Many people buy low-fat peanut butter in an effort to eat healthier. However, I’ve recently learned that low-fat peanut butter is created through replacing the fat with corn syrup. So, you may be getting a bit less fat, but the corn syrup is pure carbs. And since carbs don’t have the satiety of fats or protein, it’s easier to gain weight since you won’t feel as full from a given amount of food.
But, there’s no need to feel guilty about the extra fat — peanut oil is one of the good fats :). As a monounsaturated fat (just like olive oil and canola oil), it helps to lower LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) and raise HDL cholesterol (the good cholesterol).
Most regular peanut butter is made through hydrogenating the peanut oil (which makes the peanut oil semi-solid at room temperature). However, the hydrogenation process creates trans fats — the worst kind of fat. Trans fat tends to raise the bad cholesterol while not raising the good cholesterol (even saturated fat, which isn’t particularly good for you either, raises both the good and bad cholesterol).
In terms of peanut butter, choosing full-fat peanut butter would be a healthy decision. Or, if you’re up for it, full-fat natural peanut butter would be even more healthy (since, without the hydrogenation, it has no trans fat).
Shopkeeper:(grimly) Take this object, but beware — it carries a terrible curse.
Homer: Ooh, that’s bad.
Shopkeeper:(brightly) But it comes with a free Frogurt!
Homer: That’s good!
Shopkeeper:(grimly) The Frogurt is also cursed.
Homer: That’s bad.
Shopkeeper:(brightly) But you get your choice of topping!
Homer: That’s good!
Shopkeeper:(grimly) The toppings contain potassium benzoate.
Homer: (dumbfounded, says nothing).
Shopkeeper: That’s bad.
Homer: Can I go now?
Natural peanut butter is one of my favorite food items. Hmmm, maybe one of my favorite things – period. But the best brand, hands down, is Real Brand Peanut Butter. Especially crunchy. Both their creamy and crunchy kinds contain nothing but mashed up peanuts. It can be found in your grocer’s refrigerated section. Mmmm, yummy.
Where is Real Brand peanut butter produced and grown?
Don’t know where it is produced and grown, but I know you can purchase it in Minnesota. I moved to Montana 20 years ago & I still have relatives ship it to me by the case! If anyone knows where Real Brand peanut butter (by Hunt_Wesson now) is available on-line please let me know!! It’s the best!!!
Read the research. Peanut butters do not contain detectable levels of trans fats. Yes, I’m talking about Jif and Skippy.
PEANUT BUTTER CONTAINS INSIGNIFICANT AMOUNT OF TRANS FAT
Latest news | Subscribe
No Trans Fats in Peanut Butter–Contrary to Current Rumor
By Judy McBride
June 12, 2001
Recurring rumors that commercial peanut butters contain trans fats–which appear to increase risk of cardiovascular disease–have no basis in fact, according to an Agricultural Research Service study.
The rumors no doubt started because small amounts of hydrogenated vegetable oils are added to commercial peanut butters–at 1 to 2 percent of total weight–to prevent the peanut oil from separating out. And the hydrogenation process can generate the formation of trans fatty acids in oils, according to Timothy H. Sanders, who leads research at ARS’ Market Quality and Handling Research Unit at Raleigh, N.C.
To see if the rumors had any validity, Sanders prepared 11 brands of peanut butter, including major store brands and “natural” brands, for analysis by a commercial laboratory. He also sent paste freshly prepared from roasted peanuts for comparison. The laboratory found no detectable trans fats in any of the samples, with a detection limit of 0.01 percent of the sample weight.
That means that a 32-gram serving of any of the 11 brands could contain from zero to a little over three-thousandths (0.0032) of a gram of trans fats without being detected. While current regulations don’t require food labels to disclose trans fat levels, they do require disclosure of saturated fat levels at or above five-tenths (0.5) of a gram. For comparison, that’s 156 times higher than this study’s detection limit for trans fats.
By contrast, peanut butter has plenty of unsaturated fatty acids. The most abundant is oleic acid, the monounsaturated fat believed to be good for the cardiovascular system. In this analysis, oleic acid levels ranged from 19 percent of total weight in one private-label brand to 27 percent in one “natural” type. Palmitic acid, the most abundant saturated fatty acid, weighed in at about 5 percent among all brands.
Scientific contact: Timothy H. Sanders, ARS Market Quality and Handling Research Unit, Raleigh, N.C., phone (919) 515-6312, fax (919) 515-7124, mqhru@ncsu.edu.
Top | News Staff | Photo Staff
Home | News | Pubs | Magazine | Photos | Sci4Kids | Search
About ARS Info | Site map | Policies | E-mail us
Get a Thunderstick Pro and you can make your own peanut butter!
hi! ok…so i used to not like peanut butter that much. ever since last january ive been eating jiffy peanut butter non stop. i eat about 5 spoonfulls of peanut butter a day & im trying to stop. is it bad to eat that much of it?
i would like to know the same thing. i eat nuts and peanut butter all the time. i would like to know how healthy they really are. do they make you gain weight. i was told it was great to eat nuts on a diet. i think they are very addictive. i crave them all the time.
You can buy Real Peanut Butter at http://products.peapod.com/111733.html.
Jif Creamy: MADE FROM ROASTED PEANUTS AND SUGAR. CONTAINS 2 PERCENT OR LESS OF: MOLASSES, PARTIALLY HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OIL (SOYBEAN), FULLY HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OILS (RAPESEED AND SOYBEAN), MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES AND SALT. Calories in 2 Tbsp: 190, Sat fat 3 g, Trans fat 0g, Total Carbs 7 g, fiber 2g, sugar 3 g, protein 8 g, cholesterol 0 mg, sodium 150 mg.
Jif Reduced fat Creamy: PEANUTS, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, SUGAR AND SOY PROTEIN, CONTAINS 2 PERCENT OR LESS OF: FULLY HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OILS (RAPESEED AND SOYBEAN), SALT, MONO- AND DIGLYCERIDES, MOLASSES, NIACINAMIDE, FOLIC ACID, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE, MAGNESIUM OXIDE, ZINC OXIDE, FERRIC ORTHOPHOSPHATE, AND COPPER SULFATE. Calories in 2 Tbsp: 190, Fat 12 g, Sat Fat 2.5 gm, trans fat 0 g, total carbs 15g, fiber 1 g, sugars 4g, protein 8 g, cholesterol 0 mg, sodium 250 mg.
Have you tried BetterNPeanutButter? They advertise 85% less fat and 40% less calories, and it “tastes good”. http://www.betternpeanutbutter.com
I will try it out, since I need to bring my triglycerides down. My LDL and HDL are in good shape but my TGs are borderline high.
I will report back after a few months and a new blood-test.
Fat is fat- “good fat” “bad fat” when you are trying to lose weight ALL fat will make fat- While you body needs some fat in your diet, you will get it in your everyday meals… Carbs turn to sugar and what does your cells store that sugar as???? yep….. People who are jumping on the “carbs= bad, all the fat and protein you can eat= good” bandwagon are gonna vital organs when older if they stay on it too long—- the body was never ment to process all that and no fresh fruits and veggies.
My daughter just completed a science fair project that involved copper sulfate. We both learned that it is hazardous in the form she needed to grow crystals and must be disposed of “according to federal, state, and local guidelines.” We were both shocked when I was comparing the ingredient labels for Jif reduced-fat vs. Jif regular peanut butter and noticed that the last ingredient in the Jif reduced-fat peanut butter was copper sulfate. Being the last ingredient listed, it may be in trace amounts, but regardless, I will never purchase and feed anything to my children that is used as a pesticide and listed as hazardous and toxic.
My 19 year old daughter just had a terrible reaction to the Low-fat Jif Peanut Butter. She broke out in a terrible rash with swelling on her face arms, elbows, knees, hands and feet within 30 minutes of her first time ingestion of this product. She’s eaten regular peanut butter all her life and never had a problem. She is really sensitive to most metals. She can only wear sterling silver jewelry or she’ll get a terrible rash. Thus, we’re assuming it’s the copper sulfate that gave her this terrible reaction. To the best of our knowledge, she’s never ingested copper sulfate before this incident. She’s on her fourth day of suffering taking Benadryl with little improvement. Any body else with this reaction??
I also like many others love peanut butter.
For years now I have been buying all natural peanut butter the kind with about 1 inch of oil on the top.
I dump out the oil and replace it with cold pressed flax oil.
Only because I know that your body will not store the fat from flax oil.Body builders have been using flax oil for years.It gives you the energy without the fat deposit.
Has a little different taste.But you cant have everything.
In response to the post that stated that low fat PN butter has corn syrip, this is not neccessarily true, i.e.,
http://www.betternpeanutbutter.com/nutrition.html
is the URL for Better’n Peanut Butter.
I also note that a lot of posts include statements of ‘facts’ without any references where additional substantiation could be researched.
This style of information providing encourages blind followers instead of investigative and useful reporting; let’s try to put a little more effort in our posts and encourage the later instead of the former.