I’ve been adhering to my diet pretty strictly, but no freaking way am I giving up peanut butter completely. So I’ve been buying the reduced fat style.
I don’t notice any real difference in taste from the regular stuff. But what I do notice is all of the reduced fat versions call it “peanut spread” not peanut butter. Is there a legal reason for this?
Make sure you’re not eating less healthy by getting the reduced fat versions. My wife says make sure the peanut butter you buy doesn’t have added hydrogenated oil, partially hydrogenated oil or palm kernel oil, and that peanut butter is generally good for you as long as it doesn’t have those hydrogenated oils. Kind of a “button” issue for her. She’s been reading up on this for a while.
I just get the all-natural “just peanuts and a little salt” stuff, and spoon out a couple teaspoons of oil per jar to get the consistency I want.
ETA: meant to link to the USDA’s Commercial Item Description for peanut butter and peanut spread (PDF), from the wikipedia Peanut Butter page. I’d guess the differences are in there, but from skimming, it’s a dry read.
Hey, found it I think:
(bolding mine.)
The FDA standard of identity for peanut butter, section 164.150 of Title 21, Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), defines peanut butter as the food prepared by grinding roasted peanuts to which may be added safe and suitable seasoning and stabilizing ingredients that do not in the aggregate exceed 10 percent of the weight of the finished food.
As ZenBeam alludes, reduced fat peanut butter reduces the fat by diluting the peanut butter with other things, constituting more than 10% of the final product. In the case of reduced fat Jif, it is corn syrup solids and sugar. Reduced fat in this case (and many others) means more sugar and salt.
I discovered that this is indeed the case with most reduced fat peanut “spreads”. As a diabetic, I tend to read the labels looking for hidden sugar.
I like the natural stuff, with as another poster said, just enough of the oil stirred in to make it spreadable or the new kind that has been pretty much had the oil homogenized into it to keep it from seperating.
Indeed, this is true of lowfat ice cream as well.
I like the natural stuff (especially the fresh-ground kind, although it’s not for everyone) and I just use less of it. I figure I’m getting as much peanuttiness as if I were eating the goop with the fillers. A thin layer of the more peanutty kind gives me plenty of flavor.
You might consider PB2, which is powdered reduced-fat peanut butter which doesn’t add all the sugar and junk. You can sometimes find it in the health food section, or order it online. I like it - very peanutty. Also, it’s a powder, so it keeps forever and is really easy to add to recipes.
The majority of packaged foods labeled “low fat” are really the regular-fat version with added sugar or HFCS. The result is the fat is a lower percentage of the total calories, which is the official definition of “low fat”. That sure doesn’t make it healthier for you.
The way to actually eat a low(-er) fat diet is to eat less of things which contain a lot of fat.
Here’s a PB2 recipe: mix with fat-free whipped topping, place between two graham crackers and freeze.
If you’re dealing with this kind of peanut butter, then you’re already benefiting from less fat that most commercial varieties. To improve the texture, most of them add additional fats (often hydrogenated). The all-natural stuff can’t exactly be called low-fat, but it’s definitely better for you.
I like it very much. But around here it’s quite pricey.
That’s it…
I’m going to resort to making my own.
It’s quite easy, really. Dump a bunch of peanuts and some peanut oil into a food processor, hit the “make peanut butter” button, and presto! Fresh, peanutty goodness. I made it once before for peanut butter cookies (I had peanuts, but no peanut butter) and it’s delish!
Do you need to add peanut oil? Since I remove oil from my peanut butter, I would have thought just peanuts would be enough (OK, with a little salt probably).
I eat Smucker’s Natural Peanut Butter. The ingredients listed are: “Peanuts, contains 1% or less of salt”.
It’s yummy.
Just a little bit or it’s too… pasty. Think of it like making a pesto.
Always check the calories when you’re buying a reduced-fat (or reduced-carb, or reduced-anything for that matter) version of a food. Weight loss is all about the calories. If you’re not saving much in terms of calories, there’s not much reason to pick the reduced-whatever version over the normal version, unless you like it better.
Check for trans fats. They’re very bad for you and you don’t want to eat any more of them than you have to. Hydrogenated oils are trans fats.
Anything that lets you use less of a high-calorie food like peanut butter is good.
You owe me a keyboard. I drooled on mine when I saw the chocolate kind.
Does anyone have a good way to re-combine natural peanut butter after it separates? This is what keeps me buying the unnatural kind. I’d like a method that doesn’t require a lot of physical strength or stamina, or ability to mix up the peanut butter with a utensil without spraying peanut oil over everything in a five mile radius. That’s what normally happens when I try to stir natural peanut butter or sesame tahini together.
Empty the entire contents of the container into a food processor or blender. Use a spatula to scrape all of it back into the jar after hitting pulse a couple of times.
Or, if you can wait for it, turn the jar upside-down for a few days. The oil will start to move upwards, and stirring it in the jar will be easier.
Refrigerate afterward.
Do you keep it in the refrigerator upside-down after that, or do you flip it every so often, or what?