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Peanut butter: nutritious or not?

Posted on Nov 18th 2007 7:00AM by Jacki Donaldson

Filed Under: Nutrition & Supplements

I like a little peanut butter now and then, especially smeared on a few multi-grain crackers. My kids like peanut butter too, and a banana with a light coating of peanut butter is a common snack in our household. Is this creamy treat good for us, though, considering a serving contains about 14 grams of fat? Here are a few thinking points, compliments of Prevention magazine and this article, to help us determine whether or not peanut butter is a keeper.

It seems peanut butter is a good source of protein. It has eight grams, in fact, in every serving. It's also a good source of the antioxidant vitamin E, with 3 mg per serving. Peanut butter does have some fat, but it's the mono-unsaturated type and that makes it A-OK. If you want to skimp on some fat, though, you can always opt for the low-fat peanut butters, but this will only save you two grams or so and the calorie-content is not much lower either. Two issues to consider about peanut butter are the added sugars and the sodium portions, which might be a problem for some people.

I'm making the call that peanut butter is a pretty nutritious food item, in small doses anyway. What's your call?

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4 Comment

Tags: antioxidant, butter, calories, E, fat, mono-unsaturated, nutritious, peanut, protein, sodium, vitamin

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

susieq 11-19-2007 @ 4:53AM

As a vegetarian and a huge peanut butter fan, I enjoy peanut butter almost daily. I am just careful of the amount I consume, but strongly believe the good outweighs the bad on this food item. I really like the Smart Balance brand of natural peanut butter. I have tried many natural peanut butters, but do not like keeping peanut butter in the refrigerator, also like Simply Jiff.

monica 11-18-2007 @ 10:01AM

I think that PB can be a healthy part of ones diet. However, it's best that people use the all natural ones made with just freshly ground peanuts. Many other commercial varieties contain added salt, sugars and vegetable oils, which is obviously not very good for a person.

It's also nice to experiment with other "nut butters." For example, soynut butter has approx. the same amount of calories and fat, but it has more protein as well as a hefty amount of fibre - which PB doesn't have.

Stephanie 11-18-2007 @ 10:32AM

I think Peanut butter is not a healty thing to be consuming. I say this because when you look at most of the store brought items such as skippy or peter pan they have hydrogenated oils in it which are not good, they are the bad fats/cholestrol. I would recommend just eating raw or roasted almonds. You can also go to the whole foods store to find peanut butter without the hydrogented oils.