Nourishments—

In Praise Of Peanut Butter

By Nancy K. Crevier

I’ve learned a number of cultural tidbits from our German exchange student, Arnold, these past six months, but the most shocking one was that peanut butter is rarely consumed in Germany, at least where he lives, in Hannover. It’s not that it can’t be purchased, but it is an anomaly in the store, and not a regular part of the Deutsch diet.

I eat peanut butter nearly every day. Even the peanut recall this past winter did not scare me off from this staple of my diet. I jokingly told Arnold I would seriously have to reconsider our plans to visit him in Germany if it meant going without peanut butter — or send him a few Euros ahead of time to purchase me a rare jar to keep me going. Being the good kid that he is, he assured me he could be counted on if I went into peanut butter withdrawal, so I guess we can keep our plans to visit.

Maybe I shouldn’t have been so surprised. At peanut-butter.org, I found out that peanut butter was hardly ever consumed outside of America prior to the 1960s. Most of the peanuts grown in the world — and only 6 percent are from the US — are turned into peanut oil.

But peanut butter is as much a part of America as is apple pie or baseball. Where would parents be without the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches that fuel little kids?

Dr George Washington Carver is frequently mistaken as the inventor of peanut butter, probably because he introduced the legume in the late 1890s as an alternative crop in the south, following the weevil invasion that destroyed the cotton crops.

Our love affair with the sticky, protein-rich paste began around that same time, when Dr John Kellogg (better known for the line of cereals he founded) patented his recipe for a paste made from ground, steamed peanuts, considering it a healthier alternative for his patients at Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan.

The 1904 St Louis World Fair featured peanut butter at a concession stand, and a star was born. By the 1920s and 1930s, companies that are still synonymous with peanut butter, like Skippy, Jif, and Peter Pan, were producing thousands of jars of the nutritious food for sale across the nation.

And peanut butter is a healthy and nutritious food, despite its scarily high calorie count (589 calories in just under a half cup), with 71 percent of those calories coming from fat, and 14 percent from carbohydrates. But bear in mind that the fats are monosaturated and polyunsaturated fats. Monosaturated fats have been shown to lower the bad LDL cholesterol, while foods containing polyunsaturated fats can raise the good HDL cholesterol in the blood. The end result? A pretty well balanced cholesterol reading.

Peanut butter also contains a natural antimicrobial agent called resveratrol, also found in grapes, and purported to have numerous health benefits, though not all have been conclusively studied in humans. Non-meat eaters will appreciate, too, that the peanut is a source of protein, as well as providing iron, potassium, phosphorous, and vitamins B3 and E. To be fair, the protein is considered an incomplete protein, meaning that it should be consumed with a whole grain or dairy product.

There are four camps of peanut butter devotees: crunchy, smooth, regular, and natural. Apparently, crunchy peanut butter is the big seller on the West Coast, while East Coast fans go for the smooth variety. Regular peanut butter is that manufactured by the mainstream brands, and usually has salt, sugar and/or oil added to the product for flavor and consistency. The addition of hydrogenated oil, while making an ultra-creamy product, adds trans fats to the peanut butter, an undesirable attribute.

Natural peanut butter is simply ground, roasted peanuts, often without even the addition of salt. The major complaint from consumers is that the oil in natural peanut butter rises to the top of the jar, requiring messy stirring. I resolve that problem by storing my peanut butter upside down in the cupboard until it is opened. The oil disperses more evenly through the peanut butter and requires only a quick stir. Refrigeration after opening is recommended for natural peanut butter, and that completely solves the oil issue.

Even if you are not a peanut butter aficionado, you might want to stick a small jar of creamy peanut butter next to your cleaning products, just in case you sit in a blob of gum… peanut butter massaged into the chewing gum will help ease it from the material. (Treat for any oil stain left behind before laundering.) And who among us has never had gum in their hair? Once again, peanut butter to the rescue….

Peanut butter is not just for chewing gum emergencies and sandwiches, as our Arnold, at the mercy of my cooking, has discovered. It is delicious in sauces for noodles and vegetables, blended into smoothies and soups, as a spicy dip for crackers or crudités, and the crucial ingredient in the classic peanut butter cookie.

Arnold might disagree with my assessment of peanut butter as “Wunderbar!” but nonetheless, I don’t think he would argue that there is a place in this world for this versatile nut butter. Who knows? He may even smuggle a jar home.