How Long Can a Kid Survive Without a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich?

Ask almost anyone what their favorite after-school snack was when they were a kid, and they will most likely reply, "a peanut butter with jelly sandwich." Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches still remain the snack of choice after all these years.

Records show that peanuts existed in South America as early as 950 B.C. and the ancient Incas there made peanuts into a paste, so I guess you could say that the Incas actually invented peanut butter. It was quite a while after that before someone came up with the idea of coupling it with jelly and spreading it on bread to make what we now know as the peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

George Washington Carver, a former slave who, as well as being a college professor, became one of our best known black inventors. One of his well-know projects was his discovery of more than 300 uses for peanuts, one of which included the now popular peanut butter. His 300 uses for peanuts were published in 1880, but Carver, believing that food was a gift from God, refused to take out patents on his food products.

Several manufacturers followed Carver in working with peanuts, some grinding them for use in cereals, and others who ground them fine enough to make them into spreads. By the late 1920's, a Dr. Rosenfield had perfected a process to make the peanut mixture creamy by churning it. He later started his own brand of peanut butter and named it Skippy.

Today, more than half of all the peanuts produced in the United States are made into peanut butter; sure proof that the peanut butter (and jelly) sandwich is probably still holding its own as the favorite after-school snack.

According to Wikipedia, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were invented by GI's in WWII. There is an old saying that necessity is the mother of invention. In this case, it may have been true, for those on the battlefield needed food that was nourishing and that didn't need refrigeration. Two slices of bread slapped together with peanut butter and jelly in the middle seemed to fill the bill more than adequately. It had the added bonus of also tasting good. (I'm sure that between 1928 and 1941, others, including my own mother, had come up with the idea of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but the GI story sounds good to me.)

Recently, a disease called salmonella has developed at two large American peanut product plants, one in Georgia and one in Texas. More than 500 people have become ill, and a number have even died as a result of eating theit products. Not only has this disease brought a halt to a large percentage of the peanut butter production in our country, but also to sales of other peanut containing products such as trail mixes, candy bars, cereals, jars of mixed nuts, etc. I suspect there are many moms out there who have put peanut butter and jelly sandwiches off-limits to their kids for however long it takes to make sure there are no longer any salmonella tainted peanut products on the market.

Here's what you can do to make sure your own family stays safe:

1.Scrutinize all food products you purchase to make sure they contain no questionable peanuts.

So far, no salmonella has been detected in two of the most popular brands, Skippy and Peter Pan, so as long as they are not listed on any new recall lists, you are probably safe using either of those two brands

2. Consider changing to a different spread, at least temporarily, for those after-school snacks.

Nutella is a spread similar to peanut butter but made from Hazelnuts. It may not be the hit with your family that peanut butter has been, but it is better to be safe than sorry. Some people believe Nutella is more nutritious than regular peanut butter.

Sources:

Bellis, Mary, The History of Peanut Butter, About.com, http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blpeanutbutter.htm

Anon., Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peanut_butter_and_jelly_sandwich