Did every day peanut butter always have sugar?

Old_Cat_Lady

Or did it start with the low fat revolution of the 80's or 90's and with companies taking out fat and replacing it with sugar?
I have always bought smucker's natural but I've always considered it in a class of it's own since it was much more expensive. But I noticed that brands like jiffy and skip have sugar. Have these brands always had sugar since they first came out? Or have the companies been adding more sugar over the years? I imagine they always had the hyrdogenated oils. Anyone know the history? I wonder what year hydrogenated oils began to be in products (that one I can google).

__TMac__

My mother intentionally bought us unsugared PB when I was very young, so it's been at least 40 years. Beyond that, I don't know. Interesting question.

Edit to clarify: She had to specifically seek out unsugared PB brands, because Jif and others were well sweetened.

cmriverside

I don't know but I miss Peter Pan.

CaliMomTeach

I just noticed that the peanut butter I have been buying for my kids for years has added sugar and oil. I bought Kirkland Organic Peanut Butter a couple of days ago, which only lists dry roasted peanuts and sea salt as ingredients. Hopefully, they will like it.

lemurcat12

TheWJordinWJordin wrote: »

Or did it start with the low fat revolution of the 80's or 90's and with companies taking out fat and replacing it with sugar?

In that the sugar is in regular peanut butter (i.e., not low fat at all), this seems an odd hypothesis.

Looks like adding sweetener started in the '50s, and the natural stuff that probably made a non sweetened kind available came out around 1970, so the opposite timing, if anything. http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/a-chunky-history-of-peanut-butter.

Aemely

Check out Peanut Butter & Co. Old Fashioned Smooth w/ 2 ingredients: US-grown peanuts & salt.

https://ilovepeanutbutter.com/collections/peanut-butter/products/old-fashioned-smooth

lemurcat12

There are plenty of just nut options. I think she was asking about when sugar got added to the mainstream commercial ones, not suggesting you couldn't find alternatives.

JeromeBarry1

The new fashion of "old-fashioned" peanut butter containing only peanuts and salt are not describing peanut butter which experienced earlier market success. G.W. Carver's invention of peanut butter indeed had only peanuts and salt, but it was only after emulsifiers were added to the mix which prevented the oil separating that peanut butter became popular. I'd be highly surprised if Peter Pan, Jif, and any other older popular brand were ever presented without a sugar component.

nvmomketo

I would say at least half of the peanut butters at my grocers' are without sugar.

Momepro

I remember in the very late 70's early 80's, when I was between 3 and 6 my Mom bought fresh ground peanut butter at a Costco like place we used to go to. She actually got it from a machine that ground it right there, and only had peanuts and water. It was a big deal, and I didn't like it then. The regular stuff still had plenty of sugar and whatever oil they used to make it no stir.

Now, I only like sugar free peanut butter. Just peanuts and salt. Usually the Kirkland kind. My daughter loves that, but won't eat regular peanuts. Go fig.