With your one serving of peanut butter, you’re getting potassium, magnesium, and a whole bunch of your fibre intake for the day!
BUT, all of these benefits come from just one thing… peanuts! Which is why ingredients are so important when shopping for your favorite nut. Peanut Butter can be loaded with added oils, sugars, and stabilizers that take away from its nutritional content altogether.
Here are a few things to consider next time you buy:
- Buy the Organic Kind- I know, Organic can be one of those “buzzy” words right now. BUT, peanuts are one of the most “sprayed” crops out there, and due to the nature of how peanuts are ground down, non-organic peanut butter can contain a LOT of fungus and pesticides.
- No Added Sugar- Peanut Butter sometimes contains sugar to enhance its taste and make it “more delicious”. Since “sweeter” products sell far more, peanut butter manufacturers see a rise in sales… leading them to continue to add sugar. Don’t fall for the “Natural” sugar added either; whether it’s corn syrup, or honey. If you’re looking for the benefits of peanuts… stick to just that.
- No Added Oils- The presence of hydrogenated oil in your peanut butter can be a source of trans fats, which are known to cause heart diseases, strokes and other high cholesterol-related illnesses. Most of the time, peanut butter contains emulsifiers to make it suitable for spreading. These can be in the form of added palm oil, which is harmful for one’s cardiac health. A healthy peanut butter variety should either contain no trace of the above ingredients or have coconut oil instead as a substitute.
- Less Ingredients: Remember- less the ingredients, the better it is. One must look out for peanut butter with the two or less ingredients, which should largely include the goodness of peanuts without any added preservatives in the form of excessive sugar or salt. Beware of packages with “reduced fats” because to compensate for it, the peanut butter brands add starchy substitutes to it, which proves to be even more harmful than its former variety.
Saying yes to “cheap”peanut butter is saying yes to a whole whack of other things-chemicals, sugars, pesticides, enhancers. We deserve more when it comes to the quality of food, so let’s start by saying “no” to peanut butter that doesn’t contain JUST peanuts. Below I’ve listed a few brands that are a great option!
Shop these brands at Sequoia: (online and in store)
- Fatso Peanut Butter
- Wild Friends
- Nuts to you Organic
- Bulk Barn
- Aura