Natural Peanut Butter vs. Regular?

I've had both. Skippy Natural tastes better to me than any other PB I've ever tasted.

I haven't been "conditioned" to anything. I just like it.

My parents were vegetarians when I was born and I forced them to go back to eating meat because I wouldn't eat the food they offered. For most of my life, I would barely touch anything but meat. Now I'm a vegetarian. Where is the conditioning? We like what we like.

I enjoy peanuts on their own. I prefer a certain taste of peanut butter. And I actually no longer like the PB I grew up eating.

Don't be so condescending.

Actually, that's a pretty good example of different sorts of conditioning, but feel free to keep fantasizing that you have some innate and nebulous taste unaffected by your environment.

The conditioning is in the habit of consuming it, and in the societal conditioning. It's discrimination and generalization. And it's not condescention, it's science and human behavior.

But I eat completely differently from how I grew up eating. Please tell me how I was conditioned to prefer one taste over another. And if it's social, why as a toddler would I not eat the food my parents (my only social network at the time) ate?

And why is it that people who grew up never, ever tasting certain foods or even being exposed to them come to love them after trying them only once?

I refused to even try Indian food until about three years ago and now it's my favorite food.

Actually, that's a pretty good example of different sorts of conditioning, but feel free to keep fantasizing that you have some innate and nebulous taste unaffected by your environment.

The conditioning is in the habit of consuming it, and in the societal conditioning. It's discrimination and generalization. And it's not condescention, it's science and human behavior.

But I eat completely differently from how I grew up eating. Please tell me how I was conditioned to prefer one taste over another. And if it's social, why as a toddler would I not eat the food my parents (my only social network at the time) ate?

And why is it that people who grew up never, ever tasting certain foods or even being exposed to them come to love them after trying them only once?

I refused to even try Indian food until about three years ago and now it's my favorite food.

Because conditioning works both ways. An eating habit repeated often enough can produce both acclimation and discrimination that limits generalization - ie, you like natural or regualr PB because that's what you are used to consuming.

It can also function to encourage discrimination and generalization - as when you eat a food repetetively, and then "tire" of it and move onto another food.

There are also other mental forces at play with strict adherance or prohibition - vegetarianism, meat and potatoes, alcoholism, teetotalers. Depending on the study, some show more "rebellion" reactions (vegetarian children of heavy meat eaters) and some show more of the opposite effect with rebellion and then strict adhereance. It's soemwhat more complext with alcohol, solely because of addictive properties and physical dependence. (I used the "A" word. Please no one say they're addicted to sugar....)

And, the actual ability to discern tastes varies slightly individual to individual, is subject to hormone levels which level off in adulthood, and is altered by the variety of experience.

That said, it's peanut butter. No one cares what variety you eat, if any at all. You aren't fated to it, you make choices.

:laugh:

Can it possibly surprise you that a group of people more broadly inclined to be emotional about food become emotional about food?

i find it ironic that "regular" peanut butter often has palm oil, sweeteners and preservatives. and "fitness pals" are too lazy to stir the natural.

It isn't necessarily due to laziness, maybe just personal preference. I think oily peanut butter and/or keeping it in the fridge (with the obvious result: cold peanut butter) sucks. Some added sugar, palm oil and salt won't kill me.

Palm oil...mmmm...oil of the gods...

I use PB2. I think it gives a great taste for the amount of cals...but i only use it in baking and icecream.

I've never even heard of it! Can you find it at Whole Foods or Trader Joes?

It's just powdered PB (they remove all the fat). You have to mix it with oil or water to use it, unless you're mising it into something like a smoothie. Honestly, I don't find it al that tasty. It isn't bad, but I'd rather eat the real thing.

I've eaten natural Pb for so long, that when I tried the kind with additives again it tasted like funky peanut-flavoured frosting.
I agree, unless you want to be careful about the additives, eat what works for you. But log it right.

i find it ironic that "regular" peanut butter often has palm oil, sweeteners and preservatives. and "fitness pals" are too lazy to stir the natural.

It isn't necessarily due to laziness, maybe just personal preference. I think oily peanut butter and/or keeping it in the fridge (with the obvious result: cold peanut butter) sucks. Some added sugar, palm oil and salt won't kill me.

Palm oil...mmmm...oil of the gods...

too bad it requires the systematic killing of Orangutans to acquire it...

IKR? :explode: