So I’m looking at the “organic” Safeway peanut butter and was stunned to read the label. It’s yet another crappy peanut butter that has no peanut oil (removed, sold at a premium and replaced with a cheaper oil) and has added sugar. It’s ridiculous. At our Deli in Port Angeles we sell a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for kids and only use real peanut butter from Adams. This “O” stuff can’t be as good as 100-percent peanuts. But, hey, it’s Organic!
For Kindle and with free ePub version. Only $9.49 Great reading.
Here is what Gary Shapiro CEO of the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) said: Dvorak's writing sings with insight and clarity. Whether or not you agree with John's views, he will get you thinking and is never boring. These essays are worth the read!
Subscribe to Main Blog feed here:
Subscribe to Comments too (below):
Bad Behavior has blocked 5153 access attempts in the last 7 days.
‘s why all Vegans look like Holocaust survivors.
They tend to smell funny too. 😉
“Organic” has become a marketing tool much like so many other so called “Good for you” product labels, much the way “low fat”, “low sodium”, “fat free”, “low calorie” and the newest of the bunch “Green”.
You have to read those labels, as they once said, “buyer beware”!
Thats a good heads up. I would not have thought the peanut oil had been removed, only palm oil added for some reason.
I like those machines that grind the peanuts fresh right there. I’ve seent he fresh stuff work out cheaper than the mass produced stuff==but not at Safeway.
Have you ever seen what they put on the fields at an organic farm?
Here in Petaluma, CA the ‘Chicken or Egg Capital of the world’ ( I can remember which) they pump the chicken poop from the holding ponds all over the fields… (a protected by law- smell)
I had a friend who rented a house in the middle of an organic farm… ha ha ha ha ha ha! You don;t want to do that if you want to retain your sense of smell..
Organic or chemical… the chemicals are the same…
Now, if they are using pesticides… that is another matter..
That reminds me when I worked at Microcenter around the turn of the century. We had “Y2K Compliant” and “Internet Ready” surge protectors as well as “iMac Compatible” CD wallets.
Relax John. 100% of the peanut oil is still in there. the palm oil (saturated fat) is added to thicken the peanut oil so that it is less runny. It’s healthier than hydrogenating it.
Well, I just googled the oil thing. Seems some brands remove the peanut oil as JCD said, and other only add palm oil to stabilize as Jim says. I will guess few do a compromise?
So==when palm oil is added, no way to tell from the labeling if the peanut oil was removed.
I’d go for taste and stick with store ground when given the chance. I’ve made my own and the blender I have just doesn’t extract the oil the way a proper grinder does, so I don’t make it myself.
Ironically, organic peanut butter is actually worse for you than the commercial stuff. Organic, or all natural peanut butter is INFESTED with aflatoxin, a known carcinogen. Commercial peanut butter has an additive which retards the growth of aflatoxin.
Remember, just because it’s organic, doesn’t mean it’s better for you.
By some roasted peanuts, shuck them, then stick ’em in a blender and voila, you have totally naturally peanut butter…. it really is that easy…. Buy organic roasted peanuts, follow the same procedure, and you have organic peanut butter….
#8–Skippy==the wiki disagrees with you but this guys agrees with you: http://www.deanesmay.com/archives/007598.html
I think I’m back to “whatever tastes better.” Saw some chinese peanut butter in the dollar store the other day. Think I’ll stick with Crunchy Skippy.
#10 – there is some debate about this issue, but I learned about this from a college chemistry professor who is an expert on chemicals in food and by reading several books on the same subject. She had fascinating insights on chemical hysteria in the media, and she made a very good point when she said that the higher price of organic food is actually causing people to buy smaller quantities of fruits and veggies, to the detriment of their health.
At least the first ingredient is actually peanuts, instead of “Organic artificial peanut flavoring (rendered from a combination of pork products and mad-cow brains)”
Hey, where’s the warning “May contain traces of nuts” – to keep the food allergy police happy ?
Adams rocks, it’s the only PB I use. The ingredients are…..
PEANUTS!
John just get this:
http://www.willitblend.com/
And do it yourself.
Cursor_
Generally the palm oil is added to stop the peanut oil from separating out. This was originally done for the American market, because stirring the separated oil back in was apparently too much work for you guys. Those that remove some peanut oil usually do so to keep the fat content down (again for the American market first), rather than rip you off.
Since the product is showing a Canadian product, one of our major grocery chains (Loblaws) sells two of their own brands of Peanut butter. One is organic, the other is not.
For the organic peanut butter, the ingredients read: Organic Peanuts. For the non-organic peanut butter, the ingredients read: Peanuts.
Nice and concise, no?
East Wind Nut Butter is a good brand.
Anyone checked out Mayo, lately??
TRY to figure out WHY, soy oil is in there. BESIDEs to take up SPACE and make you PAY MORE.
REAL Mayo, isnt JUST MAYO.. there is about 20% oil in it..
This kind of stuff smells as bad some oil company and our coal company Organic Green commercials?
Low Fat Milk = Left over form making cheese.
Skim Milk. = left over from making butter
Fat free milk, Milk with 98% cow piss.
That’s the same brand they sell at my local Vons supermarket. Indeed, the ingredients are just as crappy as those in non-organic brands. One good example is their Italian sodas which are loaded with over 30 grams of sugar per serving…more than a typical soft drink.
However, the peanut butter is made with palm oil, which along with coconut oil is one of the healthiest vegetable oils available. Tropical oils are mainly saturated fat and research is showing that sat fat is much healthier than once thought. This is due to the anti-oxidative properties of said oils and their high heat tolerance. Coconut oil especially is a great source of medium-chain fatty acids, I cook with it all the time.
Alex, you are ..umm, misinformed about the soda/sugar stuff.
First, no commercial sodas (except a few smaller brands, mostly “nostalgia” brands, and imported ones) have any sugar AT ALL. They’re all High Fructose Corn Syrup.
Sugar, especially cane sugar, is not bad for you. And, with Italian soda syrup, you can add what you want, and add more soda…thereby controlling the sugar content.
Palm oil is not healthier than peanut oil. And, why should it BE IN PEANUT BUTTER? If you buy peanut butter you should get peanuts, ground up, maybe a dash of salt (not needed, though). There is no reason it should be anything else.
The obvious answer is that palm oil is cheap. Peanut oil has a high resale value. So, the companies are looking at bottom line and pull out peanut oil, sell it. Add palm oil, it’s cheap.
And, that nonsense about it being healthier….well, sure, lard is healthier than hydrogenated oils. A lot of oils are good. However, if you like the fact that Indonesian rain forests are being chopped down to plant palm trees (for the oil crop)… is it really healthier for the planet in the long run?
http://www.westonaprice.org/knowyourfats/index.html
Oh yeah, like that is so much worse than the leading peanut butter…
Peanuts,Corn syrup,sugar, soy protein, contains 2 percent or less of fully hydrogenated vegetable oil (rapeseed and soybean), salt, mono and diglycerides,molasses, niacinamide, folic acid, pyrdoxine hydrchloride, magnesium oxide, zinc oxide, ferric orthophosphate, and copper sulfate.
(sorry the image of the ingredients didn’t show up in my previous post) This is from Jif peanut butter. So which one do you think is better for you?
Meetsy:
You have a point about the high fructose corn syrup in sodas.
While cane sugar might be “healthier” than corn syrup, to say that it is “not bad for you” is not true. Remember: all carbohydrates, whether sugar, corn syrup, starch or grain products…get broken down into glucose upon digestion. A diet high in carbohydrates can eventually lead to type II Diabetes, among other ailments.
I should also clarify what I meant by “Italian soda”. The brand I mentioned, which is the same brand that makes the peanut butter in the original post, is already “pre-mixed”. It’s not a syrup.
Palm oil is in fact MUCH healthier than peanut oil and is more expensive too, at least from my experience. You linked to the Weston Price website (one of my favorites) which is actually pro-tropical oils. I’m not going to get into the whole “saturated fat is bad for you” debate, but if you do some research, you’ll find that all the hype about vegetable oils like canola, corn, rapeseed, sesame, etc. being “healthy” is based on very biased and outdated corporate sponsored studies.
As far as palm farming being “bad for the planet” I think the human race is doing MANY other things that are far worse for the planet.
Seriously though, people should check out the Weston Price site. Some excellent info about what a TRUE healthy diet is.
Peace.
I’m waiting for soilent green.
Y’all can argue about the issue of palm vs. peanut oil, but what about the SEA SALT that’s on the ingredients list in the picture?
Why would anybody think that dirty nasty sea salt (a by-product of Marc Perkel’s desalinization projects, no doubt) is more wholesome than that which is mined from ancient underground formations?
I bet they’re getting a premium price for the high quality sodium chloride extracted from the organic peanuts and substituting inferior polluted sea salt. And they dare to call it ‘organic’!
P.S. Maybe my mind’s in the gutter, but could the big ‘O’ logo be a subliminal suggestion to that other big O: Orgasm? They say sex sells…
#23 the Jif.
It has added protein, niacin, folic acid, magnesium, zinc, iron and B6.
The other stuff has no added nutrients.
The greatest thing the food industry ever did was to stuff additional nutrients into our food.
The worst was add unnatural colours and perservatives.
This is why the whole food, organic and vegan community looks pallid. They are eating like its 1887 again. A starvation diet.
The holy grail of human cuisine has been to create foods with high calories and nutrients. That way we thrive, not merely survive. But like all animals, humans will over indulge when there is excess. What out food is like would be great if you are plowing the south 80. But not if we fly a desk all day.
Cursor_
I checked the organics peanut butter at my local safeway in Saskatoon SK and there was no palm oil, only organic peanuts and sea salt. It did have that layer of liquid oil on top.
ECA: For the record “Real” Mayo (the kind i would make myself) is about 75% oil, the better brands will use better oil, olive or canola, cheap brands use cheap oil. The really cheap stuff is sometimes just thickened water.