Peanut butter

I think it's interesting how people who watch what they eat and care about their health sometimes just assume some things are healthy -- basically things they've eaten their whole lives and never thought otherwise. Like peanut butter. Peanut butter and jelly is a comfort food to a lot of people (Americans eat 800 million pounds of peanut butter a year). It's basic, and most people would say it's either healthy or at least not unhealthy. Anyone who pays attention to food should at least be aware of natural peanut butter today considering it's available at literally any grocery store. Unless you buy your peanut butter exclusively at Walgreens you're passing over it to hit up the original stuff. And a lot of people are grossed out by the oil sitting on the top of the peanut butter. Pretty gross looking, I have to admit.

But there's a reason of course that natural peanut butter's oil separates and unnatural peanut butter's does't. The difference is hydrogenated oil. Most of us are familiar with "partially hydrogenated oil" -- that's used here though not uncommon is the use of fully hydrogenated oil. If added to the peanut mixture during the grinding process, it prevents oil separation when the product is at room temperature. The problem is that this is an unnatural substance and our body really doesn't know what to do with it. It is undisputed that partially and fully hydrogenated oils are partly or fully to blame for many leading health risks.

Natural peanut butter needs some marketing help. When Silk wanted to make its soy milk appear as a true milk alternative rather than a health food, it changed the placement of it's cartons from the shelves to the refridgeration aisle -- right next to the milk. While natural peanut butter does "separate" at room temerature, it looks just like unnatural peanut butter when refridgerated (anyone who buys it knows they need to take it home, stir it like a maniac and then pop it in the fridge from then on). What amazes me is that no one sells natural peanut butter refridgerated. Either move it to the refridgerated aisle, or find some way to have a refridgerator in the peanut butter aisle. People just need to start thinking of peanut butter as a refridgerated food.

Or there's the new trend that I am undecided on: natural no stir peanut butter. Jif Natural is one example. It has nothing but peanuts, sugar, palm oil, salt and molasses. This leaves out the fully hydrogenated vegetable oils and the mono and diglycerides. What is Jif's secret to creating peanut butter that doesn't have any stabilizers but also doesn't separate at room temperature? Well I've never actually tried this but to my comfort, reviewers have noted that it does need to be stirred and that it will continue to separate at room temperature -- though not as much.

If you actually want peanut butter and don't understand why a company needs to add sugar and extra oil to it, check out any other natural brand or even Smucker's version of natural peanut butter where you find nothing more than peanuts and salt. (PS. Smuckers owns Jif.....)