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With this, I shall retire for the night. Several times, I have heard or read comments saying we should buy natural peanut butter. One day at the store I saw some Jif Natural Peanut butter. I started comparing labels and made quite a discovery.
The two are almost identical. The Natural has 0.2 gm more of Sat Fat. The regular has 30 more mg of sodium. Other than that? One thing. The natural cost $1 more.
I suppose someone can explain this. Be back yfory/manana/tomorrow.
Comparing the ingredients on the two, the regular has fully hydrogenated rapeseed and soybean oils and mono and diglycerides. The natural has palm oil. The mono and diglycerides are additives to keep the oil from separating from the peanut solids.
It used to be that when you bought natural peanut butter (from the health food store), you had to stir it before you could use it, because the oil would separate out and sit on top of the solids. The no-stir natural peanut butters use palm oil to keep the oil from separating out.
The ingredients of "natural peanut butter" should be peanuts and salt (you can get unsalted which would just have peasants). The other peanut butters can contain all sorts of other things like palm oil, preservatives, sugars, etc.
Comparing the ingredients on the two, the regular has fully hydrogenated rapeseed and soybean oils and mono and diglycerides. The natural has palm oil. The mono and diglycerides are additives to keep the oil from separating from the peanut solids.
Natural shouldn't have any added fats and its not like palm oil is more natural than soybean oil.
1) it tastes better
2) I like the consistency more
3) It's just peanuts and salt (though you can get it unsalted)
4) It's kind of a fun mini-ritual to stir the oil with the paste to make the butter the first time I use it.
The important thing with the natural, is that it does need to be kept refrigerated once you've opened and stirred it.
The problem is with the word "natural." Truth in Advertising laws require that the ingredients be natural. They don't require that the ingredients be exclusive. And so, as long as you're using natural cane sugar, natural salt, natural peanuts, natural palm oil, natural sawdust, and natural chopped liver, you can call your peanutbutter all natural.
My preferred brand is Teddie's, and the ingredients are only peanuts, salt, period.
Quite a few stores have peanut butter making machines (grinders and bins of peanuts, or almonds)... salted or unsalted peanuts...nothing else added. Each week we make our own fresh peanut butter either at Whole Foods or Earth Fare. We keep the fresh peanut butter on the kitchen counter and we eat it every day...no jarred stuff for us. We can make it in our VitaMix as well.
Thank you all. Right that I need to read the ingredients. When I made that comparison, I got the data from Calorie King. I didn't find the ingredients but might not have done a good job there anyway That needs to be done.
And, right that "pure" peanut butter is ground peanuts with salt if you want. So, is my conclusion that the word "natural" is being a bit overdone correct? Basically, yes it is all natural but not what we (I anyway) think about when I think about natural peanut butter.
Since I haven't compared the ingredients, does that improve the claim to the label "natural" even if it isn't "pure" peanut butter with no additives of any kind (other than the optional salt)?
As for using only he "pure" (is there a better word?), a jar of peanut butter lasts me too long. It does have to be used up faster than I could use it. I once bought a jar of it at Whole Foods. It was not half used when the expiration date passed by. But that's not the question here.
Conclusion: It's a matter of semantics? Are we now to be leary of anything called "natural"?
It's not a matter of semantics. It's a matter of advertising. Natural peanutbutter must be natural, by law. But it doesn't need to be ONLY peanutbutter. It can include any other ingredients found in nature.
The only way you can be assured of the ingredients of your processed foods, is to read the ingredients list. That is your responsibility as a consumer. The manufacturer has already done his job by providing it for you. This does not extend to herbal/chemical dietary supplements. The supplement companies can pretty much put whatever they want into their pills and liquids and powders, as long as what they put in it, isn't already controlled by the FDA. (Example - an herb-shop's bottle of valerian capsules can have powdered horse manure and sawdust in the capsules. But it cannot have Valium in the capsules, because Valium is an FDA-controlled substance).
It's not a matter of semantics. It's a matter of advertising. Natural peanutbutter must be natural, by law. But it doesn't need to be ONLY peanutbutter. It can include any other ingredients found in nature.
The only way you can be assured of the ingredients of your processed foods, is to read the ingredients list. That is your responsibility as a consumer. The manufacturer has already done his job by providing it for you. This does not extend to herbal/chemical dietary supplements. The supplement companies can pretty much put whatever they want into their pills and liquids and powders, as long as what they put in it, isn't already controlled by the FDA. (Example - an herb-shop's bottle of valerian capsules can have powdered horse manure and sawdust in the capsules. But it cannot have Valium in the capsules, because Valium is an FDA-controlled substance).
You've pointed out the flaw in my thinking and I do agree with you. But, am I the only one who can be fooled by that word "natural"? Or, was I just not thinking - a common failure, I fear.
Of course you're not the only one fooled by it. That is WHY the use of the word is so effective, that is WHY so many "natural foods" companies rake in so much money. That is also WHY supplements are a multi-billion-dollar industry. They can peddle their natural foods and natural supplements, that are no better than the chemical processed stuff - and in the case of supplements - might even be more dangerous and potentially life-threatening. But because they can add cheap fillers (such as sawdust) and still comply with the truth in advertising laws, they can get away with it at enormous profits.
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