Monday, February 23, 2009

One of My Favorite Foods......Naturally

I switched to natural peanut butter (salted) a few years back when I was trying to get away from partially hydrogenated oils. And we are just totally used to it. I remember as a kid, my grandparents had the all natural kind. They bought unsalted. And it had that lovely oil on top and you had to stir it and it had no salt or sugar in it. I thought it was disgusting.
But, it is all Becca has had, so she's used to it. But, Becca's friends are not so impressed. Their moms all say "Oh. Don't worry. They'll eat it and be fine." And then, none of them eat it and I throw away entire sandwiches and the other moms look a bit fretful about how their kids haven't eaten anything.

So, I bought some of the....other kind to have on hand. I was going to say real, but in actually it is less real.


But man. Is it ever delicious.

It tastes like candy to me. I want to just eat the whole jar, preferrably dipped in dark chocolate.

So, I took another look at the ingredients. Our natural stuff has two ingredients. Peanuts, salt. And, we do have to stir it. But I just stir it once and then refrigerate it, so you only have to do it once.

The other stuff has the following ingredients: Peanuts, peanut oil, corn syrup, hydrogenated rapeseed and cottonseed oils, salt, sugar, molasses. Rapeseed? WTF? So, basically I guess it IS like eating candy. Candy with weird oils. And I guess now we are just eating fully hydrogenated instead of partially. When will they tell us that is bad too?

11 comments:

Kayris said...

Do you have a Safeway? Their O Organics line of PB does have palm kernel oil in it, but no extra sugar or HFCS or anything, and it's a little thicker than Smuckers or Crazy Richards. After eating natural PB for so long, Jif makes me gag.

Anonymous said...

Hey Katie! I still read your blog ALL the time, but never post.....SORRY! I know that makes me a loser. But, I had to respond to this one, as I'm as passionate about PB as you appear to be. My girlfriend turned me on to Skippy Natural. You don't have to stir it and you don't have to refrigerate it. For some reason. But, it's really, really yummy. No transfat at all either! Hope all is well with the new family!

Jen said...

We call it peanut butter frosting here. And it is like candy, or frosting! It is sooo sinfully yummy. But I don't buy it unless we have no other options (for some reason the Commissary has been out of my natural salted PB for a few weeks, so I bought the Skippy Natural. Which has palm oil and sugar in it. Pllb.). My girls love the natural stuff, too, but I did hate it at first! I hope you can bring others around.

Katie said...

But, isn't palm oil also bad for us? Or am I wrong?

Unknown said...

Katie, MaraNantha organic has a new kind out with sugar cane in it (we use MN organic creamy salted). I saw it reviewed, I believe, over at www.ecochildsplay.com recently (site search it or google Marananta). When we get back to the States, I may stock some in my house for all the friends that come over. We're used to the natural/sugar-free stuff. Most everyone else isn't, as you've learned.

I had to laugh. B/c I know I can order the new MN kind or have my mother send it to me. However, I can't bring myself to do it yet b/c I will eat it by the spoonfuls. I LOVE PB!!! Sugared PB is more dangerous to me than a candy bar.

Angie said...

I like the natural peanut butter, but once it's refrigerated, it seems a bit hard. So, I stopped. We use it up fast enough that it has been fine. However, I tried making cookies with it. Yuck. I think the recipes must assume that there will already be sugar and such in the peanut butter and account for that. My dad wouldn't eat the natural stuff at our house, either.

Joel and Angela said...

We use the natural peanut butter too and we have never put it in the refridgerator. We have also bought the Skippy Natural. We like that too...although I find it weird that it is so much like "fake" peanut butter.

Anonymous said...

I know!! What is RAPESEED oil?? Everytime I see that I think its a type-o and that they really meant to say GRAPESEED oil. I go through phases where Im all organic! natural! and by-and-large I am (of course I only have the commissary to shop at so, you know, its no Whole Foods or anything) but I get so lazy with the PB. The commissary gets one kind of natural/organic PB and I do the whole stir it up stick in fridge deal but when I don't have time to let it sit on the counter and "thaw" out for 20 minutes I go straight for the backup jar of Jif in the pantry. And then the organic stuff goes bad and I throw away most of a jar. Swell.

Tracy said...

I bought one kind and we all HATED it, so I haven't visited that topic again. Maybe I should try. my girls eat the natural stuff at your house right?

Anonymous said...

Your Grandma Sue use to pour the oil off the top of the Peanut butter and then she had cement! I remember taking this stuff to school in sandwiches YUCK!! I still hate the Natural Crap to this day!! Its like mashed potatoes I'll eat them but I dont have to like them

Jen said...

I had to look it up; here is a bit from wikipedia:

Palm oil is an edible plant oil derived from the fruit of the Arecaceae Elaeis oil palm. Previously the second-most widely produced edible oil, after soybean oil, 28 million tonnes were produced worldwide in 2004.[1] It may have now surpassed soybean oil as the most widely produced vegetable oil in the world.[2] It is also an important component of many soaps, washing powders and personal care products, is used to treat wounds, and has controversially found a new use as a feedstock for biofuel.

The palm fruit is the source of both palm oil (extracted from palm fruit) and palm kernel oil (extracted from the fruit seeds). Palm oil itself is reddish because it contains a high amount of beta-carotene. It is used as cooking oil, to make margarine and is a component of many processed foods. Boiling it for a few minutes destroys the carotenoids and the oil becomes colourless. Palm oil is one of the few vegetable oils relatively high in saturated fats (like coconut oil) and thus semi-solid at room temperature.

Um, soaps and washing powders? Oh, commissary, please bring back my Laura Scudders PB. Peanuts and salt. I hate stirring you, but you must be better for me than all those other PBs.