General Health and Exercise

[fischersd]

Anyone know why regular store bought peanut butter is supposed to be worse than roasted peanuts? It’s relatively high in protein, which I’ve become focused on lately. Btw, because of its protein, I may switch back to skim milk from almond milk, anyway…

Not “special healthy” peanut butter, just average grocery brand peanut butter? I have both peanut butter and peanuts, and they have practically the same specs. Maybe there was a time when peanut butter was made with trans fats?
Peanut butter 2 Tbs: Calories: 180, Total Fat: 15g, Saturated fat: 2g, Trans fat: 0g, Cholesterol: 0mn, Sodium: 150mg, Carbohydrates: 7g, Fiber: 2g, Sugar 4g, Protein: 7g.

Roasted, salted Peanuts 1 once: Calories 170, Total Fat 15g, Saturated fat 2.5g, Trans fat: 0g, Cholesterol: 0mg, Sodium 95mg, Carbohydrates: 4g Fiber 3g, Sugar: 1g, Protein: 8g.

It might be due to the oil that's added? Many of our modern cooking oils are bleached, or hexane (paint thinner) is used in the separation process. Cold pressed oils are more expensive - so rarely used in mass production unless they explicitly state so on the label.

Both Skippy as well as our Kraft peanut butter up here have Sugar and Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (Cottonseed, Soybean, and Rapeseed Oil) in them.

People should also be on the lookout for Lecithin. That's the chaff that's left after they extract the oil. If it just says lecithin, then it's likely soy lecithin - which is prone to having unhealthy levels of hexane remnants. Sunflower lecithin is usually from a cold press process.

 

[Huntn]

It might be due to the oil that's added? Many of our modern cooking oils are bleached, or hexane (paint thinner) is used in the separation process. Cold pressed oils are more expensive - so rarely used in mass production unless they explicitly state so on the label.

Both Skippy as well as our Kraft peanut butter up here have Sugar and Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (Cottonseed, Soybean, and Rapeseed Oil) in them.

People should also be on the lookout for Lecithin. That's the chaff that's left after they extract the oil. If it just says lecithin, then it's likely soy lecithin - which is prone to having unhealthy levels of hexane remnants. Sunflower lecithin is usually from a cold press process.

I was thinking the oil would be reflected in the type of fat, like saturated or trans fat. Thanks! A question might be is peanut butter healthier today than it used to be?

 

[fischersd]

I was thinking the oil would be reflected in the type of fat, like saturated or trans fat. Thanks! A question might be is peanut butter healthier today than it used to be?

I think it used to be healthier. I remember seeing ingredient labels that said Ingredients: Peanuts, salt. (now, maybe they weren't being entirely honest with us back then)

BUT - Kraft does make an

Only Peanuts All Natural Smooth Peanut Butter - which the ingredients list does only say: 100% Select Roasted Peanuts. (i012c)​

Heh - it has me wondering - is that notation like tinytext/an abbreviation, so they can cloak what else is in there?

I used to buy natural peanut butter when I was on one of my healthy eating kicks. You would have to stir it any time you wanted to use it - as the oil would keep separating. If it's 100% natural, why isn't it separating? (I'll have to look next time I'm in the store - see if it does).

Edit - oh - and it could be that the process to make 100% peanuts peanut butter may be more expensive - and they figured out that we're willing to pay a premium for it. So - sell the carcinogenic peanut butter to the masses and sell the healthy stuff to the hippies at a premium.