March 2006 |
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Product Reviews / Main Nibbles / Jams, Jellies & Nut ButtersPeanut Butter ExplosionPage 2: Natural PB, Fantasy Flavor PB
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Going Natural Versus Trans FatsGrind-your-own peanut butter is a common option in natural foods stores. Although it isn’t usually possible to choose the grind, it is a good option for consumers who want to know exactly what’s in their food. In a busy natural foods store with high turnover, consumers can be reasonably certain that the peanuts will be fresh. Other likely choices in natural foods stores are natural or organic peanut butters. The biggest complaints about these products are cost (they’re sometimes significantly pricier than supermarket peanut butter) and the layer of oil that rises to the top of most of these peanut butter types if they stand for any length of time (it’s unaesthetic and must repeatedly be stirred back into the rest of the peanut butter, a genuine sticking point with some consumers). However, grind-your-own, natural, and organic peanut butters are popular with those wishing to avoid trans fats (hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated oils) in the Fantasy Flavors, Blends & SpreadsAnother category in the realm of peanut butter is flavored peanut butters. Combining †Editor’s Note: We believe it and love them. Read our review of P.B. Loco, which makes an Asian Curry Spice (shown above in the center, to the left of our favorite flavor, Raspberry White Chocolate), not for use with jelly, of course, but as a savory spread or to make Asian noodle dishes. Sunland, a Top Pick Of The Week, makes wonderful Onion Parsley, Thai Ginger and Hickory Smoked PBs, among other flavors. When is a peanut butter not a peanut butter? When it’s a peanut butter blend or a peanut spread. Such products start with peanut butter, but they use other ingredients to an extent that disqualifies them from labeling their products as peanut butters (the FDA standard of identity for peanut butter states that “seasoning and stabilizing ingredients” must not “in the aggregate exceed 10 percent of the weight of the finished food”). These blends and spreads may be lower in calories and/or fat and higher in protein and fiber than peanut butter.
Continue To Page 3: Peanut Butter Health Benefits
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recent. Hydrogenated and partially hydrogenated vegetable oils are added to many supermarket peanut butters. These oils dramatically increased the shelf life of peanut butter and prevent oil from rising to the top; they also provide for a creamier mouthfeel. Health warnings have been issued about trans fats in recent years, but much discussion ensued as to whether or not the amount of trans fat in a standard supermarket-variety peanut butter was significant in human health. (By FDA definition, the small amount of trans fat in peanut butter allows manufacturers to list it as being trans fat-free, but unless there is no hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oil in your peanut butter, it does contain trans fat.) 
peanut butter with chocolate doesn’t take too much imagination, but companies producing these peanut butters have thrown caution to the wind and offer decidedly unusual flavor combinations—along with some tamer varieties for those who prefer not to go too crazy. A butterscotch or cinnamon raisin peanut butter might well find wide acceptance. But peanut butter with onion-parsley or hot spices or curry? Believe it!† They’re all available with a few quick clicks of your mouse; some are even organic. Of the four best-known brands of flavored peanut butters, three are associated with restaurants or cafés, although one of the restaurants does not appear to have their peanut butters on their menu.
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