Kraft peanut butter or kraft all natural peanut butter?

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.

kimny72 wrote: »

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

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.

Yep, palm oil. It doesn't need to be refrigerated and it doesn't separate. They just call it natural to get people who think that's important without knowing why will buy it based on the label.

yup. and who can really blame them? I'd pray on stupid too if I was in marketing.

Generally, they are either the same thing with pseudo-health terms and re-worded ingredient names stamped on their container, or they didn't add emulsifying agents and you get to pay extra for the privilege of needing to stab your peanut butter a kazillion times before eating it. no thank you.

It comes down to your priorities. If you want no added salt or no added sugar then pick the ones with that option. If you don't mind the extras, pick what tastes best to you.

I personally prefer the taste and texture of kraft smooth and light peanut butter so I pick that.

Looks like they've added sugar and a bit of palm oil to some of their options: http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/about-our-products/product-faq/peanut-butter

Others do not have it.

Generally speaking, the main difference is that regular peanut butter has had the peanut oil removed and replaced with a less expensive vegetable oil, and has a sweetener added. Often the replacement oil is also hydrogenated to keep it from separating. Natural peanut butter will retain the natural peanut oil -- which is why it separates -- and has no added sweeteners.