Peanut butter

I have replaced my Peanut Butter with Trader Joe's Raw Unsalted Peanut butter. I love it. Its still has the same amount of fat and calories but it does not have a bunch of processed crap. As long as you are staying within your deficit I see no problem.

Almond Butter Not peanut butter

Okay, I did a ton of research on this topic for my own purposes some time back.

1st: Peanuts grown the South Eastern US (Peanut Capital of the World) due to the humidity and year round soil moisture do have a certain fungus spore (Mold) on them that can produce carcinogenic (Cancer Causing toxins) and frequently peanut butters contain these toxins. The older the peanuts the worse the problem. This mold bitters the flavor and that is why the cheap mass produced peanut butters use so much sugar and added fat, to cover the flavor of their low quality old stock peanuts! The older peanuts are also rancid, causing oxidation damage (from free radicals) another cancer risk.

2nd: To avoid the mold, buy natural peanut butters sourced from New Mexico, and made fresh. The natural brands cost more but you know they are fresh peanuts because they can not use sugars and fillers to make them taste good, they must rely on good peanuts and salt. None of the specific mold spores which are universal to the South Eastern US have yet been discovered in peanuts from New Mexico, nor has the soil ever been found to contain it. The soil dries out too much in the off growing season for the spores to survive, New Mexico is a desert region.

3rd: Peanuts and Peanut Butter from fresh mold free peanuts is a fantastic source of nutrients and is used as a food source for refugees the world over because it's a cost effective way to feed starving people and get them nourished and back up to strength.

4th: Peanut butter is high in caloric density, meaning that by volume it is higher in calories than most other natural foods, making weight loss while eating it more difficult simply because it's easy to eat too many calories, but it is by no means bad for you.

5th: Fats in general are NOT bad for you! Certain fats are and they are not the ones the government teaches you! The best fats you can eat are saturated fats! I know I just lost most of the readers that are seeing this post because the brainwashing in this country is so well organized. The best fats are butter from grass fed cows, beef tallow from grass fed cows, extra virgin naturally derived coconut oil and palm oil! Read Know your Fats by Mary Enig to learn why this is true and to understand the science the history of the teachings about fats in this country. She is a foremost lipids (Fats) scientist and an adviser to world governments and health agencies. She is not a rebel or a crackpot, she is not trying to enrich herself by offering a counter view, she is simply explaining the facts.

6th: Fat can not be stored by the body as body fat, without sugar. Fat that goes unabsorbed is eliminated as waste. Sugar can become body fat immediately and that is why too much blood sugar spikes insulin production. The insulin causes the sugars to be stored as fat to get them out of your blood. The enemy is sugar, and refined carbs (they readily become sugar), not fats. You can not gain body fat eating fat, no matter how much you eat. UNLESS you eat them with starches and sugars, which of course we do! (donuts, cakes, brownies, chips and dips with candy and cool aid or soda pop, are all high fat high sugar combinations) Sugars can make you fat by themselves, but fats need sugars to chemically enable them to be stored as fat in the body. This is a law of biological chemistry. Low fat diets that replace fats with carbs make you fat, or if calorie deficient still make it hard to lose weight. In part due to body fat storage chemistry, and in part due to lack of satiety from low or no fat foods.

7th: Poly and Mono unsaturated fats lead to heart disease, they are also what fattens up grain fed cattle and gives us that coveted "marbling" we've come to associate with good meat, natural (Read grass fed) beef is very low in fat, but the fat is healthy. Saturated fats from natural sources fed their natural diets are absolutely safe and that's why all the fats that have been around for thousands of years are healthy and the new fats that require chemical processing (Such as all veggie and plant based fats other than Coconut, palm and olive oils (these can be processed manually without modern technology) are dangerous!

8th: Butter and Beef tallow from grass fed cattle is very high in CLA and actually causes the burning of body fat and the building of lean muscle. These fats were why our grandparents were so healthy. Butter and beef fat from grain fed cattle is deadly poison is is what fuels the anti beef fat and butter mythology. This is what allowed the vegetable, corn, safflower, canola, and soy oil industry to make the claim that animal fats were bad for you. There is some truth to it based on the animals modern grain fed (unnatural) diet.

9th: Peanut butter is a natural unrefined source of poly and mono unsaturated fats, and is fine in moderation. But all seeds, legumes and grains are to be eaten moderately, during weight loss. They should be the primary sources of calories in healthy active adults, in organically raised and not genetically altered!

10th: Fats are more than twice the caloric density of proteins and carbs by weight, and are far more dense (less bulky) that most proteins and carbohydrates(an apple is only eighty calories, while just one spoonful of fat is 120-130! How much lettuce and spinach can you eat for that?!) thus fats are extremely easy to over eat. Peanut butter is no exception. I used to regularly eat half a cup or more in a day! Trying to stay under 2100 hundred calories a day (For my current weight loss journey) doing that is nearly impossible! But in an emergency eating scenario, peanut butter makes an outstanding food source and is high in energy and nutrients, is fairly affordable, and goes a long way in a crisis. So the food itself is neither good nor bad, it simply is. What we use it for, and how much we eat, compared with how much work we are doing and energy we are expending makes it a worthwhile or taboo food.

Peanut butter is an excellent and wonderful food source, when used appropriately for the goal, within your weight loss calorie budget and not combined with refined carbs and sugars.

Having it with an organic apple as one poster put it, is a perfect way to enjoy it! The sugars from fruit are not anywhere near as fattening and dangerous as refined sugars or even white flour! Nature makes the best foods and the science backs that up every single time! (At least when you read the raw data, and ignore the sound bites)

Finally: The single most important thing we can know, as consumers of health information, is that studies are paid for by special interests, and the summaries and headlines almost always lie! The raw data is generally honest, but the summary and headlines are all lies, but none of dig into the actual data in any detail, this is why we are so easily deceived. Many studies actually find the exact opposite of what we are told they find in the sound bite news media.

For example, The China Study purports that a vegetarian diet is healthier than one containing animal proteins. The actual data shows that sugar and refined flour were the causes of the diseases they were blaming the animal proteins for. None of the actual study data backs up the claim that animal proteins are bad. But you won't here that on the news.

I LOVE PEANUT BUTTER!

I apologize to anyone I offended by speaking so much about fats and carbs on a forum about peanut butter. But it is crucial that we all understand as people managing our weight that the enemy is the unnatural and refined foods (Including most diet foods), NOT natural wholesome foods that have fed people for thousands of years.

I can almost never tell in the store, so I research the brands at home and then buy the ones from peanuts grown in New Mexico.

There are several brands all produced by the same company using all natural and certified organic Valencia Peanuts grown in New Mexico, under different store brands, the mother company is called Sunland, they also make the following store and local brands, Trader Joe's, Natural Values, Archer Farms, American Choice, Arrowhead Mills, Fresh and Easy, Cadia All Natural, Earth Balance Nut Butters, Harry and David, Heinen's, Joseph's, Kirkland, Natural Value (My Favorite because it comes in bulk gallon sized containers for saving money) Open Nature, Peanut Power Butter, Serious Food Silly Prices, Sprout's, Sun Harvest, & even Tropical Traditions Coconut Peanut butter.

They're busy!

Now each formulation is requested by the brand owner so check your labels to ensure you are getting the pure nuts and salt recipes and not the ones full of crap. Many of the above brands are the all natural and organic varieties, but I have not checked them all out. Sunland under their own brand name offers many varieties, some pure and some filled with flavors and sweeteners.

Anyway, I buy the bulk "Natural Values" brand in 15# tubs that look a little bigger than a one gallon pale. I save a bunch of money over buying in the 16oz glass jars, and since it's organic the savings matter. I buy from azure. (Which is a coop owned by a Farm called Azure Standard, out of OR. They are one of the suppliers to Whole Foods and similar markets. If you join the Coop you can buy all kinds of bulk natural and organic foods that you pick up at drop off locations near your home, similar to Bountiful Baskets.) The downside to the bulk tub is it needs refrigeration once opened and you need room for a large tub in the fridge. [My approach is probably not for everyone.]

Hope this helps!

couldn't live without my jif.........................just sayin, but use it in moderation

jiff isn't real.

make your own in a blender/food processor with just raw peanuts, and a smidgen of oil if necessary

I recently discovered PB2 - a dehydrated peanut butter. It's seriously amazing in your shakes, you can make a thai peanut type sauce with it, I add it to my Medifast brownies.... the possibilities are endless! And it's only 45 calories for 2 TB.

PB2 is not "dehydrated peanut butter" it is peanut flour. It's the waste product of what is left of the peanut after the fat has been pressed out to make peanut oil. Mixing it with water does not "make peanut butter" since you would need oil for that.

Just eat real peanut butter.. it's not bad for you.

On the Doctors they said as long as the Peanut butter is organic and ingredients say JUST peanuts its healthy enough of course in moderation within your limits.

I've been eating peanut butter all my life-never got sick. I love peanut butter on toast and it keeps me full all morning! (Important with a preschooler rampaging across the house, ha ha).

No lie there. I have a 2 year old running rampant all morning. Peanut Butter & banana toast is how I enjoy mine.