My Beloved Better N' Peanut Butter

It's a snow day here in Philadelphia.. again!  I don't work on Thursdays, my classes were canceled, and I can't seem to sleep, so I figured it's a lovely time for my official post on my peanut-butter-y addiction, all-natural Better n' Peanut Butter. 

Such is my love of nut butters that I am sitting here, sipping my Starbucks (of course I had to stop for a Grande - even in a blizzard), having just returned from my 6:45 am trip to the grocery store, through the swirling sky of snowy white, in an attempt to find a nice almond butter to try the Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies recipe from the March issue of Clean Eating magazine.  I'm going to be stuck in my apartment all day, and Ed had to unfortunately trudge his way to the office despite the snow, so I thought I'd try some new baking.  I didn't find the Almond butter I was looking for (the only brand they had was $8.99 - I ain't cheap but I ain't exactly dying for these cookies today), but I did grab another jar of my daily staple - Low-Sodium BNPB, as I (and fellow enthusiasts) call it for the sake of brevity. 

I'd love to get some peanut butter-loving people on the BNPB bandwagon with me, so here's the low-down on this crazy spread.

The FDA requires something called 'standards of identity' for food products.  Basically, it's a 'must-have' list of criteria for a food to be legally sold as its common name.  For example, for a mixture to be sold as 'mayonnaise,' it must contain oil, eggs, and some kind of acid, and there must be 65% oil in the finished product.  That is mayo, according to the FDA, and that is what you've bought when you've bought mayo since 1940, when this Law was enacted.

But sometimes manufacturers make slight differences to recipes to alter the taste of the food, its nutritional profile, or any number of reasons - but that can change the contents of the food or at least the percentages of ingredients.  They still want to label it as they had been - instead of trying to convince you to buy some new food you've never heard of and therefore might comfortable with.  Plus, on your end, you could miss out on low-fat ice cream, being confused because they couldn't label it as ice cream after reducing the fat content.  So, the FDA allows for 'nutrient content claims,' which are specific modifiers on foods that specify how a food has been changed from its original common recipe.  They are super-specific, and are few in number - think 'Reduced' or 'Calorie-free.'  Why am I explaining all of this stuff?  Because it has to do with BNPB.

BNPB is "Less Fat, Less Calories, Low Sodium Peanut Butter."  It's still technically peanut butter, but requires three modifiers!  Sometimes it's a faux pas in the nutrition world to consume these kinds of foods that require extensive descriptors, but that is dumb and I don't care.  It is delicious.  You can get the regular-sodium version, but I greatly prefer the Low Sodium variety - the regular tastes like salt paste to me. 

The texture is pretty different from normal peanut butter, it is more viscous (syrup-like) as opposed to stiff and firm.  That really is the only difference to me.  Peanuts are the number one ingredient, but they are used as defatted peanut flour (still high in protein but lower in fat) followed by peanut butter.  They use tapioca and tapioca starch for thickening, and all ingredients are naturally-derived.  AKA, this isn't some weird concoction of chemicals and artificial sweeteners - they just messed with the proportions of things.  It's great on apples, baby carrots (my food-vehicle of choice), rice cakes, whole grain toast - anything you would use real peanut butter for.  For half the calories and 85% less fat!

Low-Sodium Better n' PB: Svg Size: 2 TBSP. Calories 100, Total Fat 2g, Trans Fat 0g, Sodium 95mg, Total Carb 13g, Fiber 2g, Sugars 2g, Protein 4g.

as compared to a perfectly nice choice for a standard, MUFA-filled PB, and approximately similar to most natural peanut butters:
Wegmans Natural Peanut Butter: Svg Size: 2 TBSP.  Calories 200, Total Fat 16g, Trans Fat 0g, Sodium 10mg, Total Carb 6g, Fiber 2g, Sugars 1g, Protein 9g.

as compared to a what I consider a lousy peanut butter choice:
Peter Pan Peanut Butter:  Svg Size 2 TBSP.  Calories 210, Total Fat 17g, Trans Fat 1g, Sodium 140mg, Total Carb 5g, Fiber 2g, Sugars 3g, Protein 8g.
(Ed's brother Ray makes peanut butter cookies with Peter Pan Peanut Butter because, more or less in his words, "It's the crappiest! - the huge amount of oily fat in there makes the creamiest cookies."  And seriously, those cookies are amazing.  I hate when he makes them because I go against my better judgement and devour them.  Shame on me.  I know better!  Shame on Ray too!  Gym-junkie and MMA amateur, he knows better too!)

Non-natural peanut butters can be scary territory, especially when you consider how many servings you may unintentionally eat, if you're not a portion-measuring nut like myself.  Chemical pesticide residues linger in oils, so a jar of non-organic peanut butter may be a nice little container of chemical residues to spread on your sandwich.  Yum.  Non-natural peanut butters can (and usually do) contain a ton of low-quality fats, even containing trans fats.  Remember!  Just because the nutrition label says 0g trans fat, it may still contain the maximum-allowable amount (less than .5g) of this nasty artery-clogging fat that without appearing on the nutrition label.  Checking the ingredient label on peanut butters is a must.  Look for partially- or fully hydrogenated oils.  Those are trans fats, folks.  Beware. 

All kinds of nut butters have their great attributes, and I recommend getting creative!  I love Sunbutter, a nut butter made from sunflower seeds.  Like I mentioned, almond butter is good stuff (or so I hear.. I will wait for a jar that is less than $9.00, thankyouverymuch.)  And there is soynut butter, cashew butter, macadamia nut butter, hemp seed butter, tahini, etc etc.  *Phew!*  So many to try!  It's worth taste-testing to pick out your favorite flavors for a great daily MUFA source.  I would love love love a hazelnut butter recommendation if you have one - hazelnuts remind me of my uncle who lived in Oregon - seems like they are everywhere in that part of the country.  I was a hazelnut-nut when I would go to visit.  For the record, I am so impressed with those of you who make your own nut butters.  The word on the street is that it is quite easy, but I have not the patience currently to try - maybe some day.

All in all, for quantity-without-calorie-lovers, and peanut butter fanatics alike, I would fully recommend this BNPB spread ASAP.  It might not be a great MUFA source, but I love it as an all-natural nighttime snack on carrots, and I love that I get the peanut butter flavor for less than the regular caloric kick of normal peanut butter.  Remember to refrigerate after opening, and comment to let me know what you think once you have tried it.  I hope you happily join me in the BNPB-Addicts-Not-So-Anonymous soon.