"Is Reduced-Fat Peanut Butter Truly Better?"

apetty21

From an article I saw on MSN.com and Men's Health http://fitbie.msn.com/slideshow/food-face/?gt1=50002

Eat Smarter
Drop pounds and power up your diet by choosing the healthiest versions of similar foods with these picks from The Men's Health Big Book Of Food & Nutrition.

Vegetables or Vegetable Juice
It's a tie
Didn't expect this one, did you? Unlike sugar-packed fruit juice, low-sodium vegetable juice, like V8, has relatively few calories and is still very nutritious. It's a smart choice if you're not eating enough vegetables. It's also a healthy, antioxidant-packed alternative to a sugar-packed drink, like a typical store-bought smoothie.

Pasture-Raised Meat or Factory Farm-Raised Meat
Pasture-Raised Meat
You don't need to be a tree hugger to prefer sustainably produced chicken and beef. Pastured chickens roam around and consume vitamin-rich bugs and grasses, so their meat has 21 percent less fat and 28 percent fewer calories than conventional chicken. Grass-fed beef, likewise, is 11 percent lower in calories than conventional beef. Plus it has 36 percent less fat and a healthier balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids.

Dried Fruit or Fresh Fruit
Fresh Fruit
Dried fruit is nutritious, but by weight it has more than twice the calories of fresh. And because its water content is lower, you have to eat more to feel satisfied. In fact, fresh fruit beats any other fruit product, including juice. A medium orange, for example, has just 62 calories and 12 grams of sugar, along with 3 grams of belly-filling fiber. By comparison, 8 ounces of Tropicana Pure Premium OJ has 110 calories, 22 grams of sugar, and 0 g fiber

Bacon or Turkey Bacon
Bacon
Turkey is a relatively lean meat, but turkey bacon isn't 100 percent bird. It can contain up to twice as many different additives as regular bacon has. Both turkey bacon and real bacon give you a mouthful of sodium, and the difference in calories is negligible—but at least real bacon makes your kitchen smell good. Plus, it's not that indulgent—one slice has 25 calories

Soft Cheese or Hard Cheese
Soft Cheese
As cheese ages, it loses moisture and becomes more dense in calories and fat. To cut calories without cutting out cheese, just eat smaller amounts of aged cheese, or go with a soft variety, such as mozzarella.

Reduced-Fat Peanut Butter or Regular Peanut Butter
Regular Peanut Butter
Reduced-fat peanut butter might seem like an easy way to save a few calories, but the manufacturer probably took out much of the fat in the peanuts and used soy protein and corn-syrup solids. That means you're trading healthy fat for double the carbs, all to save a measly 19 calories.

elzettel

Reduced-Fat Peanut Butter or Regular Peanut Butter
Regular Peanut Butter
Reduced-fat peanut butter might seem like an easy way to save a few calories, but the manufacturer probably took out much of the fat in the peanuts and used soy protein and corn-syrup solids. That means you're trading healthy fat for double the carbs, all to save a measly 19 calories.

I recently read the manufacturer adds sugar to the reduced fat...so while you might be saving a few cals (totally not worth it for 19 in my opinion) you are actually getting more sugar.

Hourglass25

Good to know..thanks

ZebraHead

I'm not smart enough to know the diff. But I'll give up my JIF when you pry my cold dead fingers from my butterknife. :bigsmile:

jdavis193

Reduced Fat is not better for you. It takes away everything in the regular peanut butter that is good for you. I saw this is numerous magazines. Reduced fat has more chemicals in there as well.

mikeyml

Reduced fat also equals higher sodium. It's not worth it in my opinion.

jessieinblue

Peanut butter should have one ingredient: peanuts. If you prefer salted, the two ingredients should be peanuts and salt.

Simple

lutzsher

A good rule is to always choose the most "natural" item. I only eat natural PB, make sure the ingredients are only "peanuts", and so on.

apetty21

Within the past month, I've switched from reduced fat PB to full fat. Now, I'm not a fan of natural you-have-to-stir-it-up-because-it-seperates peanut butter. The closest I can get is Peanut Butter & Co brand. I gave up my lovely Peter Pan brand. And by "lovely" I mean "I've loved it since I was a little kid" but I'm not a kid anymore.

chrissyh

I use Naturally More Pnut Butter (it has flax seeds in it) less fat than regular with great stuff in it. The seeds give it that "crunchy' type texture. Very good.

It does have to be stirred.

tcooper81

I compare labels for stuff like this. I always go for whichever product has the most natural, simple ingredients with the least amount of sugar and sodium and 99% of the time, I always choose the full-fat version. I always have 10-15 fat grams to spare at the end of the day, so I can afford some extra fat and I'd rather have it than extra sugar or sodium.