Picking the Perfect Peanut Butter: Beyond Crunchy and Smooth

Peanut butter is loved by children and adults alike. It is versatile, appearing in everything from elegant dishes like chicken satay with peanut dipping sauce to the beloved peanut butter and jelly sandwich. It is nutritious. It contains protein and fiber as well as other vitamins and nutrients. It is a great source of protein for vegetarians and picky children. It also seems wholesome and pure. After all, mothers have been serving the stuff for years. However, not all peanut butter jars contain the same thing. You must learn to read nutrition labels if you want to avoid some nasty ingredients that are probably hiding in the peanut butter in your cupboard right now!

Forget the cutesy television ads and the logo on the jars. You should even forget looking at the price. When shopping for peanut butter you should first turn that jar around and read the ingredients. The peanut butter you choose should say "Ingredients: Peanuts". There are variations, of course. It may say the peanuts are roasted or organic. You may even decide it is okay if the peanut butter contains salt if you do not need to watch your sodium intake. Peanut Butter should not contain sugar, hydrogenated oils, molasses or anything else. These ingredients are unnecessary to both your health and a great tasting peanut butter.

The scariest thing about peanut butter is the reduced fat variety. Peanut butter is high in fat (but it is mainly the good kind), so naturally someone has developed a peanut butter with a lower fat content to appeal to dieters and those of us that are health conscious. Unfortunately, in order to achieve this they fill their peanut butter with hydrogenated oils and other fillers. If you do not recognize the term "hydrogenated oils" maybe you will be familiar with "trans fats". Trans fatty acids have been getting some bad press lately. They are made by chemically changing fat that is liquid at room temperature to a fat that is solid at room temperature. The result is a fat that appears healthier, it's not saturated. The problem is that it is worse. Most doctors recommend that you limit your saturated fat content and avoid trans fats completely.

Another reason peanut butter manufacturers add fillers to their peanut butter is to give it a better consistency. Natural peanut butter contains oil that will separate to the top. Stirring it back in before spreading it is easy. I pour a lot of the oil off to save some calories. It is your choice if you decide to do this.

At a recent trip to the regular grocery store I decided to see how many peanut butter jars I could find that only contained peanuts and salt. I was surprised. I found one brand. That's right, I found one jar of peanut butter among an entire display of brands that only contained peanuts and salt. The brand was Adams. It is an organic peanut butter that contains roasted organic peanuts and 1% or less of salt. The jar was on the bottom shelf and priced a bit more than the rest.

I normally purchase my peanut butter at Wild Oats. Wild Oats is found across the nation and sells whole and organic foods. Their house brand of peanut butter is the best natural and organic peanut butter I have found. It is priced well and tastes great. You can buy it with or without salt. I buy the kind without the salt and don't miss it. Most of their stores also have an option of grinding peanuts on the spot yourself to create fresh peanut butter. You can be sure your peanut butter contains nothing but peanuts.

No matter where you decide to purchase your peanut butter make sure you read the ingredient list. Your health is important. By learning to make informed decisions instead of relying on advertising to sell us a product will greatly reduce our chances of eating unhealthy ingredients.