have to be cautious because real peanut allergies do exist.
One theory about why the incidence of allergies is increasing is that, when a person is young, his or her immune system tunes itself to the environment it’s in. If someone grows up in an ultra-clean environment, that person’s immune system “learns” to be ultra-sensitive. We’re in an era where a lot of parents are very protective, which could explain why more and more children have allergies.
One bit of evidence is that children who grow up with pets are less prone to allergies of all types than are those who don’t. It could be that exposure to animals desensitizes the immune system. On the other hand, it could be that parents of sensitive children avoid getting pets.
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I saw that. 
Thinking about cashew butter, macadamia nut butter, etc. - with those, you’re starting off with a nut that’s exceedingly delicious to begin with; there’s not a lot to be gained by turning it into a butter.
With peanuts, for whatever reason, there is. Whether it’s just the fact that you can smear it on bread, and put jam (or bacon, or grilled cheese, or whatever gets into your head) on the other slice, and put them together, or whether (as I think) both the taste and texture improve as a result of turning peanuts into (even pure, unadulterated) peanut butter, or whether it’s simply usable in many more ways as PB than as plain peanuts, there’s no doubt that there’s something to be gained by turning peanuts into peanut butter.