Kraft peanut butter or kraft all natural peanut butter?

Depends..... What are you evaluating between the two?

Is this a Canadian thing?

Check out the ingredients and nutrition information, that will tell you. Usually "all natural" means there's nothing in it but peanuts and perhaps salt, but they have to tell you.

I use Smucker's Natural and 'peanuts' are the only ingredient. The characteristic of them is that the oil separates from the crushed peanuts and you must stir it back in. That's easy enough and I only have to do it once.

JeromeBarry1 wrote: »

I use Smucker's Natural and 'peanuts' are the only ingredient. The characteristic of them is that the oil separates from the crushed peanuts and you must stir it back in. That's easy enough and I only have to do it once.

That's weird. My Smucker's Natural says it has salt (1% or less) as well as peanuts. I prefer the taste without added sugar and non-peanut oils, especially since I use PB in savory dishes a lot. Sometimes the initial stirring is a bit of a chore, but if I burn 5 or 10 calories doing it, all the better. It helps if you turn the jar upside down when you first buy it, and then turn it every so often until you open it (I tend to stock up when it's on sale, so some jars may sit on a shelf in my kitchen for several months).

ogtmama wrote: »

All natural has no salt or sugar. The calories are relatively the same so it depends what your goals are when deciding between the two. I prefer natural now that I'm used to it and I pour off the oil at the top and use it for stirfrys so it is a little satisfying knowing that my calories in is a tiny bit lower whenever I have toast with peanut butter.

I do this too! Even though there is no added oil, it still seems like too much oil to me when I stir it all in.

JeromeBarry1 wrote: »

I use Smucker's Natural and 'peanuts' are the only ingredient. The characteristic of them is that the oil separates from the crushed peanuts and you must stir it back in. That's easy enough and I only have to do it once.

Are you sure there's no salt? My Smuckers has salt, as do all the natural brands I use.

To me, natural means no added sugar or oils.



Cotton is a highly pesticided crop and I do not buy products that contain cotton seed oil.

kshama2001 wrote: »

JeromeBarry1 wrote: »

I use Smucker's Natural and 'peanuts' are the only ingredient. The characteristic of them is that the oil separates from the crushed peanuts and you must stir it back in. That's easy enough and I only have to do it once.

Are you sure there's no salt? My Smuckers has salt, as do all the natural brands I use.

To me, natural means no added sugar or oils.



Cotton is a highly pesticided crop and I do not buy products that contain cotton seed oil.

I didn't even know Kraft made pb, but I looked their natural pb up online and the label said 0 sodium so I'm guessing they don't add salt.

The natural pb I buy does have added salt. I don't think I'd like it without salt.

kimny72 wrote: »

Most major brands now offer a "natural" version that you don't need to stir. I assume it's a marketing gimmick, as the "Natural Jif Creamy" I'm holding in my hand lists ingredients: peanuts, sugar, palm oil, 2% or less of salt, molasses. Natural doesn't have any official meaning to it, so it can be randomly stuck on most anything!

They'd pretty much have to add some type of saturated fat or a stabilizing agent to make it not separate, though if you give it a good stir and store in the fridge it shouldn't separate.

I always get either kraft or PC natual peanut butter. The only ingredient for both of them is just peanuts and they taste the exact same so I just get whichever one is on sale.

When I first switched to the natural from the regular kraft peanut butter i found it too peanuty and not salty enough.

I'm used to it now though and find it delicious. I stayed with some relatives a few months ago that only had regular peanut butter and it tasted insanely sugary and felt like it had such an unnatural texture. Based on that, I would recommend the natural variety.

toxikon wrote: »

As far as taste goes, I really prefer the regular stuff. I find all-natural very sticky and dries my mouth unpleasantly. Plus it tends to separate, so every time you want to use it, you need to re-mix it. Kinda annoying.

I'm the exact opposite. In the past I didn't care but I'm now finding that regular peanut butter seems too smooth for me. I like the gritty stickiness of natural.

cross2bear wrote: »

If you store the all natural peanut butter upside down, you wont need to stir in the oil as much as it will rise to the top (which is the bottom of the jar when upside down).

I tried that for a while, but then the bottom of the jar is super oily. It seems easier to just dump some off, stir it and store in the fridge.

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

ogtmama wrote: »

All natural has no salt or sugar. The calories are relatively the same so it depends what your goals are when deciding between the two. I prefer natural now that I'm used to it and I pour off the oil at the top and use it for stirfrys so it is a little satisfying knowing that my calories in is a tiny bit lower whenever I have toast with peanut butter.

I do this too! Even though there is no added oil, it still seems like too much oil to me when I stir it all in.

That's because the "added" oils typically are more solid at room temperature than peanut oil (more saturated fats), so the "peanut" butter is thicker and thus seems less oily.

earlnabby wrote: »

My main problem with the national brands of "All Natural" peanut butter is that they all seem to have palm oil in them which contributes to deforestation, especially critical orangutan habitats.

Smuckers is the exception.

Same reason for me.

I buy Meridian which just contains peanuts and salt.

I assume the palm oil comment above is tongue in cheek.

The term "all natural" is not regulated so it means whatever the manufacturer wants it to mean.

My observation is that all natural peanut butters have not been homogenized which means the natural peanut oil will separate at room temperature. I suggest you stir it in when you get home, keep it in the refrigerator and store it upside down.

If I don't stir the oil in I end up with a low fat brick of unspreadable peanut cement.

I just get regular homogenized peanut butter and not fuss.

mitch16 wrote: »

I prefer the Smucker's too (mine says it contains less than 1% salt in addition to peanuts).

I was very disappointed in the selection at my local Whole Foods--one brand was labeled as "peanut spread" instead of peanut butter--WTF is that???--and the other I tried had added sugar.

According to FDA regulations, a product has to contain at least 90% peanuts to be labelled as peanut butter. I'm not averse to some of the yummy peanut butter spread products but they are most definitely not peanut butter.