Peanut butter is peanut butter….. right? WRONG !!
Here is a list of ingredients in Skippy’s ORIGINAL peanut butter direct from their website.
| INGREDIENTS: ROASTED PEANUTS, SUGAR, HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OILS (COTTONSEED, SOYBEAN AND RAPESEED) TO PREVENT SEPARATION, SALT |
Here are the ingredients in their LOW FAT version:
| INGREDIENTS: ROASTED PEANUTS, CORN SYRUP SOLIDS, SUGAR, SOY PROTEIN, SALT, HYDROGENATED VEGETABLE OILS (COTTONSEED, SOYBEAN AND RAPESEED) TO PREVENT SEPARATION, MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES, MINERALS (MAGNESIUM OXIDE, ZINC OXIDE, FERRIC ORTHOPHOSPHATE, COPPER SULFATE), VITAMINS (NIACINAMIDE, PYRIDOXIDE HYDROCHLORIDE, FOLIC ADIC). |
Chemicals and preservatives are added to low fat and non fat versions of the original products to make up for the loss of taste or texture that results when the fat is removed to make it low/non fat.
Now take a look at the ingredients in Smucker’s Natural Peanut butter. The ONLY ingredient is peanuts and some salt. Even better is to find an ORGANIC peanut butter with only one ingredient.
As you can see there is no need for all those chemicals and preservatives to be in your peanut butter.
Yes it separates!
Yes you have to stir it!
Are we really that lazy that we have convinced peanut butter manufacturers we can’t stir our own peanut butter anymore? Do we really need a laundry list of chemicals to be added just so we don’t have to STIR??
As usual, I encourage you to be a label reader. ALWAYS look at the ingredients BEFORE how many calories are in it or carbs or even the price. It’s not the calories that are hurting our waistlines – it’s all the processed garbage we’ve added to CUT calories.
Which would you rather have? The peanut butter you have to take a minute to stir but only has one ingredient in it or the other version that has 15 ingredients?
My favorite peanut butter is Laura Scudders. I homogenize it with a single beater of an electric mixer. I have to hold onto the jar very strongly, for the mixer puts out quite a lot of torque. Otherwise peanut butter would fly all over the place. Then I put the peanut butter in the fridge.
Recently a doctor says too many peanut butters have lecithins that can poke holes in your gut says to eat one that doesn’t have them how do I find out which is best for the gut. Thank you
Corn flour or syrup is a natural product and emulsifies two ingredients, typically oil and water, much like a bread flour Roux to combine these to make a white sauce or for thickening soups/stews. If I was making my own peanut butter I would use wheat flour and slightly cook the ingredients (this enables the molecules of both ingredients to bind to the long strands of the emulsifier) to combine the butter/oil and peanut paste together.
For a salt alternative, try kelp granules with no fishy taste.
I didn’t need this little tutorial I divorced the Skippy (& its assiciates) a couple decades ago in favor of the one-ingredient SMUCKERS!! And, no, STIRRING is NOT A BURDEN!!
Smuckers rocks .. that’s what we buy too!
Skippy and other non-organic peanut butters use peanuts that are heavily sprayed with herbicides, especially glyphosphate, a known carcinogen.
I buy Teddy chunky unsalted 1 ingredient : peanuts. It tastes the best and as far as oil separation and stirring are concerned I always have 2 open jars opened. Store the jars upside down for a few days before opening and when you open them all the oil will be on the bottom. This makes the stirring much easier and with less chance of having cement like peanut butter at the bottom when you get there. I stir it good and then put half of the stirred mix into an already open empty jar . Then a little stir every time you go to get some and you’re all set. I’ve tried the Smuckers organic as I always like to go organic when possible but every organic I’ve tried I did not like the taste seemed to taste like burnt peanuts. The teddy tastes the best. They carry it at big Y and even Walmart has it now they have smooth unsalted, smooth salted, super chunky salted ,and super chunky unsalted,… $3 for a 16 oz. jar You can’t beat it.
They added vitamins and minerals to the low fat version. It helps people who don’t eat enough of those from other foods. Where are the chemicals you’re referring to?
In the peanut butter.
Hello. My dog gets his prescription meds daily on a finger tip full of Skippy Peanut Butter and I wipe it on his pallet.
There’s not too many better ways to give him these awful tasting things that otherwise cause him to spit them out on the floor. Now I’m reading that peanut butter company’s are putting Xylitol in their product by are yet calling their product ” All Natural.” Well, this stuff is poison to dog’s even in small amounts. I can’t seem to find out precisely what Skippy is sweetening their peanut butter with. Any insight ? Thank you.
Hi there…
I still have a skippy creamy peanut butter in my kitchen and not open yet the cover is still close and it is written here best if used by Nov 01, 2015… Can I still eat this?
thanks, have a good one…
I wouldn’t eat Skippy Peanut butter if the expiration date was Dec 2016
No you can’t
Hi ! my question now is, if I will make my own peanut butter at home without adding anything, (just salt) how many days will it remain its good taste?
at least a day
Uh those ingredients aren’t bad…..
Please educate yourself
Did you ever consider actually analyzing the “chemicals”? Iron Phosphate is allowable in organic farming. Niacinamide is vitamin B3. I could go on. Or you could try to educate yourself.
I don’t see any Iron Phosphate in the ingredients I listed but that’s beside the point. The point is… why buy a product like Skippy that has over 15 ingredients when you (a) can buy a natural peanut butter that has only ONE ingredient or (b) make your own. That’s where label reading and education come in.
I’m trying to help people make better CHOICES when they are consumed with dozens of choices on the store shelves and not let the SALE price or a coupon make the decision. No mom I have ever known has the time or patience to dissect labels in the store with kids at their feet. Concentration is at its worst, time is at a premium and they just want to get out and get home. I spend the time to at least try and make recommendations that I feel (and yes it’s just my opinion) are healthier choices. Therefore I still stand my first choice which is a peanut butter that has ONE ingredient over 15. Thank you for your comment.
I fully support you! It sounds like people need to educate THEMSELVES before commenting!
The thing I try to avoid the most is any hydrogenated oils. These form fats that don’t dissolve my be carcinogenic, and or cause other health issues. I’ve been using only real butter because of that and Reddy whip instead of miracle whip. But I also buy Skippy and now I’m wondering about this decision.
Hmm, Jif Natural Peanut Butter has it labeled as peanut butter ‘spread’ and claims it contains 90% peanuts. It’s becoming a bit confusing to me.
http://www.jif.com/products/natural-peanut-butter
look on the label Konstantina and see if it lists ‘palm oil’ as an ingredient. The word spread typically means oil was added to it therefore I wouldn’t call it ‘natural’ by my standards. We currently use a local brand that is organic and just peanuts and salt. When I can’t get that, Smucker’s is our 2nd choice only because it isn’t organic.
Palm oil is a natural ingredient. However you can’t know what country it came from. Palm plantations in Malaysia have deforested great amounts of rainforest trees to plant palms, the same trees that house and feed orangutans. Thus they contribute to putting orangutans on the endangered species list. There are plantations there and other countries that plant palms sustainably.
90% peanuts, means 10% junk added. Not healthy.
In Europe the label says: can contain GMOs.
Re: Mau’s comment, I’ve had the same experience. Have made my peanut butter for decades, and it never separates. So easy, so tasty. To get it smooth, all you have to do is keep whizzing the machine. To get crunchy, I process most of the peanuts to smooth. Then I process some to crunchy size and stir them in. What a concept: taking the time to stir something! Sorry for those of you who are so stressed out in your lives that you feel you don’t time for anything. I don’t mean to sound snarky. Sometimes I do buy rather than make peanut butter now that I’m on my own, the kids grown with kids themselves. Then I look for a brand as Debi suggests where the only ingredient is peanuts. I’ve been wondering if they add peanut oil which perhaps allows them to still have the label say 100% natural peanut butter and just list peanuts in the ingredients. Who knows? But that would certainly explain the gobs of oil you find at the tops of the jars in some of those brands. I don’t stir it in. I pour it off and am none the worse for all that oil in my diet, I’m sure. When I taste the commercial peanut butter, it’s okay. But it always reminds me why I prefer to make my own.
I’ve never thought to pour the oil out Carol. If anyone other than me opens the peanut butter they don’t stir the oil ALL the way to the bottom so by the time we get to the bottom of the jar it can be like cement. You don’t have that happen if you pour the oil out?
Sorry for delay in responding, Debi. Yes, the commercial peanut butter I use can be a little hard but it’s still quite spreadable if you pour the oil off. The brand I buy is Adams 100% Natural, crunchy (also available smooth, both styles in salted and unsalted versions). I guess its being a little harder works for me because I usually use it on toast rather than bread, and I tend to eat breads that have some heft (multigrain sourdoughs, etc.). The company started in Washington State, now owned by Smucker’s. I buy it in Victoria BC. I visit family down east and haven’t seen it there. My daughter in Montreal buys Compliments brand 100% natural (not their regular peanut butter), which seems similar to Adams.
btw, kudos for focusing on real food in a world that has lost touch with how good things can taste that are also good for you!
I never stir – shake all the way!! It gets incorporated MUCH better and Carol – don’t pour it out!!! The oil is FROM the peanuts!
Can you tell me where skippy peanut butter gets their sugar and where it is grown?
DID YOU SERIOUSLY JUST ASK THAT??
No, Anon – that was asked several weeks prior to your question.
I am Soy Allergic even to Lecithin & Soy Oil, The peanut butter and other products adding soy oil and lecithin I react to badly
Hi Joann!
In order for a company to label the product ‘peanut butter’ it has to contain at least 90% peanuts. Anything less than that must be labeled ‘peanut butter spread’, which usually means things have been added to it. Natural peanut butter will have oil floating on the top that needs to be stirred in. Some consumers didn’t like that so manufacturers came up with a ‘spreadable’ peanut butter that has emulsifiers and corn syrup added to it so you can spread it without having to stir it first. So any peanut butter that has that creamy type look like Jif will most likely be a spread and not real peanut butter. I hope that answered your question. 🙂
I make my own and it doesn’t separate. I have no idea why, but it’s good and it doesn’t need to be stirred, like the all-nut butter you get in a store. Following my food processor manufacturer’s instructions, I do no more that 2 cups at a time of roasted nuts. You could use all unsalted nuts. I use salted and unsalted together, therefore limiting salt intake. It doesn’t taste as good to me without a little salt. You let it go until it forms a ball, then that ball goes down into a smooth puree. Then it’s done It’s wonderful!
Hi Mau! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment. I’ve never made my own peanut butter before and you’ve inspired me to try! Thanks!