Peanut Butter is an amazing food as long as you are buying the right kind. First off when you look at peanut butter, yes it has a lot of calories but it is good calories for your body. Peanut Butter is high in unsaturated fat (good fat), fiber, and protein, all of which help to make you feel fuller longer. In fact, they will leave you feeling more satisfied than a rice cake will, or a helping of popcorn. Now not all peanut butter is good for you, I can not stress this enough!
Most non-organic peanut butter like Jif, Smuckers, and Skippy is filled with Hydrogenated oils, and sugars. Hydrogenated oil is one of the worst things you can put in your body! Hydrogenated Oil is “oils that have been hydrogenated for many decades, to prolong their shelf life and make the oils more stable. Hydrogenated oil is oil in which the essential fatty acids have been converted to a different form chemically, which has several effects. Consumption of hydrogenated oil has been linked with diabetes, coronary disease, and obesity in a wide number of scientific studies.” I know some of you may eat reduced fat non-organic peanut butter and that is even worse for you! Reduced-fat often contains more sugar than the full-fat kind. If you look at the ingredients you will notice there are twice as many! While the fat content is lower, the total calories aren’t that much different.
This is why you need to start eating organic peanut butter. I am not going to lie to you, it does taste different, it tastes like peanuts and you probably won’t like it, but after awhile you will get used to it. The other thing is when you open organic peanut butter there will be oil sitting on the top of it, do not dump this out! It is good oil for you, just mix it up a little bit and don’t scoop out the oil when you are using it. Also store organic peanut butter in the fridge. A good rule to go by when buying peanut butter is to read the ingredients. If there are more than two ingredients put it back on the shelf. The trick to making it a healthy choice is portion control — one tablespoon for a snack and two tablespoons for meal (like in a sandwich). It is good for you but don’t go overboard when eating it.
One of the best brands of organic peanut butter that you can find at almost any store is Smucker’s Organic Peanut Butter. Or if you live by a Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods they have many wonderful options as well. Below is the difference between Organic and non-organic. Be sure to look at the ingredients in each one. If this is the only thing that you take away from my blog I will be happy because this will make a huge change in your diet. If you have any questions feel free to ask! Small changes will lead to great things.
Filed under: Nutrition/Restaurants | Tagged: Health, Nutrition, Peanut Butter | Leave a Comment »
Hello! My name is Kristine and I live and work in New York City. Since I have been here I have realized how hard it is to maintain a healthy balance while living in the City. Work starts to consume your life and you can get lost in everything around you.
