All these years, I thought I have been eating peanut butter but it turns out, I haven't.
In my new eternal quest to eat foods without additives I can't pronounce and to specifically avoid partially hydrogenated vegetable oils I have been reading a lot of ingredient lists. So, as I was making toast for Aiden and I recently, I naturally started reading the peanut butter container. The slogan screams "Choosy Moms chose Jif". Well then, it must be a good product. Let's put it to the test...I consider myself choosy...can Jif really withstand the choosiness of this Mom?
Ingredients List for Jif creamy peanut butter:
roasted peanuts and sugar, contains 2% or less of molasses, fully hydrogenated vegetable oils, mono-and diglycerides, salt.
What? Would you like some peanuts with your sugar and chemicals?
Not good.
So here's the hard part-find a peanut butter that a real-life choosy mom is willing to buy. Around here, food options are limited. Going to the organic food co-op is highly appealing for me, but insanely expensive. Buying quality food is certainly a priority but I still choose to shop at the local grocery store...after all, not everything needs to be organic in order to be good. Anyway, our peanut butter choices take up about an 1/8th of the aisle, all the way at the end, directly across from the eggs and next to the meal-in-a-boxes. 4 shelves run down the aisle. In the middle two shelves, the best known brands Jif of all kinds, Peter Pan of all kinds. On the bottom shelf, generic versions of Jif and Peter Pan. I briefly think "this is ridiculous" but then, a gleam of hope peaks through the scattered stocked shelves. "All Natural Peanut Butter" is what the label reads and it's on the very top shelf. There were two kinds to pick from. The first one I picked up was Smuckers. Now, for inspection. Compared to the Jif label, certainly a few less ingredients-roasted peanuts, salt, mono-and diglycerides. Alright...so closer, possibly a good choice but still not good enough. And I should note, closer inspection of the Jif label reveals that Jif is a subcompany of Smuckers. Then...revelation strikes...Teddy's Old Fashion Peanut Butter!
Teddy's ingredients list-roasted peanuts.
No, I didn't accidently delete the rest...just roasted peanuts! That's it! Real peanut butter at last! And get this, it tastes like peanuts!! Don't let the separated oil on the top of jar scare you, just stir it up and spread it on...all natural heaven in a jar! Not only are we avoiding all these unnecessary additives, it's much healthier. No sodium, more protein, more fiber, only natural carbs and sugars directly from the peanuts only, more calcium and more vitamins. Wow!
So, in conclusion...choosy moms are apparently not choosy enough. Then again, I'll admit, I'm a bit of a pain in the ass and yes, very choosy and in fact slowly becoming self righteous. But you know, there's nothing like real food!
1 comment:
It's funny to me to compare very urban and very rural supermarkets. I think you might have more PB options in your grocery store than I do in mine. Usually all the brands show up, but not in every variety. But, there is a place nearby that you can grind peanuts in their peanut grinder to make your own fresh peanut butter. So weird. I've never done it. We aren't really fans of pb. Andrew would chose hummus over peanut butter anyday.
and I think you have a ways to go before you become self-righteous. At least by my standards!
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