Which peanut butter should you choose?

Choosing a peanut butter is hard! Let me rephrase that, choosing a healthy peanut butter is hard! It's not as easy as "Choosy moms choose Jif".

You're eating healthy and want to incorporate peanut butter into your nutrition plan but are unsure about which kind to get. So, let's look at some...

You can do this at the grocery store, or you can simply type in Jif peanut butter and it will take you to the site, press on "Products" and it will bring up a photo of the product and the food label. For these purposes, let's look at "Creamy" peanut butters, serving size is 2 tablespoons for each one:

Jif Creamy Peanut Butter
190 calories, 16g fat, 7g carb, 7g protein, 3g sugar
MADE FROM ROASTED PEANUTS AND SUGAR. CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF: MOLASSES, FULLY HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OILS (RAPESEED AND SOYBEAN), MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, SALT.

Jif Creamy Reduced Fat Peanut Butter
190 calories, 12g fat, 15g carb, 8g protein, 4g sugar

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 are the same. Reduced fat has 4g less of fat, but look at the other differences - more than doubled the carb and added a little bit more sugar. Look at the ingredients for each. If I had to choose between these two products, I would go with the more natural product, being the first one.

Important: When you are comparing products side-by-side, you need to look at more than just calories. Look at breakdown of foods as well as ingredients. There are many more preservatives and additives to this reduced fat peanut butter, which makes it more unhealthy. 

Second, Smucker's...

Smucker's Natural Creamy Peanut Butter
200 calories, 16g fat, 6g carb, 7g protein, 1g sugar  
PEANUTS, SALT.

Smucker's Organic Creamy Peanut Butter
210 calories, 16g fat, 6 carb, 7g protein, 1g sugar
ORGANIC ROASTED PEANUTS, ROASTED PEANUT OIL, CONTAINS 1% OR LESS OF SALT. 

The organic version has more calories, everything else is about the same, except the ingredients. The organic has peanut oil. You would think that the natural would have less ingredients than the organic, but in this case, it doesn't. 

Now, let's look at another organic peanut butter...MaraNatha...

MaraNatha Organic Creamy Peanut Butter
190 calories, 16g fat, 8g carb, 7g protein, 3g sugar
organic dry roasted peanuts, organic palm oil, organic unrefined cane sugar, sea salt.

If organic ingredients are important to you, then buy organic. It is a little bit more expensive than regular. But is it truly better? Well, only you can make that decision, but out of all of these, I would lean towards the Smucker's Natural product. 

So, if you are at the grocery store, needing to buy peanut butter and totally confused - I understand! It is confusing. Do what I do at the store - take the products, 3 or 4 of them, put them in a row, food labels facing you and do a comparison. In those items listed above, we learned...

• Calories - not much of a difference in either brand or type of peanut butter. 
• Fat - is lower in reduced-fat types, but more additives to make up for it. 
• Carb - higher in reduced-fat types. 
• Protein - not much of a difference in either brand or type of peanut butter. 
• Sugar - not much of a difference in grams, but types of sugars.

So, overall, remember this when adding peanut butter to your nutrition plan: 

• Use in MODERATION. Serving size is 2 tablespoons. Stick to that, measure it out if you have to. Very high calorie food for a small amount. 
• Know what is more important to you. Is it important that your nuts are organic? Is it important that there are as few additives in your food as possible? 
• The choice is yours. But look at the whole story before you make your decision. 

Peanut butter can be tricky. My personal preference is to get the most natural peanut butter - the most natural ingredients with the least amount of food additives. I am here to help you - just let me know...sandi@startwiththeinside.com